Chapter 664

Victoria's breath hitched as her gaze locked onto the figure across the street.

Her pulse thundered in her ears.

The man wore a battered baseball cap pulled low, shadows swallowing his features, but she'd recognize that posture anywhere.

This was the same monster who'd demanded 100 million dollars from the Clarke family.

Though they'd negotiated down to 80 million, the stolen fortune could have saved her father's failing business.

"Why now? Is he coming for me again?"

Cold terror slithered down her spine as memories of dank basement walls and rough ropes binding her wrists resurfaced. Her foot hovered over the accelerator.

She considered dialing 911 but hesitated.

This predator had snatched her from Cresthaven's busiest avenue without witnesses.

If he belonged to an organized syndicate, police involvement might trigger deadly retaliation.

These animals fed on fear - she wouldn't risk provoking the hornet's nest.

For now, silence was her armor.

During her captivity, she'd glimpsed her captor's face in a moment of daring.

While guards argued over cards, she'd loosened her blindfold just enough.

One look at the armed men surrounding her had crushed any escape plans.

But that fleeting moment had burned his features into her memory.

The jagged scar bisecting his nose.

Those icy blue eyes that held no remorse.

The way his underlings had murmured "Andrew" with trembling respect.

Victoria's knuckles whitened on the steering wheel.

The humiliation. The whispers. The ruined reputation.

"I'll make them pay," she vowed under her breath.

Forcing calm into her movements, she pulled away slowly.

When no pursuit came, relief warred with suspicion.

"Am I no longer valuable to them?"

Instead of fleeing, she parked behind a derelict diner and watched.

Andrew lounged against a lamppost, chain-smoking with casual menace.

Shadows moved in adjacent alleys - his pack of wolves, alert for threats.

After stubbing out his third cigarette, he climbed into a matte-black van.

The engine growled to life.

"What were they surveilling?" she wondered.

Adrenaline sharpened her focus as she followed at a discreet distance.

The van wound through Cresthaven's outskirts for fifty-three minutes before stopping near a ramshackle row house.

Victoria knew this neighborhood - a labyrinth of escape routes favored by criminals.

She abandoned her Mercedes in an overgrown lot and approached on foot.

The pack had vanished.

Frustration burned her throat until she spotted a bodega's neon sign.

An idea sparked.

Meanwhile, in a gilded cage...

Isabella Morgan seethed in her borrowed bedroom.

"Who does Evelyn think she is?" She dabbed at her damp blouse, humiliation scalding her cheeks.

The memory of Evelyn's friend "accidentally" spilling ice water down her back made her blood boil.

She stormed toward the hallway before remembering the security cameras.

With a frustrated growl, she retreated.

The vibration of her phone startled her.

Sebastian's name flashed on the screen.

Her lips curled. Right on schedule.

"What?" she snapped.

"Isabella, darling, I've missed you terribly..."

It had been nineteen days since she'd played the blind victim, nineteen days since Sebastian had touched her.

After the plagiarism scandal got her expelled from the symphony, their secret trysts had ceased.

"Your precious fiancée just drenched me in ice water," she hissed. "Perhaps we should end this before she escalates."

"Victoria did what?" Sebastian's voice sharpened. "Anyway, that's irrelevant now. After her kidnapping scandal, the Clarkes are social pariahs. The Powells can't associate with damaged goods."

His tone turned suggestive. "Now there's nothing stopping us from being together properly."

Isabella's stomach twisted.

The broken engagement meant Sebastian would become more relentless.

"I'm at Alexander's estate," she said quickly when he suggested visiting.

Silence.

Then dangerously quiet: "Whitmore took you home? Have you been sharing his bed?"

She knew that lethal calm - Sebastian's violent streak simmering beneath.

"Of course not," she lied. "Don't be absurd."

"Then tell me you still want me," he demanded.

The truth stuck in her throat like broken glass.