Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Throat closing off, I tossed my head over my shoulder, almost certain I’d find a beast behind me, ready to strike and end me, too.
The way I knew from the beginning Silas would do.
When did I become so complacent? So blind? So freaking stupid?
Nothing but a doormat who’d been used again and again.
Manipulated so I’d be thrown off track.
I mean, I’d fully stopped looking for clues. Stopped listening. Stopped asking.
Because I’d fallen into a trap and trusted Silas Mercer.
Bile rolled my throat, acid clawing at the back of my tongue the way it always did a moment before I puked.
This was no time to be sick.
I had to take action.
Frantic, I began to fly through all the documents. Comparing them against other reports.
Desperate to find a connection.
A clue.
A way to fix this betrayal.
I kept clicking through the documents, comparing addresses and numbers to Google searches.
Mentally checking off each one as a job done.
There were two addresses in different files that had been sent earlier this week. I looked them up, and neither of them had numbers beside them.
I could only deduce that these were unfinished jobs. Their slaughters yet to come.
Yet I kept searching, somehow knowing they weren’t where Dereck would be. That I was missing something.
I heaved out when I finally found one from five years ago. An address in Northern California.
Next to it was a dash with Failed written behind it.
I remembered what Silas had admitted that night.
“With the help of your brother, I’m finally going to get revenge for my mother’s death.”
Silas was returning to a failed mission.
My heart sprinted. An army of horses’ hooves walloping in my chest.
I could barely type the address into my phone, and I squinted at the screen when the only thing I saw was a massive gate.
I put it on satellite mode and zoomed out, and my insides flipped when I saw it was some sort of compound in the middle of the woods.
Remote and isolated.
Dereck would be there.
I knew he would.
I jumped from the office chair, the wheels sending it flying back. My breaths were basically hyperventilations as dizziness spun my mind in a thousand directions.
How the hell was I going to get out of here?
There were at least six men standing guard along the front wall. No question, there were more along the perimeter.
And Kai…
Agony panged my heart. How could I just leave him? My love for the child full and complete.
I couldn’t contemplate that right then. My only concern in this moment had to be saving my brother.
I grabbed my purse and slung it over my shoulder, tucked my phone into it, then slipped out into the vacant shop.
The bays were open, though it was empty. No sound of machinery or jesting voices. No question, they were trying to make it look like it was business as usual if someone were to drive by.
It only condensed the quiet that echoed like an omen.
Aching heart in my throat, I hurried to the door at the back of the shop and stepped out.
Praying I could act halfway normal as I came to the few bikers loitering at the back.
But I guess with everything going on, anxious appeared normal because they only gave me understanding juts of their chins as I headed toward the worn trail carved through the thicket that I used whenever I walked from the house to the shop or vice versa.
My spirit swirled and clashed and banged, and pain splintered through me with every step I took.
Unable to comprehend why Silas could commit this sort of treason against me.
I wanted to tear off my heels and run.
Run toward safety.
Toward my brother.
Toward Silas.
Torn in every direction.
Every urge made me feel like I would be ripped apart.
Nagging thoughts told me to go to Silas. To just lay it out and demand to know what was happening. Demand to know if it was all a game.
To know if every single thing between us was fake.
A blade drove right through my chest at that, and it nearly made me stumble over the uneven ground.
It wasn’t something I could even contemplate right then.
I needed one focus.
Warning Dereck.
I’d let myself crumble after that.
I made it to the densest part of the grove where I was completely concealed from the rest of the property, and I tossed my attention in every direction. Sure I was alone, I broke right and darted toward the fence line.
Praying I could get there without anyone noticing, or God forbid, one of those Crows waiting on the wall, ready to tear me to shreds then dance all over my grave.
I tried to keep my breaths controlled rather than expelling them like bricks, but it was nearly impossible.
The adrenaline mixing with the torment churned them into choked sobs.
My heels kept sinking into the soft earth, and the thorny brush scraped my legs, spiky limbs gripping on like they’d been grown for the sole purpose of deterring my actions.