Forbidden Princess (Retribution Games #2) - Ella Miles

Prologue

Beckett

The information you need is waiting for you at the Retribution Kings’ headquarters.

Corsi’s words play in my head over and over.

Odette, I’m coming.

I race out of the Phantom Brotherhood’s club as soon as Vincent Corsi’s men leave, following Vicent and his daughter. I don’t look back to see if Caius and the rest are following me; I just dart out the door. I don’t even know where exactly the headquarters is, but I have to get there as fast as possible.

The prospect of finding out what happened to Odette doesn’t stop the twinge of guilt from squeezing in my chest as I watch the raven-haired woman with the fierce mouth climb into the car. Her destiny has always been this. Ri couldn’t run forever, not from a man like her father.

But it won’t sit well with Odette that I sacrificed Ri in order to save her, and I want to be the best man I can for Odette. I’ll worry about helping Ri after I get Odette back. She has to be my sole focus now. Ri isn’t in any real danger. It’s not like her father is going to hurt her; he’ll just marry her off to a corrupt monster.

“This way,” Gage says, grabbing my arm as we hit the street. He shoves me into the passenger seat of a car and then climbs into the back. Caius is already in the driver’s seat while the other three settle into the back; then, we are speeding off.

“How far?” I growl, my hand gripping the handle of the door, ready to jump out the second the car stops.

“Five minutes,” Caius responds, driving faster. He wants to find out what happened to his sister as much as I do.

My knee bounces up and down rapidly. I’ve spent a week without Odette.

A week spending every moment looking for her.

A week worrying about the danger she was in.

A week without sleep.

A week not knowing if she was alive.

A week wondering if she even loves me.

I’m about to find out the truth.

My agreement with Vincent is that he will provide me the information and resources to get her back. She might very well be at the headquarters, and if not, then at least I’ll finally have the information I need to get her back.

Then, I can face my future. Then, I can find out if my love is enough. Does she truly want me? Or did she just marry me out of duty to her family, to the Retribution Kings?

Caius stops the car on the side of the road. I throw the door open and run into the skyscraper. I make it to the elevator banks before anyone else and hit the button repeatedly while the rest catch up before the doors finally open.

We pile in, and Lennox hits the button for the fifteenth floor.

I close my eyes, thinking of Odette’s smile on our wedding day. It seemed so genuine, so true. But was it?

My hands shake, my brow drips in sweat, and my heart—oh, my fucking heart doesn’t know whether it’s finally about to heal or break into a million pieces.

The doors open, and I rush out, not having a clue where I’m going, but it doesn’t stop me. We are on an office floor. I pass cubicles until I find what looks like an important office.

The door is locked.

There’s no time.

I break the door down before Caius has time to get a key out. Their heavy breaths behind me tell me I’m right — this is the office I should be breaking down doors to enter.

Odette isn’t in the room.

There is a manila envelope on the desk. I grab it and shove my hand inside to pull out the contents—a letter and a picture. The picture is lying on top of the letter, and it drops me to my knees.

I let out a guttural scream, the kind that if this were a movie, I’d release a great shadow over the world, create a mystical monster out of my grief, or at the very least shatter every piece of glass in this building.

None of that happens, but it feels the same leaving my body.

The scream goes on and on until I’m shaking and tears wreck my body. But I don’t let go of the picture or the letter. I need to read the letter, but I can’t, not yet.

My chest heaves, rising and falling rapidly as I grip the picture tighter and stare at my beautiful wife lying on a concrete floor with her