Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
There was a limited window, of that he knew, so he made his way over, still pretending to be distracted by his phone call, and he looked away, knocking straight into the couple.
“What the fuck?” the guy asked.
“Wow, I’m so sorry,” Cyrus said. “Babe, I’ve got to call you back, I was listening to you, and I just totally walked into a random couple.” He shoved his phone in his back pocket and put a smile on his face. “I’m so sorry about that. My woman and I are getting married, and she is, like, totally freaking out about the wedding.”
Cyrus looked to the dude and saw he was having trouble controlling his temper. Now that he was closer, he saw the young woman was trembling. What was more, he saw the bruises on her arms they couldn’t hide, as they didn’t think to choose a longer shirt for her to wear. It was clear they were shopping for this very reason.
“I’m Cyrus Tistleton,” he said, holding out his hand. “Welcome to Lost Creek. I’ve not seen you folks around here. You want to tell me—”
“Look, man, I get that you’re sorry for bumping into us and everything, but you can go. It’s all good.”
Behind the mystery man, he saw Daniel approaching, as well as Hank, Old Sheriff Billy, and this made him smile.
“Are you okay?” Cyrus asked, completely ignoring the man.
The girl looked at him with wide terrified eyes.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” Cyrus said. “He’s not going to hurt you anymore.”
“Dude, I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about, but if you don’t step away from her, I’m going to—”
He didn’t get to finish. The man had reached into his pocket, and Cyrus didn’t care if he was going for a cell phone, a damn piece of candy, a gun, or even a fucking knife. He grabbed the man’s wrist and quickly spun his arm behind his back, locking it in place.
“What now?” Cyrus asked.
He had the man on his knees, and there was no escape for him.
“I can’t seem to hear you.”
He applied a little pressure, the man let out a scream, and he sighed. “You see, that is a good sound. That is always a good sound. Now, sweetheart, this man is not going to hurt you, you see, you entered the town of Lost Creek. The strangest thing about Lost Creek, is, well, we don’t like bad guys. We fucking hate them. They’re pieces of shit, and from the signal you were giving us, you need our help.”
She nodded her head, and with the other Reapers here, the matter was taken care of, as she literally broke down. Her name was Lillian. She was seventeen years old and had to stay behind after school to do some studying. She is from a different small town, about six hours away. The man Cyrus held in a tight grip had stopped her to ask for directions. The next thing she knows, she wakes up in a hotel room.
They found out that other than beating her, he’d not raped her. She was lucky Willow had noticed that sign.
Within the next hour, they had Lillian safe and waiting for her parents to come and pick her up, along with the cops. They had reported her missing the moment she didn’t arrive home from school. As for their boy, the identity in his wallet named him as Luke Smith. He didn’t for a second believe it was real. Luke looked pissed, as his ass was thrown into a cell.
Cyrus looked at him, and just on principle, he fucking hated him. They needed to find everything out about him before they could take care of him. There was no way they would allow him to walk free.
He stepped out of the sheriff’s office and into the sunshine. It had been a couple of hours since he saw Willow, and he just knew the coffee was going to be cold.
“Good catch,” Daniel said.
The leader of the Reapers was waiting for him outside.
“Do we know anything about our little captive?” he asked.
“Nothing. The dude is being completely silent,” Daniel said.
Cyrus shook his head. “Willow caught it. She recognized the help signal the woman was giving.”
“Help signal?”
“Yeah, you know the one.” Cyrus spun around, put his hand at the base of his back, and then opened and closed his fist. “I mean, I don’t think it has to be this way, it can be just holding your hand out and doing it. That kind of thing.”
“I did not fucking know that,” Daniel said. “Tell her that was a good catch.”
“Will do.” He looked toward the cells. “Do you think we should be worried?”
“They had no destination set on the car. We’ve got his cell phone, and we’ve already hacked into it. He’s got no calls from anyone in the last forty-eight hours. I don’t think he works for anyone.”