The Syndicate's Stolen Bride

When I was taken, Declan was busy watching the sunrise with his newest girl. Through the speakerphone, the faint clink of a glass mixed with his steady voice.

Keep her tied up. There is no rush. A careless exhale drifted over the line.

Let her learn her place so she stops clinging to me. It works out fine.

To stay alive, I shrugged off my shredded shirt. I pressed my bare skin flush against Vance's freezing black wool coat, my fingers digging white-knuckled into his lapels. My breaths came in jagged gasps as I stared up at his sharp jawline.

"Take me with you. I can be useful to you. Don't kill me."

By the time Declan finally showed up to claim me, Vance just let out a low, dark chuckle. He lowered his gaze to where I lay passed out against his chest, his large hand resting heavily against my bare spine.

"She is worn out." Vance kept his thumb brushing against my skin, his tone mocking. "I highly doubt she has the energy to walk away with you."

Chapter 1

The crashing sound of the tide echoed through the speakerphone, bouncing off the peeling walls of the abandoned warehouse. Declan's voice drawled over the line, lazy and slurred with expensive liquor.

"Wren, you are getting incredibly creative with your stalking. Yesterday, you manipulated my mother into forcing a public engagement. Today, you stage a kidnapping?"

"If you want to die, go ahead and jump off a bridge. Stop ruining my sunrise with my girl."

"Declan!" Heavy tears smashed down my freezing cheeks, soaking into the rough hemp rope that dug deep red welts into my wrists. I shook my head frantically, my throat raw.

"I'm not faking this! I didn't stage anything! I have no idea why your mother went to the press yesterday to announce our engagement. I swear."

"Please. Just believe me this once. Please come get me."

"Hah. Save you? Fine." Declan let out a low, biting scoff.

"Five million, right? I'll pay."

The kidnapper standing over me instantly leaned closer to the phone. "Five hours. East Bay. You bring the cash, we hand over the"

"Keep the girl. Keep her tied up. There is no rush." The sheer mockery in Declan's voice was crystal clear over the static.

"Let her learn her place so she stops clinging to me. It works out fine. Keep the cash as a tip. For training her."

"Are you messing with us?" The three men exchanged uncertain looks.

Declan chuckled. The sound was flat and laced with a sudden, dark edge. "If you have the guts to touch her, I will wire the money."

My lungs seized.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the harsh warehouse light, my fingernails digging into my palms until the skin nearly broke. He actually hated me this much.

"Declan," I choked out, pushing the words past the tight knot in my throat. "I'm actually kidnapped. You don't need to teach me a lesson. Just get me out of here, and I'll never, ever bother you ag"

"Declan, the sun is coming up!" A bright, sweet voice suddenly chimed in through the speaker. "It's so beautiful! Mmph"

The wet, heavy sound of mouths colliding and lips parting echoed through the empty warehouse. A deep, bruising kiss. Broadcasted loud and clear for me to hear.

The desperate fight drained right out of my bones. I slumped heavily against the concrete floor. My blurry gaze locked onto the silver band on my index finger, the only thing Declan had ever given me. A hollow, broken laugh scraped up my throat.

Teenage promises were just cheap air. The sixteen-year-old boy who swore he would marry me, who promised to protect me for the rest of my life.

He was dead and gone.

"My mistake, Declan. I am sorry for forcing myself on you all these years. I am done." I am totally done.

The line went dead silent for a fraction of a second. Then, a sharp click. The dial tone droned on through the speaker, filling the damp air.

The three kidnappers stared at the phone, then at each other. The youngest one rubbed the back of his neck, completely lost.

"Hey, Rex. Does this guy want her back or not? That line about touching her it sounded more like a threat, didn't it?"

The man called Rex ground his teeth together, his jaw muscles twitching. "Who gives a damn what he means! We are here for the cash."

"His family officially announced this girl as his fiance on national TV yesterday. We get her on tape. He will pay up to keep his family's name clean!"

Chapter 2

Rex yanked a white handkerchief from his pocket. He grabbed my hair, forcing my head back, and clamped the cloth hard over my nose and mouth. A sickly, synthetic scent flooded my sinuses. My vision instantly blurred.

