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)
It took him all of two seconds to reply.
Fuse
Hours ago. Pyke and Colby saw her go back to the house just before noon.
I didn’t know what it was about it that took me aback. What set my already twisted stomach into a tumble.
A slick of dread that slipped like ice down my spine.
Me
Who’s watching the house?
Fuse
Colby is there now.
My fingers flew as I typed out a message to Colby.
Me
Confirm everyone is in the house. My grandmother, Elena, Kai, Brinley.
Colby
I’ve been here for three hours. No one has come or gone.
Me
Get eyes on them. Do it now.
Colby
Yes, sir.
My heart ravaged at my ribs while I waited. Waited for too fucking long before my phone rang. I answered it before it made it through the first ring.
“What’s happening?” The demand whipped off my tongue.
Distress radiated through the line, dumping directly into me. “Prez…fuck…Brinley isn’t in the house. She hasn’t been the whole day. I thought…”
“What?” I spat it, turning a circle as my eyes began to race.
“I saw her leave the office at right before noon. She took the trail through the trees the way she always does. I thought—”
I didn’t give him time to finish his sentence before I started running for the office, shouting at my crew who was already tromping for their bikes, “Find Brinley now!”
I knew giving that order put a wrench in every plan.
It was time for us to move.
But I could move in only one direction. Toward the last place that Brinley had been.
Brody was standing guard at the backside of the office, and his expression warped into worried confusion as I came blazing up.
“Check the trail between the office and house. Brinley is missing.” The command struck like a roll of thunder.
Dread covered his features, and he shook his head once before he jumped into action, his voice ragged when he promised, “We’ll find her.”
We had to.
I blew in through the back door of the shop, attention skating, knowing I wouldn’t find her within the piles of contorted metal and the stench of oil.
I burst through the connecting door.
The one that had brought me to her so many times. Where I’d find her leaned over the desk with her perfect ass exposed.
That’s what I was praying for. That she was still here, doing her thing, molding this place into shape.
But it was empty.
Void of the warmth she emitted.
My attention skated the area, and it snagged on the laptop on the desk.
The lid had been left open, something she never did when she left. She always shut it down, closed the lid, and turned off the lights, thoughtful of the way she left things.
My eyes skimmed the room. Over the bright lights that blazed from above and the office chair that sat at an odd angle where it’d been pushed back from the desk.
Heart hammering, I moved for the laptop, finger shaking it as I ran it over the pad.
The screen came to life.
I squinted when I saw the document that was open.
Understood. I’ll see that it’s done.
Confusion bound me, a frown carving into my brow as my heart pounded harder.
I leaned in and minimized the Word document so I could see where the message had come from.
Ice froze me from the inside out.
It was my shared folder with Cash.
The way we communicated. No real details ever given. Just numbers. Addresses.
I thought I cleared everything of importance off the laptop before I brought it to her.
How had I been so fucking careless?
But that’s the way Brinley made me.
Still, she shouldn’t have been able to get into it. It was encrypted. Covered by a password.
One that she’d clearly easily flushed out.
I looked back at the note. It’d been sent earlier today, and I scrambled to see its origination, starting from the first from early this morning.
A document that looked like it’d been created by me, simply saved as “D”.
Change of plans. He has to go.
Cash had responded a few hours later.
Are you sure? Intel says he’s a go.
Frantic, I clicked in and out of the files from that day.
It has to happen. Too much liability.
This isn’t normally the way you play.
I know, but there’s too much riding on this. The guy’s a liar. A rat. And you know what we do with those.
It felt like I’d been disemboweled.
A knife dragged down my abdomen.
Gutting me.
Strained air wheezed from my lungs as I tried to piece it together.
This fucking betrayal that I didn’t understand.
A command clearly made to kill Dereck.
Brinley gone.
Oh God, no.
She had to have gone to find him. Warn him.
My head whirled with every implication, and I would have passed out if it wasn’t for the fury that blazed through my insides.
Every hair on my body lifted when I felt the presence emerge from behind.
Dark and ominous.
Slowly, I shifted to find Phoenix in the doorway, his black eyes roiling with something I couldn’t fathom.