CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

My ass throbbed.

My back ached.

I had the mother of all migraines drilling holes into my temples and still I sat and listened as Vance went on about the crates coming into the city within the week. I knew I should have been more invested, but I'd been sitting behind my desk for over six hours, pouring over contracts and going over half a million different projects, orders, and budgets that had always been my life, but all I could think about was Blue.

She was somewhere in the house. Most likely in her room. Curled up on the bed with her book. Waiting for me.

I snuck a glance at my watch, relieved it was nearly dinner time. The only time Vance shut up long enough for me to see Blue. To touch her and lose myself in the warm comfort of her arms.

Two weeks.

Two fucking weeks of running around and tying up loose ends.

Two weeks where my time with Blue consisted of longing glances in passing. I almost had my hands on her once, but Vance was magically there, blocking my path and pushing me back to work.

If Vance wasn't always that way, I could almost accuse him of deliberately keeping me away from Blue. I was sure that was also the case, but I knew these were things that did require my attention. If Blue wasn't the main focal point of my every thought, I would be the one demanding all of Vance's time and attention on the matters.

I told myself we were nearly done.

The club was nearly all good for opening night.

The fifty crates of ammunition custom ordered by one of my clients was about to hit the docks where one of my men would see the cargo safely to my warehouse.

The second shipment order of ten AK-47s was put through and waiting for process.

In all, we had made a lot of headway. I was just desperate for even a few hours with Blue.

"Let's stop here," I interjected the lengthy directions Vance was giving on the transport of three hundred handguns to one of our government connections. "We'll pick up in the morning."

Vance blinked dark eyes. His mouth opened and closed rapidly for several seconds before he sputtered, "We need to finalize—"

"Morning, Vance," I cut in, pushing to my feet. Struggling not to wince. "I need to see Blue."

I ignored his pinched lips.

I wouldn't have cared at the best of times, but something was nagging at me as I started around the desk. My gaze flicked to the dark pane of glass and the light droplets of rain slicing down the long length.

Cyrus was just outside the office doors when I tore them open and marched out.

"Where's Blue?" I asked, body already moving in the direction of the foyer.

Cyrus fell into step alongside me. "I haven't seen her since earlier this afternoon."

That didn't mean anything,I told myself, yet my steps quickened.

I went into my room first, hoping she'd found her way in and was curled up on the bed waiting for me. My fingers were already itching to start undoing the buttons on my top. To strip it off and crawl in with her. To tuck her into the curve of my body and sleep.

She wasn't there.

She wasn't in her room either.

I turned to Cyrus. "Find her."

He asked no questions as he whirled on his heels and sprinted back down the stairs, his phone to his ear.

I started my own search.

I tracked every place she could possibly be curled up and reading.

The dining room.

The sitting area.

The courtyard.

The kitchen.

I called her name as I ran.

"What's going on?" Oliver and Vance were standing in the foyer when I returned to the front of the house.

"Have you seen Blue?" I asked Oliver, already knowing Vance had spent the entire day with me.

The man's eyes widened, darkened even as he shook his head. "I haven't. Have you checked—?"

"I've checked everywhere," I cut in, my chest tight.

"Maybe she finally did the right thing and left," Vance supplied with a small shrug.

"She wouldn't leave," I snapped.

I knew that with a certainty that sliced into my ribs.

She wouldn't just leave.

She wouldn't.

But maybe she had. I'd been so busy. Maybe she was tired of waiting.

No.

No, she wouldn't.

It had to be something else.

Cyrus joined our group with three of his men.

"Anything?" I demanded even though I knew he would have said already.

He shook his head. "We're searching the house."

The house.

The fucking, rotting house with its need for blood and death. What if it had taken her? What if she was broken at the bottom of the stairs like my mom, or a bloated corpse like Vittoria after she'd been fished from the lake?

I knew my terror was in my eyes when I met Cyrus's gaze. "Cy..."

He put a hand up. "Let's not go there, okay? We're going to find her. I have men all over this place. I've sent the rest out into the garden just in case she found a way in."

"It's fucking dark out there," I breathed, eyes moving to the windows and the inky spill claiming what had been clear blue mere hours ago. "If she's out there..."