The sharp sound of tearing fabric echoed through the damp air as he ripped my shirt open.

"Shut up," Rex spat, his hands dropping to his belt. "We are having fun with her now."

"But Rex," the younger guy shifted his weight, his voice tight. "We were only supposed to hold her for two days."

"Declan isn't in a rush to pay up. If we drag this out, what if the boss finds out"

Rex spat his cigarette onto the concrete, grinding it out with his heavy boot. "Who gives a damn if he finds out? You actually buy that bullshit about him taking the family business completely legit?"

"It is just a PR stunt. The Vance family has been running the underground for decades."

"If he actually goes clean, how the hell do we get paid? Use your brain!"

"If he catches us, we just hand her over to him as a gift. He knows how to break people way better than we do."

"Oh? Is that so?" The heavy metal warehouse doors slammed open. A tall man in a tailored black wool coat stepped slowly into the dim light.

Several massive bodyguards flanked him like shadows. The man's pale, icy eyes swept over the room. A dark chuckle left his throat. "Why don't I show you exactly how I break people today?"

The three kidnappers flinched. They dropped straight to their knees on the filthy concrete floor. "B-Boss"

Rex's face drained of all color. He frantically pointed a shaking finger at me. "We found a girl for you! She is prime material!"

"Look! We already gave her the drug. She is ready to go."

The man's brow furrowed. His gaze shifted to me, and a heavy, dangerous shadow crossed his eyes. He had the kind of sharp, devastating face that belonged on a billboard, but my stomach violently twisted in pure terror.

Even though a strange, unnatural heat was already pooling in my veins from the chemical drug, a shiver wrecked my spine. I dragged my bound legs backward, pressing my shoulders into the cold wall.

His eyebrow arched slightly. He closed the distance in three long strides and crouched right in front of me. With a sharp flick of his wrist, he pulled a folding combat knife from his coat pocket.

The snap of the blade locking into place echoed loud in the dead silence. His voice was colder than the gleaming steel.

"This might hurt. Endure it. I am sending you off now."

Sending me off? As in killing me? "No! Don't kill me!"

The last thread of my sanity snapped. Pure survival instinct hijacked my brain.

I lunged forward, my bound hands desperately wrapping around his thick wrist.

Hot tears spilled over my lashes as I stared up at his sharp jawline. "Please. Don't kill me."

"Whatever he was paying, I will find a way to get you the money. I really can't die like this please"

The man looked down. His cold eyes tracked to where my fingers were digging desperately into his skin. He paused.

The corner of his mouth twitched in mild amusement. "And what is so wrong with dying like this?"

I choked. Was that really the main issue here? But under that icy, predatory stare, keeping my mouth shut simply wasn't an option.

"B-Because," I lowered my head, my voice shaking uncontrollably. "I'm drowning in student debt, and I've worked myself to the bone just to live like a normal human being."

I haven't even been to Vegas yet. I haven't lived a single day of freedom that actually belonged to me. Dying in this rust-smelling hellhole it just isn't worth it."

The man completely froze. He clearly hadn't expected that answer. His thin lips pressed into a hard line, but a faint, genuine smirk ghosted across his mouth.

I didn't have the mental capacity to process his reaction. The unnatural heat from the drug suddenly flared violently in my bloodstream, burning away my remaining senses and threatening to swallow me whole.

Chapter 3

The primal fear of deathof being passed around by these thugsforced my brain into overdrive, calculating my only remaining chips. I pushed past the terror.

I leaned in, tilting my head up, and pressed my lips hard against the man's sharp, unforgiving jawline. I felt the instant, violent tension lock up the muscles beneath his skin. "Get me out of here. Whatever your price is, I will pay it."

A dead, suffocating silence dropped over the warehouse. The man's pale eyes darkened into pitch. His Adam's apple bobbed once. He didn't say a word.

I sank my teeth into my bottom lip. A tiny fraction of hope sparked in my chest. I lifted my bound arms, letting my hands drop heavy against the back of his neck, tangling my fingers in his hair.

I pulled myself up and pressed my mouth directly against his.

