Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 526

The end of the thick rope was tied to a massive boulder—one that looked heavier than she was, easily weighing over a hundred pounds.

Sienna glanced down at the boulder, calculating the weight in her head. If they pushed her into the river tied to that chair, she would sink straight to the bottom without a chance of breaking the surface.

She looked around and realized she was on the deck of an old, rusted boat. In the distance, she could hear the steady crash of water against a concrete embankment.

An abandoned shipyard, then.

"Well, look who's awake."

A man's drawling voice echoed from the side.

Sienna turned her head and saw a tall, gaunt man in his thirties stepping out of the shadows. He wore a poorly fitted black jacket and casually flipped a butterfly knife in his hand.

Two more men followed him out—one short and stocky, the other wiry. They surrounded her from three different angles.

Sienna didn't struggle. She didn't scream.

She simply leaned back against the chair, looking calmly at the man with the knife. Her voice was slightly hoarse, but her tone was remarkably steady. "This seems like a bit much for me, guys. I'm really not that important."

Her first thought was that Finnian had gotten her into this mess. He was the heir to the Fairchild empire, after all; he had probably made plenty of dangerous enemies over the years.

The gaunt man paused, clearly caught off guard by her composure.

He crouched down, tilting his head to study her. "You aren't scared?"

"Of course I am," Sienna said, forcing a half-hearted smile. "But does being scared help? If crying would make you let me go, I'd start bawling right now."

The man chuckled. He snapped the knife shut and tapped the hilt against his palm. "You've got nerve, I'll give you that. But we're just doing a job, Mrs. Lancaster. This isn't personal. When you get to the other side, take it up with the people who ordered the hit, not us."

*Mrs. Lancaster?*

They were after Nora.

Sienna cursed violently in her head. *These absolute idiots.*

They grabbed the wrong person!

But she kept her expression perfectly blank, not letting a shred of realization show.

She couldn't let them know they made a mistake.

If they found out she wasn't Nora, they would either kill her immediately to tie up loose ends, or they would go straight back to the hotel to kidnap the real target. Neither option was acceptable.

She had to stall for as long as possible.

Nora knew she was missing. She would send help.

Silas let out a dark, grating laugh. "You know I have your wife, and yet you're still barking at me? Hudson, do you want her dead? I can arrange that!"

"Don't you dare!"

"Relax, I don't plan on breaking her just yet..." Silas's voice dropped to an eerie whisper. "But if you keep speaking to me like that, I make no promises."

"What do you want?"

"I want the Lancaster family, and I want your life!"

He hissed the words out like venom. "You killed my son! I want you dead. Is that too much to ask?"

Hudson scoffed, his voice dripping with icy contempt. "You know exactly why your son died. Ginger brought it upon herself. You can't pin that on me."

Silas's voice spiked in a hysterical roar. "Shut the hell up! If it weren't for you, my bloodline wouldn't be dead! Hudson! I'm going to make you suffer until you beg for death!"

"I'll give you whatever you want. But if you touch my wife, Silas, you know what I'm capable of..."

Before he could finish, Silas interrupted with a manic, desperate sneer. "You think you're in a position to threaten me? Try it, Hudson, and I'll have my men cut out your wife's tongue and mail it to you!"

Hudson's tone dropped to a terrifying, absolute zero. "Silas, if my wife loses so much as a single hair on her head, I will make sure you spend the rest of your life wishing you were dead. Try me, if you're feeling brave!"