Chapter 111: Selena 

Selena’s POV 

“No way. No freaking way,” I spat, waving my manicured hands like I was shooing away a fly. “Lucy was kidnapped by that loser Barbara? Ew!” My whole body convulsed in a shudder of dramatic disgust. 

Seriously? Barbara? The gossip–girl–turned–pathetic–lesbian–stalker? 

I cringed so hard my spine might’ve collapsed in on itself. 

“How could she let that homo kidnap her?” I groaned, rolling my eyes to the ceiling. “All these years of athletic practice and she couldn’t even fight off that thin little lesbian? God, I’m ashamed to call her my daughter.” 

That’s when I felt it. 

The side–eye. 

Kaiden’s side–eye. 

Like a bolt of icy lightning slicing down my spine. 

Slowly–so slowly I thought my neck would snap–I turned toward him. 

He didn’t say a word. 

Just stared. 

That stare. 

Sharp. Unblinking. Judging. 

His jaw was clenched like he was holding back the devil, and those hazel eyes of his? They weren’t just glaring. They were glowing with fury. Like a lion deciding whether to maul or maim. 

Gulp. 

I shrank instantly, like a kicked puppy, and quietly scooted to the side–right behind Ross’s chair. 

The fucker was still tied up, bloodied and groaning like a broken accordion. His hair looked like a pigeon had nested in it, and honestly, he might’ve been the safest thing in the room at that point. Kaiden had spent half day turning his face into a punching bag, and I had a feeling he was finally getting bored of the sight. 

I rested my hand on the chair’s backrest, pretending I totally meant to be there. Like I was supervising. Or offering emotional support to the guy who probably had a mild concussion and a bruised ego. 

But truth be told? I wouldn’t even blink if someone cracked this jerk’s head open like a walnut. 

“Barbara has turned her phone off,” he took a step toward me, and I swear the temperature dropped ten degrees “And she is not at the address she gave her parents. Lucy is practically untraceable and in danger…“I nodded like a damn bobblehead, my fingers tightening around the chair until my knuckles screamed. “And this is how you act?” 

His tone wasn’t angry. It was worse. 

It was cold. 

Deadly. 

Terrifyingly civilized–like the calm before someone tears your world in half. 

I laughed. A weak, hollow sound. 

“Well,” I muttered, twirling a strand of hair like I was lounging in a café and not fearing for my life, “if she’s with that thin bitch, then I guess I can worry less.” 

The words were meant to reassure myself–but it didn’t quite come out that way. 

“Selena!” 

Kaiden’s voice sliced the air like a whip. 

I flinched so hard my soul left my body for a moment–and that fucker Ross, tied up and barely breathing, jumped like someone had plugged his robotic hand into a car battery. 

I looked up at Kaiden. “What?!” I snapped back instinctively, arms crossing in defense like he was about to throw a hockey puck at my head. “It’s… it’s all your fault,” I hissed before he could defensiveness. “When I begged you both to stay on 

pain, too deep in the mess of emotions and Successfully unlocked! 

en I screamed to keep your hands, lips, everything off each other–you two clung together like glue! Like freaking horny magnets!” I could feel my voice rising, emotions bubbling and cracking like a boiling kettle. “But now,” I said, stabbing the air with my finger, “just once–once!– when you were actually supposed to be there for her, when she really needed you…” I paused, my voice trembling for a second. “You left her alone. Literal alone.” 

1/2 

Chapter 111: Selena 

I shook my head, disappointed–at him, at Lucy at myself, at the world. 

“I knew it from the start,” I muttered. “You’re an irresponsible brat. All muscles and no instinct.” 

I half–expected him to lash out. To yell, break something, or throw a chair across the room. 

But Kaiden didn’t say a word. 

Not. A. Word. 

He just clenched his jaw so tight that his cheekbone twitched. His fingers curled into fists at his side, the veins in his arm bulging, rage pulsing through his skin like it wanted out. 

It was scarier than yelling. 

I shut my mouth instantly. 

Pressed my lips tight. 

One more word and the monster inside him–the one I’d only seen glimpses of–might just snap free. 

Even Ross had turned his head away, trying not to breathe too loud. 

The silence in the room was loud enough to make my ears ring. 

The silence had been gnawing at the walls for over two hours. The kind of silence that felt like it had weight, sinking onto our shoulders and pressing everything else down with it. 

No call. No message. No damn update from that ACP. 

Just a bruised, barely–breathing Ross tied to a chair like a poorly–wrapped Christmas present, Kaiden pacing like a caged wolf, and me–well, me trying not to faint from a mix of stress and starvation. 

“Ah, um…” I cleared my throat, testing the air cautiously like a deer sniffing for wolves. 

Kaiden didn’t turn, but his jaw flexed, which I took as a silent ‘choose your next words wisely.’ 

I shut up. 

But then my stomach, the traitorous beast, growled–a full–bodied, echoing snarl of hunger that might as well have said, “I‘ m dying, feed me before I eat this chair.” 

I bit my lip, then said in the softest, most non–threatening voice I could manage, “How about we order… Chinese?” Kaiden didn’t respond. 

A moment later, Ross, with one eye nearly shut and his lip ballooned like a sad balloon animal, mumbled, “I’ll get something soft. And, um… chewable…” 

His voice was nasal, muffled through swelling, like he was trying to talk through mashed potatoes. 

Kaiden finally turned to look at me. 

Then at Ross. 

Then back at Ross again. 

And finally–he shook his head in a slow, deliberate wave of utter disappointment. 

“I mean,” I blurted, hands half–raised in surrender, “you don’t have to eat. I can just eat in the corner. Like a raccoon. Quiet. No chewing sounds, I swear.” 

“Me too,” Ross croaked, blinking through what was probably a migraine–and maybe a collapsed lung. 

Kaiden rubbed his temples, slow and deliberate, like he was weighing whether to scream or just self–destruct. 

But he didn’t say no. 

So, with a shaky smile on my face and a stomach growling like a bear in heat, I pulled out my phone and called the nearest Chinese restaurant. 

To be continued… 

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