Instead of taking what I offered, his large hand clamped around the back of my neck. He pushed me back, forcing inches of cold air between us. His stare bored into mine, heavy and unreadable.

"I wasn't planning on killing you." His voice dropped into a gravelly rasp. "You still have time to back out."

"I can find you another guy to take the edge off. But if you come with me, there's no going back."

The unnatural heat flared violently, melting my last thread of focus. My vision swam. I slumped forward, burying my face against the heavy wool of his coat.

I shook my head. "You. No regrets."

If I was going to lose my dignity tonight, I might as well give it to the guy who looked like a lethal weapon.

The very next second, the air was knocked out of my lungs. His hand crushed against the back of my skull, and his mouth violently crashed over mine.

Hot water blasted from the rain shower head, pounding against the luxury hotel tiles. The steam thickened the air, mixing with the heavy, broken sounds of our breathing. My hands were shoved high above my head, pinned flush against the wet marble. He crowded me against the wall, giving me zero room to breathe.

Yet, amidst the absolute takeover, his free hand drifted down. His long fingers callously brushed against the silver band on my index finger. A mocking smirk pulled at the corner of his wet mouth.

"Already claimed, yet you still throw yourself at me? Did you actually think I was a decent guy?"

A fractured moan tore from my throat. The scalding water blinded me. My legs turned to absolute liquid, entirely supported by the hard wall of his chest. My brain was completely short-circuited.

"No one else." I choked out between ragged breaths. "The ring I don't I don't want it"

"Hah. No wonder you are completely untouched." A dark, raspy chuckle vibrated against my lips.

Without missing a beat, he slid the silver ring right off my numb finger. "If you don't want it, let's give it back to him."

He suddenly released my pinned wrists. Gravity yanked me down, but I scrambled to hook my arms around his broad, slick shoulders to keep from hitting the tiles. A messy, incoherent sound ripped out of me.

"Vance. That is my name." His deep voice vibrated straight into my ear, pure velvet and command. "Say it."

A sharp gasp broke through the steam. My nails dug furiously into the wet skin of his back. "Vance"

"Declan." The girl lounging against my chest on the beach chair let out a soft whine, clearly annoyed by my lack of attention. She leaned up, aiming her glossed lips straight for my mouth.

I turned my head away, letting her kiss land empty on my jaw. My brows locked into a hard knot as I stared at my phone sitting silently on the glass side table.

Wren. Call me one more time. Call me one more time, and I will believe you.

"You have checked that screen twenty times in the last four hours. Are you serious right now?" Bennett kicked his feet up on the lounge chair next to mine, shaking his head.

"If you are actually worried about her, just go check on her. You were the one who promised to marry her when you were kids. You dragged her in. Now we are adults, and you completely flip the switch."

"You want to play the rich playboy, and you act totally suffocated whenever she breathes in your direction. You have been parading a new girl around every week for years. Your mom is getting anxious."

"It makes total sense that she would use the media to lock you down. It really might not be Wren pulling the strings behind your back."

Bennett grabbed his iced drink, his tone sobering up. "And I am warning you for the hundredth time. People check out. Nobody is going to wait around for you forever."

"How many more times do you think you can overdraw that childhood credit score? Don't wait until you completely break her and she walks away for good. You will be the one choking on regret."

Chapter 4

My fingers paused against the armrest. I stared down at the sand, letting the silence stretch before a harsh scoff scraped my throat. "I am not going to regret anything. Tying my entire life down to one person is a joke."

"I can't wait for her to walk away. She needs to stop using some pathetic childhood crush as an excuse to cling to me like a stage-five clinger. I am so completely over it."

Bennett's brows locked together. He opened his mouth to argue, but I was done listening. I pushed off the chair, grabbed a bottle of champagne from the cooler, and popped the cork.

The foam sprayed into the salty air as I shoved my way straight into the chaotic crowd on the beach. Behind me, Bennett muttered a curse about me being a self-destructive bastard.

A shadow suddenly dropped over the glass table. Bennett blinked, his eyes gleaming with mockery as he watched me march right back to the chairs.

My jaw was tight as I snatched my phone off the table. Just as my thumb hit the screen to unlock itit rang.

