Chapter 834
Whether she’d make it out alive or not, Lena knew there was nothing she could do now but wait. Meanwhile, I was going nuts waiting for Jace to hand the ring over to the police. Every second felt like a year, especially since I was still trapped in Cole’s villa with no way to leave.
Jace hadn’t returned since the day he left. Yara told me Cole had intercepted him, and now I couldn’t stop imagining the worst. What if Cole had found the ring? To make things worse, Cole had gone completely MIA and blocked every communication signal in the area. I was officially cut off from the outside world.
I’d tried escaping multiple times, but the security system on the door stopped me every time. The only silver lining? Yara.
She wasn’t exactly stressed about the whole “house arrest” thing. Instead, she dragged me into random activities—face masks, recipe experiments, and even trying to recreate the chewy candies Jace had brought.
“You should just open a foodie shop,” I teased one day, trying to distract myself. “You’d get to taste everything first, sell the leftovers, and make bank.”
“That’s genius,” Yara said, pointing at me. “If I do, you’ll be my VVIP member for life.”
I snorted. “Just two Vs? Nah, I want three—ultimate privilege.”
“Three Vs means you’d be the boss. You’d get first dibs on everything and leave the scraps for everyone else,” she shot back, playing along.
Despite the laughs, another two weeks crawled by without any news. I couldn’t take it anymore. Every day, I called Jace, but his phone never connected.
Finally, I turned to Yara in desperation. “What if you try the door? Maybe it recognizes you as a Drago or something.”
I wasn’t expecting anything to happen—it was Cole’s system, and he’d be way too paranoid to leave any loopholes. But then… Yara stepped in front of the door, and it slid open like magic.
I stood there, completely stunned, before fury bubbled up inside me. That bastard Cole had locked me in but left Yara free to roam? I could’ve screamed. What made it worse? Yara didn’t even look surprised.
“You knew this the whole time?” I snapped, venting all the frustration I’d been bottling up over the past weeks. “I thought we were friends!”
She just shrugged. “Not my fault. I’m the key—you just didn’t think to use me. Besides, what would you have done if you had gotten out?”
Okay, fine, she had a point—I hadn’t exactly mapped out an escape plan. Still, I wasn’t going to sit here stewing any longer. I grabbed my phone, booked a taxi, and bolted.
The second I was in the car, I tried Lena’s number, not expecting it to go through. But then, it did.
“Lena?! Are you okay? Where are you?” I blurted out, relief and panic crashing together.
There was a pause. Then, a voice I wasn’t expecting said, “Keira, it’s me, Aaron.”
My heart skipped. “Mr. Ace… is Lena with you?”
“No,” he said bluntly, the weight of the word hitting me like a brick. I wanted to ask where she was, but my throat tightened, the question stuck.
“But you’ll see her soon,” Aaron added. “I’ll let you know when.”
It wasn’t exactly reassuring. My chest tightened, emotions crashing over me like a wave, threatening to spill over. Then, out of nowhere, Aaron said, “Hayden will be back soon, too.”
I froze. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better, aren’t you?”
“It’s the truth,” he replied firmly. I didn’t know whether to believe him, but the words gave me something to hold onto, however fragile.
“When you find Lena, please have her call me,” I said softly. I missed her and needed to know she was safe.
After hanging up, I immediately dialed Jace again. This time, he picked up.
“Meet me at the bar,” he said simply.
The bar. I’d been so caught up in everything else that I’d almost forgotten I even owned it. When I arrived, something felt… off. The air around the place was tense, like it had been through a storm. As I got closer, I saw the seal on the door—closed by the authorities.
Jace showed up just as I reached the entrance. “It was shut down last week,” he said, his tone clipped. “And Tanya has been arrested.”