Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Emery.
“Oh fuck,” I wheezed, and I took off in the direction it came from.
My brothers were right behind me.
“Emery! Emery! Maci!” Their names ripped from the deepest parts of my soul. Bellows of desperation as I raced into the woods.
It was instantly dimmer here beneath the towering pines, their spiked tips reaching for the blue sky, the branches of the stately oaks covered in lush leaves a woven tapestry overhead that obscured and shaded.
Not to mention the dense vegetation that grew on the forest floor. Bushes and vines and shrubs that gathered thick to obstruct our path.
I blew right through them, angling in every direction as I ran through the maze. My pulse pitched and screamed. An anguished pound that thundered in my ears.
My ears that suddenly picked up on cries.
Cries to the left of me.
Cries that I recognized.
Terror crushed my chest, and I turned course and raced through the woods in that direction. Branches slapped against my face as I barreled through.
“Oh my God. Maci.”
She was on the ground in a ball. Rocking. Her hair matted. Blood was smeared on her face and shoulder.
Dropping to my knees, I scooped her up as a rasp of shock and horror and relief blistered through.
A clash of confusion.
Where was Emery?
She would never leave her.
“Daddy!” Maci wailed it as her little arms locked around my neck.
“Maci. Maci.” My hands ran down the back of her head.
Searching.
Soothing.
“What happened? Where is your auntie?” I was barely able to force it out.
“We were supposed to be pwayin’ hide and seek from Uncle Otto, but a really mean man got my auntie. She told me to run really fast, but I fewl down,” she hiccupped.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck.
“What’s going on?” Cash demanded as he burst through the shrubs.
I climbed to my feet and jogged his direction, holding Maci tight against me. “Someone has Emery. He’s here. Take her,” I grunted as I shuffled Maci toward him.
Cash didn’t hesitate.
“No, Daddy!” she cried.
Frenzied, I ran my fingers through her matted hair. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. I just have to go get your auntie, then I’ll be right back.”
Sniffling, she turned those sweet, trusting eyes on me. Her precious face smudged with blood and dirt. “Okay, but hurry really fast.”
Cash cradled her softly, so much care in his muscled arms, while he slanted me a vicious look.
Get that motherfucker.
I absolutely intended to.
FIFTY-FIVE
EMERY
Terror thudded and throbbed.
My heart hammering through the short and ragged breaths I exhaled as the monster forced me deeper into the forest.
One of his hands was locked in my hair and the other held a gun under my jaw as he jostled me through the cragged terrain and underbrush.
“Keep moving, bitch.”
Another shiver ripped through me at the vitriol he wheezed into my ear, and my head spun as I tried to find a way out of this. How to get loose of the ruthless clutch he had on me.
The only thing I could be thankful for was Maci got away. He’d tried to hold onto both of us, but when she tripped over a branch and stalled our speed, he’d swung the gun in her direction.
I knew the wickedness he intended.
He’d been distracted enough in that second that I was able to flail around and ram my knee into his stomach, while I’d screamed at Maci to run.
When he realized what I’d done, he’d whipped the gun across my face, though he hadn’t gone after her.
It was the only thing that mattered.
Her safety.
Her freedom.
Now, he shoved at my back as he urged me through the dense woods.
It was the same man who had targeted me at the grocery store. I had known it in an instant.
The same old recognition had finally struck me as a slew of visions and memories impaled.
The bare glimpse I’d caught of a man with brown hair with the emblem embroidered on the leather vest he’d worn.
The same type of vest that I found in Kane’s closet.
Kane who I’d run from—who I should run from—but still, who my spirit was howling for. Praying for him to come for me.
I couldn’t process it all.
This horror I felt against the pleas my soul shouted.
Kane told me that he lived this life to repay the horrible deeds he had committed. The sins that he shared with me as if he trusted me to hold them. But how could it be enough? How could it be enough after what he’d done?
Old wounds thrashed from where I’d kept them hidden. Three days of darkness, blindfolds and sacks over our eyes. The torture we’d endured, our bodies used as if we were nothing.
Playthings to be abused.
Confused.
Disoriented.
Our consciousness coming in and out as the men had come and gone. Their seedy, disgusting laughter. The stench of their scents.
Those words wound on a loop.
“Don’t fuckin’ fight me, you bitch.”
The bracelet.
I knew. Oh, God, I knew.