"Declan," my assistant's voice came through the line. "A courier just dropped off a package at the corporate office. It is for you. The sender is Wren."

A harsh sneer pulled at my mouth. Pure contempt flooded my chest. I felt like an absolute idiot for actually worrying about her even for a second.

"It is a ring. From what I can tell," my assistant paused, the hesitation clear. "It looks exactly like the one she always wears"

My grip on the phone tightened until the glass screen dug painfully into my palm. "Repeat that. What did you just say?"

A photo notification immediately flashed on the screen. It took me less than a second to recognize it. It was the cheap silver promise ring I gave her when I confessed to her at sixteen. The one she guarded like it was a goddamn diamond.

A heavy, suffocating knot suddenly twisted tight in my gut. But pure, absolute fury quickly swallowed the sensation. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the phone.

I let out a dark laugh, my thumbs aggressively hammering the keyboard:

[ Your little fake kidnapping stunt fell apart. So now you are playing hard to get to threaten me? Wren, you gave the ring back. ]

[ We are completely done. Do not ever bother me again! ]

I hit send. Nothing happened. The chat threadthe one where she always replied in less than two secondsstayed completely dead.

My jaw ticked. I aggressively scrolled up the screen. The entire log was just walls of text. Paragraphs of her single-handedly checking up on me, asking where I was.

A cold smirk stretched across my face. Right. There was absolutely no way Wren was actually over me.

This whole stunt was just another pathetic performance. I was going to teach her a permanent lesson.

I held down the power button and completely shut the phone off, cutting her off before she could come crawling back to beg for forgiveness.

I shoved away from the table. I grabbed another champagne bottle and shook it violently. Pop! The cork shot into the air, foam blasting everywhere.

I slammed the heavy glass bottle onto the sand. I whipped around, dragging my newest girl back against my chest, throwing my head back with a loud, reckless laugh.

"I'm in a great goddamn mood today! Pop the rest of the bottles!"

When I finally opened my eyes the next morning, Vance was completely gone. Since this was my first time getting kidnapped, I had no idea what the standard protocol was after sleeping with the underground boss.

Was I supposed to sit here and wait for someone to pay my ransom? Or did this mean I belonged to him now? Or maybe

My gaze swept over the massive, empty hotel suite. I looked down at my wrists and anklesno ropes. Could I just try to walk right out the front door?

My ruined clothes were scattered across the plush carpet. My shirt and stockings were completely shredded to pieces. Left with zero options, I grabbed Vance's massive black dress shirt off the floor, slipping it over my bare skin.

I held my breath, stepping lightly toward the heavy door.

Chapter 5

A dark, cynical scoff suddenly drifted from the balcony behind me. "Those three are your loyal lapdogs, not mine." Vance's voice was rough.

"As far as I am concerned, they are just leftover trash from your era refusing to fall in line. Breaking their legs is getting off easy."

The glass door slid open. He stepped into the room, not noticing me frozen by the exit. He pulled the phone slightly away from his ear, his jaw tightening as if the person on the other end was screaming. His smirk dropped into absolute ice.

"Dad, don't forget. I am the one calling the shots for the Vance family now. If they break my rule about going clean, I could scatter their ashes and you still wouldn't have the right to throw a fit."

Without waiting for a response, he hit the end button. His pale eyes flicked up. They locked straight onto me. For a split second, he just stared.

Then, the heavy, violent darkness in his gaze melted into a slow, predatory amusement. "You use me to take the edge off, sleep with me, and now you want to make a run for it?"

A violent shiver racked my spine. I shook my head frantically. "I I wasn't running"

My brain finally caught up with exactly who the Vance family was. Top-tier underground syndicate. The kind of ruthless blood money that got people buried in concrete.

You didn't just run from a predator like him. Playing nice was my only shot at staying alive.

Vance arched a brow. He closed the distance, his heavy combat boots silent against the carpet. He didn't stop until his chest completely caged me against the heavy mahogany door, cutting off all escape routes.

His pale eyes dragged down my bare legs, exposed beneath his oversized shirt. The air in the room suddenly felt dangerously thin.

Without warning, his large hands clamped around my waist. He hoisted me up, forcing my bare feet to step squarely onto the tops of his leather shoes.