Bells had begun to jingle between my ears, a high, grating shriek that made my skull rattle. My hands shook once before I bunched them into fists along with my resolve.

Blue needed me.

I had to keep my shit together.

I sucked in a breath and steeled down every drop of courage I had in me and faced the eyes watching me.

I turned to Oliver and Vance. "Stay here. If she returns, call me."

Without waiting for anyone to say a word, I stalked out the doors. My feet ate up every inch of stone leading around the side of the house. I dug out my phone and flipped the light on, casting a dull glow across wet rocks and mud. Behind me, I could hear Cyrus following on my heels.

Night stirred as the wind picked up and a fresh helping of rain drizzled from the darkened heavens. My clothes were soaked before I even hit the base of the incline. The light bobbed and weaved in my hand as I took the only safe path into the gardens. All the others were blocked off or guarded so I knew she couldn't have gone into the maze. If she was out there, she would have taken the side of the house to the iron gates which opened to the wide courtyard and fire pit. Part of me hoped that was where she was. Waiting for the rain to stop.

But the domed structure hunched against the elements, empty and still.

I didn't let it get to me as I sprinted through to the other side and continued. My shoes clapped against the stone path winding amongst the trimmed bushes and moderately well-maintained grounds. I followed it around the shallow fountain with the thick lily pads and across the wooden bridge towards the lake.

"Where are the lights?" I yelled over my shoulder.

I heard Cyrus mutter into his phone and a moment later, strobes of light sliced through with a radiance that lit up the entire house and most of the grounds.

We didn't use the lights. I couldn't recall the last time they were ever on, but this was an emergency. I didn't care if the entire world could see the house's location.

The dirt path, manmade over years of trudging boots, followed the line around the lake. If Blue made it to the back, she would have had to take that route.

Unless she took the one headed towards the village, the voice in my head pointed out.

That was also a possibility, an equally terrifying one. The stretch of wilderness that separated Lacroix House from the adjoining village of seven hundred souls was full of wolves, bears and any number of other predators that someone like Blue could never defend herself against.

"Send someone towards the Widow's Back," I told Cyrus, gesturing in the direction of the village path.

I didn't wait to see if the order was followed. I'd begun to jog through the heavy canopy of trees to the stones that lines the edges of the lake before a steep plummet over into cold, unforgiving waters.

"This fucking place is too big," I hissed, mainly to myself.

"We know she's here. She couldn't have left without the alarms going off or the guards catching her," Cyrus tried to assure me.

But her leaving was only a pinprick in the drop of things. There were so many more terrible and horrific things that could have happened. There were so many ways, so many places she could have died, and I may never find her.

Fuck!

I should have let her go.

I should have sent her back to wherever she came from the moment she woke up. I fucking knew what would happen if I kept her. If I fucking hoped. Lacroix men didn't get happily ever after.

We didn't get love.

We destroyed.

We ruined.

Still, I knew that when I found her, if she was still alive, I fucking knew with every piece of my dead, shriveled soul that I would still keep her. I would still hold on to her knowing I was going to get her killed because I was a selfish bastard, so desperate to have her in my life that the very idea of losing her in any capacity crippled me.

One thing was clear. Once I found her. Once I had made sure she was all right, I was going to fuck the shit out of her. I was going to tie her to my bed, and I was going to make her scream and beg. I was going to punish her for putting me through this in the only manner that was fitting.

Orgasms.

I was going to destroy her pussy until she couldn't sit without remembering every sick, perverted thing I did to it. That she would beg me to do to it.

Mind set on my mission, I continued forward with a new purpose. A goal I fisted tight to my chest because come hell or high water, I was going to find her.

We circled the lake.

I could just make out the men moving through lights and shadows. Flickering in and out of sight as they stalked deeper towards the swamps. Voices hollered into the darkness, barking orders, and setting grids.

Fuck sakes.

Goddamn it, Blue,I wanted to yell, but how could I blame her when it was my fault as much as it was hers? I left her alone in a place she didn't know and expected her to simply stay in her room like some porcelain doll.

