Page 14 of Stay Little Fighter

Not only did Damon actively hate me, but I was also long gone by the time their engagement ended.

Stars dance in my vision, and I can’t tell if they’re from the blood loss or the position I’ve found myself in.

Add in the fact I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been kidnapped recently, and it’s not surprising that I’m not feeling too hot.

Pressing my eyes closed, I force myself to breathe. Panicking is only going to make this situation worse, although I’m struggling to see how having an untreated bullet wound and being held captive by Damon’s jilted lover could get any worse.

“Mikayla,” Damon says slowly. “I don’t understand why you would do this when you’re the one that called off our engagement.”

“Because I was forced to!” she snaps. “Sebastian got himself in trouble, as per fucking usual, and the condition of his release was for me to end things with you.”

I stare at her for long seconds, my mind reeling.

Who the fuck would have benefited from their engagement ending other than Damon? Salvatore wanted the union with the Vega family, even if no one ever understood how it benefited the Lombardis.

He was adamant it would improve their position in the country and abroad, but he never shared the details of how.

Mikayla was obsessed with both brothers from the time we started high school. She may not have been a part of our everyday lives, but she made her attraction known.

The only person that wanted no part in their union was Damon.

“It took me years to figure out who was behind it. They didn’t give Daddy a name when they made their demands and it made it difficult to track, especially given the state Seb was in when he was returned to us. But I needed to know. I needed to make sure they paid for ruining my life.”

I swallow the scoff that tries to force its way to the surface, because she’s concerned her life was ruined. She wasn’t the one that was locked in a cellar for days without food or water as she watched her family be tortured and killed in front of her. She wasn’t the one that fled the only life she’d ever known, only to be abandoned.

She wouldn’t know a ruined life if it smacked her in the face, but I have a feeling she’s going to.

Because it won’t take long for my guys to figure out who has us, and they’ll stop at nothing until every single person involved pays for their sins.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Damon says slowly.

“Oh, I know.” She laughs, the sound grating on my already frayed nerves. I couldn’t stand her when we were teenagers, and I sure as hell can’t stand her as adults, especially as pain slices through my abdomen with every breath. “But Kingston Beaumont did. I’ll admit, he did a good job of covering his tracks and keeping his name separate from Hawk Securities, but nothing a good hacker can’t find with enough time and resources.”

Damon’s body goes ramrod straight, locking up at the bomb she just dropped.

King was the one that got him out of the marriage he didn’t want?

Even after years of being hunted by the Lombardi family, he still went out of his way to end an engagement he knew Damon didn’t want?

Mikayla crosses her arms over her chest in irritation, as if our surprise is inconvenient to her. I’ll tell you what’s fucking inconvenient, and that’s being shot and kidnapped.

Her tight dress clings to her frame like it was made just for her, her hair pin straight, not a strand out of place.

I don’t know where she’s staying, but I doubt it’s in this decrepit house they’ve dumped us in.

“What do you want?” Damon finally asks, and my breath catches in my throat as we wait for the answer.

“I want the life that was promised to me,” she replies simply.

“What does that mean?” he demands.

“It means we’ll be getting married in the morning, and if you even think about trying to stop it, I’ll torture the little whore in front of you.”

She doesn’t give either of us a chance to respond before her sky-high heels are clicking up the stairs, and the door at the top is slamming shut.

The irony isn’t lost on me that a couple of weeks ago Kingston was trying to force me to marry him, and now Damon is in the same position I was.

The difference is, I love Kingston, and Damon couldn’t stand Mikayla a decade ago. I can’t imagine time, a bullet wound, and a kidnapping are going to do anything to change that.