Gemma woke up to the sound of muffled voices.Her hand instinctively reached for Lucien's side of the bed but it was empty. She felt a strange sense of uneasiness, she slipped out of bed and left toward the staircase to see what was going on.
Downstairs, Lucien and about ten of his men were loading duffel bags with guns and ammunition. The air was thick with tension, and the scent of gun oil lingered in the room.
Gemma walked straight to Lucien. "What's going on?"
Lucien didn't look up as he loaded a round into a short-barrel shotgun. "Kol killed Travis. Travis was my second in command. His voice was ice. "He's declaring war."
Her stomach twisted. "What?"
Lucien turned to Finn, one of his most trusted men. "Take her somewhere safe. Fly her out of the country."
Gemma's eyes widened. "Out of the country? Are you kidding me?"
"It's for your own good." He checked the sight on his gun, completely unfazed by her protest.
"I'm not leaving!" she snapped, crossing her arms.
Lucien finally looked at her, his expression unreadable. Then, without a word, he grabbed her and hoisted her over his shoulder.
"Lucien, put me down!" she yelled, pounding against his back.
He ignored her protests and strode toward the front door. But just as he reached it
BOOM!
The mansion shook as explosions erupted from multiple points. The front door blew apart, sending shrapnel and fire in all directions. The force knocked Lucien off his feet, sending both him and Gemma crashing to the ground.
Then....darkness.
The Hospital
Lucien's eyes fluttered open. He felt a dull, persistent ringing in his ears. His body felt heavy, but his mind sharpened in an instant. He was in a hospital.
"Boss, you're awake."
Lucien turned his head to see John, his head of security, standing beside him. His face was bruised, and his arm was in a sling.
"What the hell happened?" Lucien's voice was hoarse but dangerous.
John hesitated. "We were attacked. We didn't see it coming."
Lucien sat up despite the pain shooting through his ribs. "What do you mean you didn't see it coming? You're my head of security! You're supposed to see things coming!" he barked.
John swallowed hard. "I— I'm sorry, sir."
Lucien's jaw clenched. "Where's Gemma?"
John hesitated.
Lucien's chest tightened. "John."
"She's in surgery… she took most of the hit."
Lucien's blood ran cold.
"If she dies, YOU die".
The words left his mouth like a death sentence.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and a doctor entered, looking pale.
Lucien's sharp gaze snapped to him. "The girl, where is she?"
The doctor shifted uncomfortably. "She's stable. We were able to remove the glass from her abdomen safely, but…"
Lucien's patience snapped. "But what?"
The doctor swallowed hard. "She's gone."
Lucien stilled. "What did you just say?"
"We....we took her to the ICU after surgery, but when the nurse went to check on her later, she wasn't there."
Lucien's grip on the hospital bed tightened. "Are you telling me someone walked into a hospital and took her?!"
The doctor nodded nervously. "Security footage shows a man in scrubs wheeling her out. But we checked, and he's not one of our staff."
Lucien's breath came slow and deadly.
Someone had taken her.
And now, someone was going to die.
GEMMA'S POV
I was shaking.
The second I woke up in a car with two men sitting at either sides of me, I knew I was in deep trouble. I was about to scream when one of the men showed me a gun and I immediately suppressed it. Then they put a bag over my head.
____
My legs barely worked as they hauled me inside some dark, abandoned warehouse. The air smelled like damp concrete and metal—like blood.
They forced me into a chair, tying my wrists to the armrests. The rope burned against my skin as I thrashed, my breath coming in quick, panicked gasps.
Then—the bag was yanked off my head.
I blinked against the harsh light, my vision blurry from tears. When my eyes finally adjusted, my stomach dropped.
The man standing in front of me was a nightmare.
Freakishly tall. Broad enough to make the chair beneath me feel like a child's toy. Scars—so many scars crisscrossed his face, cutting through his lips, his cheeks, his forehead.
My throat went dry. My body locked up in terror.
"Please don't kill me," I whispered, my voice shaking. "I swear, this must be a mistake. I'm just a stripper—I don't know anything."
The man let out a slow, deep chuckle. It was the scariest sound I had ever heard.
"Just a stripper?" He stepped closer, and I shrank back, pressing myself against the chair as if I could disappear. "We've seen you with Lucien Castillo a few times." His voice was calm, deadly.
"No one close to Lucien is 'just' anything. So tell me—what's your relationship with him?"
My blood turned to ice.
"I swear, nothing," I choked out, my body trembling. "We have no relationship". And I was telling the truth, I don't know wat we are.
Tears burned down my cheeks, my voice breaking as I sobbed. "Please let me go. Please."
The man didn't move.
He just stared down at me, unreadable, calculating.
And in that moment, I realized something terrifying—
They didn't believe me.
And I wasn't sure if I was going to make it out of here alive.
"Boss, let's use her to lure in Lucien. One of the men said.
The man with scars look at me, brought out his phone and stepped out to make a call.