"I have guards lining the entire hallway." He leaned in, his breath brushing my ear. "You were going to walk out looking like this? You don't have a death wish, do you?"

I couldn't keep my balance. I had to loop my arms tight around the thick muscles of his neck, my back pressed flush against the wood. I lowered my head, forcing the words past my racing heart.

"My parents do geological surveys in remote national parks. I can barely ever reach them. They are your standard academics living paycheck to paycheck. No trust funds."

"No hidden assets. If you are waiting for them to figure out I am missing and pay a ransom, it is going to take a very long time"

Vance paused. A low, gravelly laugh vibrated against my chest. "Stick with me, and you'll never need to worry about money again."

My breath hitched. No ransom? Did that mean I was just supposed to stay with him permanently?

"I have never done this before. I don't know the standard arrangement." I stumbled over my words.

"Do I just stay locked in here? Or"

His mouth suddenly cut off my sentence. He pressed a slow, surprisingly gentle kiss to the corner of my lips. A lazy smirk pulled at his mouth. "Do you know how to date?"

I froze. My brain totally short-circuited. "Huh?"

He scooped me up into his arms effortlessly. He dropped me into the center of the plush mattress, immediately caging me in with his forearms. His lips brushed against mine as he let out another deep chuckle. "We just follow the standard dating procedure."

Three days later, I finally turned my phone back on. Three straight days of absolute, chaotic partying. The massive beach house looked like a hurricane had ripped through it.

Empty bottles, shattered glass, and the heavy, lingering scent of stale liquor and cheap perfume choked the air. I had to dig my phone out from deep between the leather couch cushions.

I held down the power button and slumped back into the leather. A cold scoff left my throat. I waited for the endless stream of notification chimes to completely blow up my speaker.

It was definitely going to be Wren. Every single day, she flooded my screen with completely pointless garbage. So damn annoying. This time, she probably typed out an entire ten-page essay begging for my attention.

Chapter 6

The notification chimes finally stopped. I reached out to tap the screenjust as a call came through. My thumb accidentally swiped accept.

I glanced at the caller ID. Great. My mother. Wren probably dragged her in to act as a peacemaker.

My brows pulled together. Before I could even speak, my mother's anxious voice blasted through the speaker: "Declan, can you reach Wren? She hasn't replied to my texts in three days. Did something happen?"

The alcohol instantly burned out of my system. I shot up from the leather couch, my jaw clenching tight. She couldn't reach her?

Out of nowhere, that phone call about the kidnapping from three days ago flashed through my mind. Was Wren still playing this ridiculous game? My lips pressed into a hard line. I tapped her contact and hit dial.

A strange, heavy knot twisted in my gut. Panic clawed at the edges of my mind, but sheer, suffocating annoyance quickly swallowed it. Wren had crossed the line this time!

"Hello?" The call connected almost instantly. But the voice that came through the line was a stranger's.

A man's voice. Low, gravelly, and dark.

My face completely froze. My stomach dropped out. Three in the morning. A man answered Wren's phone.

Those two facts violently crashed together, solidifying the reality of the kidnapping. Absolute terror slammed into my chest.

My fists clenched so hard my knuckles popped. My vocal cords pulled painfully tight. "Where's Wren? Put her on the phone!"

"You didn't touch her, did you? Give me the address. I'm coming to pay the ransom right now!"

The man on the other end paused. A faint, low chuckle drifted over the line. He didn't explain anything.

He just spoke in a soft, dangerously rough tone: "Forget about today. She is worn out. Even if you dragged the army here to back you up, I highly doubt she has the energy to walk away with you."

I shot straight up to my feet. The blood instantly drained from my face, leaving a chilling numbness.

The very next second, a raw roar tore from my throat. I lashed out, kicking the heavy glass coffee table right in front of me. The crystal glass surface shattered instantly.

Jagged shards sliced deep into the back of my hand. Bright red blood dripped onto the expensive Persian rug, but I couldn't feel a single thing. My chest heaved in ragged intervals as red-hot fury swallowed my vision.

"You fucking touched her? Who the fuck gave you permission to touch her? Didn't I tell you I would pay the cash