I swore to whatever God was listening that I would do better if she returned unharmed.

I followed the harshly cut slabs of stone glowing white beneath my boots down the incline to the boathouse and the boardwalk extending deep into the center of the lake.

"Thoran?" Cyrus slammed a hand down on my shoulder, pulling me to a stop.

I turned my head, but his attention was on something in the distance. A figure sprinting through the dark landscape. Arms and legs pumping. It was the run of someone being chased by a monster. A desperate pounding of adrenaline and terror. I almost couldn't wrap my head around what I was seeing when the light caught strip of pale gold as the owner whipped her head around. A pale face peeked out through the coils. Even with almost two football fields between us, I didn't miss the panic in her blue eyes.

"Blue." Her name whispered from my chest as if in a prayer. An exhale of my fears into the universe.

Until I realized she wasn't running to get home. She was running from something. Something was causing her to bolt like a deer in the crosshairs of a rifle. Something that stupidly thought it was going to survive the night once I got my hands on it.

"Give me your gun," I told Cyrus, palm extended.

He didn't hesitate pulling out his backup and settling the weight into my outstretched hand.

I set off, strides wide. Gun at my side. I couldn't see the fucker, but I was ready to blow a hole big enough to drive a Buick through right between his eyes.

"Blue!"

She didn't hear me, nor did she slow down as she moved with neck breaking speed further through the grounds.

A new fear clicked into place as I realized she couldn't see the still waters lurking at the bottom of the cliff.

The fucking rocks at the bottom.

"Blue!" My roar tore gashes into my esophagus. I tasted the blood as thick and bitter as the chilling grip of terror that closed around my throat.

The gun hit the dirt at my feet.

I no longer knew why I'd even been holding it as I tore after Blue. I pounded across the field with the madness of a man knowing his own soul was on the line. I ate the distance with my heart thundering between my ears, a war cry of panic and desperation. My entire world was a pinprick surrounding Blue and the countries seemingly between us. Everything moved as if in a dream, a fucked up mess of a dream where I couldn't feel my fucking legs. I couldn't even be sure I was running because I wasn't getting any closer and Blue was still so fucking far.

I screamed her name again.

I heard it shatter the night.

The silence.

The fucking sound barrier and still Blue never stopped. Didn't even slow. She was so lost in whatever was behind her, she couldn't see how close she was to becoming a broken mess across the rocks.

I watched it happen.

I saw her realize a second too late.

I stood witness to the moment her foot slipped on the edge. When air caught her flailing body and gravity ... fucking gravity pulled her over.

Her scream would haunt me until my dying day.

"No!"

Even to my own ears, the howl was more animal than man. It was madness and despair. But even as my world collapsed like a house of cards against a tornado, I never stopped. My body never ceased its single-minded focus.

I dove in after her.

I sent my body over the edge as hers hit the water in a crashing crescendo. I struck ice and darkness a second later. Murky nothingness enveloped my senses, destroyed my perception of direction as I fought to find Blue.

From above, halos of light shattered the surface. It illuminated the weeds and swaying algae. But no Blue.

I kicked to where I was sure she'd landed. My side was throbbing and my lungs burned, but I didn't stop. I kicked, eyes stinging as I searched the gloomy depths.

A movement caught the corner of my eye. A frantic little flail I would have ignored it as debris caught in the disturbance of my currant if it wasn't for the pale, gold strips floating just out of sight.

I plunged after it as it sank into a dark void where the spotlights above didn't reach. It rose up around her, a threatening maw pulling her in.

I caught her.

My fist closed into her coat and I dragged her back to me. Her limp body sagged against mine, but I held tight before kicking up.

The first rush of air hitting my lungs had me gasping with triumph. I sucked in another as I pulled Blue higher.

She came awake with a choking cough. Her body bucked as if trying to pull free of the water's icy clutches. Her lungs clutched at air. At me. Fighting for freedom while fighting for safety.

"Easy, love," I wheezed. "I got you. Are you hurt?"

Her wide, terror filled eyes found mine. "Where is he?"

My hold tightened. "Who?"

Her head pivoted, twisting to search the banks, her breathing ragged. "The man in the maze."