Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
My father stood at the head of my mother’s bed, smoothing his hand over her hair as Alice and Josiah got to work.
“Should someone help him?” Charlie asked, staring at Matthias’s prone body on the floor.
“He’s next,” I told him as I finally laid Lucy back down on the pillow. “He’s mated. He’ll be fine.”
“Oh, good,” Charlie said faintly.
“How’s it going in here?” Chance asked from the doorway.
“Working on your mother,” Alice replied. “Go away.”
Sven began to cough.
“Erik?” Alice glanced over her shoulder at her mate.
“I’ve got him,” my dad replied, crossing the room.
“Ulf,” Chance called, grimacing when Alice shot him a glare over her shoulder. “You should come see this.”
I stared at him blankly. He wanted me to leave my mate?
“I can stay with her,” Charlie said hesitantly. “If you…” He glanced between me and Chance. “Just until you get back, if you want.”
Chance nodded.
Gritting my teeth, I leaned down and kissed Lucy’s cheek, breathing her in. She was safe. She was asleep. Her brother was there. I could leave her for a few minutes.
I followed Chance out into the house, and the first thing I noticed was the smell. Death had a distinctive smell, and violent death even more so. Beau and Reese were standing in the kitchen.
“We didn’t want to get in the way,” Reese explained, glancing past us. “How’s everyone doing?”
“They’ll live,” I replied flatly. “Where’s Danny?”
“He left,” Beau said, pointing with his thumb. “The woman wanted to go home. Insisted.”
“His mate.”
“Yeah.”
“Did he find out why she was in that garage?” I asked.
“She said she had no fucking clue,” Chance answered. “Last week, a couple of guys ambushed her in her driveway. Took her to the garage. She couldn’t figure them out. They fed her, let her use the facilities, didn’t hurt her. They just seemed to be waiting.”
It didn’t make any sense, but I didn’t have the headspace to try to puzzle it out. “What am I supposed to be looking at?” I snapped. The whole night had been an epic clusterfuck, and I just wanted to get back to my mate.
“I told you it could wait,” Beau chastised Chance.
“We need to clean up the bodies,” Chance argued. “They’re starting to fucking reek.”
Reese messed with something around her neck, and when she pulled it toward her face, I realized it was a kitchen towel. She covered her nose and mouth with it and gestured toward the living room.
When we reached the edge of the mess, she stopped.
“Walk us through it again, baby,” Beau said gently.
“We started there.” She pointed toward my wing. “In Beau’s room. Lucy and Alice met Mattie and me up there after they’d woken us up. I made a few shots out that window.”
She paused, and Beau slid his hand down her back. She leaned into him and continued.
“They saw me, so we changed rooms.” She pointed to the opposite wing. “We used Chance’s room. Lucy said she was right behind us, but she never came up.” She looked around the room. “She stayed down here.”
“Best guess,” Chance continued. “She opened the windows. See how the frame is open a few inches, each one? It’s uniform. So she posted up at the windows.”
“There were so many outside,” Reese said, her voice muffled. “Too many. Your mom had gone down to protect your dad, but the three of us knew it was only a matter of time before they reached the front door. I couldn’t stop all of them.”
I looked around the room. The couch and one of the chairs had been moved, making a barrier between the living area and the front door. She’d found a defensive position.
“She took out all but one on the front porch,” Beau said.
“With a pistol,” I breathed.
“Glass outside on the porch. She shot at least one of the windows out.”
“I didn’t see Lucy when she was shooting. When I came to the top of the stairs, she was literally throwing her pistol at one of them.” Reese let out a watery laugh.
“Did she hit him?” I asked, my gaze roaming over the bodies.
“In the face,” Reese confirmed. “It knocked him back enough that she was able to get the bat off the couch.”
“That fucking bat,” Chance said, shaking his head.
“They just kept coming,” Reese whispered. “I was doing my best, but with Mattie and Lucy down here—”
“You did great,” Beau said.
“Then your mom got shot.” Reese stumbled over the last word. “And Lucy went crazy, like the Hulk or something. She started in with that bat and took two guys down before she got to the shooter. He caught her, though. He tried to lift her off the ground, but Lucy threw herself back, and they both went down.”
My chest felt like it was about to cave in. We’d believed a fucking liar and left our mates without enough protection. Vulnerable. And now Lucy, my mother, Sven, and Matthias were paying the price.