He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 340

He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly

Chapter 340

Teded eyes on him. Tneeded proof, physical and immediate, that he came back out the other side. Saying that out loud made me sound unhinged. I stood by anyway. And partly, it was practical. Volkov’s men followed me now, technically, on paper, in bowing–and–scraping fact, but their loyalty toward Deluca hadn’t fully settled after years of him standing as their rival. My presence kept that chain of command pointed exactly where it needed to point.

Everyone else would stay back, guarded by the men DeLuca had left behind, all of them now at least minimally trained not to shoot themselves. He knew exactly how Nico thought–cornered, outnumbered, hunting for any advantage he could find. And now that Salvatore was fully in the mix too, both of them would be playing smarter than usual. Hence the whole plan, built exactly the way it had been built.

I hugged my mother tightly, and she hugged me back just as hard.

Rising, I let my gaze sweep the room one last time – Nathan, glaring at me from his corner; Mabel, buried in her phone like it might finally deliver goo news; Tessa, still hunched over that same gun, still trying to force a bullet into a chamber that was never, under any circumstance, going to accept it.

Tessa looked up and caught my eye, and we crossed the space to hug briefly.

“Be safe, she said.

I nodded, already turning to follow the others heading outside.

“There’s no piston in the gun, I muttered as I passed her.

She sputtered something confused and indignant behind me, but I was already moving, already out the door before she could turn that sentence into a real

question.

Outside, the air held a different kind of tension entirely; tight, rough, edged with the specific weight of knowing this might genuinely be the last push. Everyone climbed into their vehicles with quiet, deliberate focus. My heart raced as I crossed to Deluca’s car and slid in beside him.

The engines roared to life.

We drove for several minutes, tension thick enough to feel physical, weapons resting ready across laps and against seats. Once we arrived, there wouldn’t be time for hesitation. Salvatore and Nico had no idea we were coming. That was supposed to be the entire advantage. I kept repeating it to myself like a small,

private prayer.

DeLuca had explained it to me earlier- his father had abandoned the mansion, relocated somewhere new, presumably to regroup with Nico while they figured out their next move. Their sources had tracked the new location down anyway. We were minutes away now.

Every minute that passed pulled the tension tighter, like someone slowly turning a screw somewhere behind my ribs.

We took a final turn, speed climbing, ready to hit the place hard and fast. The structure came into view ahead of us; a squat, windowless warehouse set back from the road, ringed by chain–link fencing that had seen better decades, floodlights mounted along the roofline like something built to survive exactly this.

kind of visit.

The cars skidded to a stop in front of it

1mers flew upen, everyone dropping out in smooth, practiced motion. DeLuca moved first, gun already raised, every step deliberate in a way that made me ford, briefly, like the least useful person on the property despite technically being the one everyone answered to. The rest of the men fell into position around him instantly, disciplined, silent.

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Chapter 340

“Stay here,” DeLuca told me. “Torres has you.”

a he was moving, leading the main group forward while Torres and a handful of others stayed back with me.

Panic built in me the second the group disappeared through the entrance, dread climbing with every passing second of silence.

I couldn’t sta

I knew D

raised

B

wanted this. I moved anyway, walking forward, Torres and the others falling into step around me without argument, everyone’s guns es stretched thin. Any moment now, gunfire should have started.

vantage of surprise fully on our side, dread sat heavy and immovable in my chest, the kind that doesn’t listen to logic no matter how

osedly are.

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