Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 176345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 882(@200wpm)___ 705(@250wpm)___ 588(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 882(@200wpm)___ 705(@250wpm)___ 588(@300wpm)
I’m both mildly disgusted and impressed at the same time.
“We’re done,” Penelope tells him. “Let’s go.”
Alistair runs ahead of us and gets the car, driving it toward us so we can easily get in.
“Fuck, it’s gonna take forever to get those stains out,” Dylan mutters when he sees all the blood his friends drip onto his leather seat.
“Worry about the cleaning later!” Penelope yells at him.
“I’ll take our car back with Nathan and Milo,” Kai says. “You go with your brother. Caleb, you go with her too.”
I nod and jump in with them while Milo and Kai help Nathan into the back seat of their car. Both cars race off together, leaving behind a bloodied, crippled Bones Brotherhood.
But the longer we drive, the bigger the hole in my heart becomes.
Crystal.
Tears well up in my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Penelope asks.
“Crystal got taken with me.”
Penelope’s eyes widen, her face turning white as snow.
“She was here too?” She grasps my shoulders. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought there was still time to save her,” I reply. “But when I finally found her, she was getting shoved into a van, and it raced off before I could get to her. I couldn’t see the license plate. And now they’ve taken her to God knows where.”
“I’ll ask the Tartarus boys to check with their connections and see if they can find her whereabouts,” Caleb says.
“Thank you,” I mutter, still overcome with emotions.
“Felix,” Penelope growls.
He stares at her through the rearview mirror. “No.”
“Felix, we have to go back.”
He only hits the gas harder. “No.”
“She’ll be sold!” Penelope yells in terror.
“We’ll go back for her later. We have to get Lana to safety first.”
“But Crystal—”
“Will be saved too,” Felix interrupts. “You can count on it.”
Penelope sits back, still antsy as she glances through the window behind her. “Crystal …”
“I’m sorry, Pen,” I say.
She swallows back the tears. “It’s not your fault.”
“She came to my room to talk and get ice cream, but then we got taken by the Bones Brotherhood because they were shadowing me. It’s because of me that she’s—”
“Stop,” Penelope interjects. “Stop feeling guilty, and promise me you’ll help me find her.”
I nod a few times. “I won’t stop looking for her. Promise.”
Alistair rubs my back. “We’ll get her back.”
I know he’s only saying that to ease the aching in my heart.
The truth is, no one knows how far the Bones Brotherhood’s connections span. She could be anywhere by now, on her way to be sold to the highest bidder.
Poor Crystal …
We may have lost her forever.
KAI
When we return to campus, Milo and I haul Nathan into the nurse’s office through the school's back entrance.
She shrieks when she enters the room in her nightgown, carrying a gun. “Jesus Christ, I thought you were burglars!”
“Please help us,” I say, breathing ragged breaths.
“What the … you’re students, aren’t you?”
I nod.
“What happened to you?” she asks, putting down the gun. “It’s the middle of the night!”
“Does it matter?” Milo asks.
She sighs out loud and waves her hand around. “Put him on the bed.”
We do as she asks, dragging him all the way to the bed.
“Turn him over,” she says, grabbing her supplies.
He groans from the pain as we flip him over. “Fuck.”
“You want my help? No swearing,” the old lady grumbles.
He groans again. “A little hard when you’ve been shot in the back.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Milo asks.
“Let me check,” she says, rolling his way on her little chair.
She grabs her tools and starts digging into his wound. He roars from agony.
“That’s a bullet,” she says, and she eyes us both suspiciously. “Yours?”
I shake my head. “We’ve made enemies.”
“So it seems.” She narrows her eyes.
“Can you take it out?” Milo asks.
“I’ll try,” she replies, grabbing a syringe.
She shoves it into his side, and he hisses from the pain. “Jesus, did you have to get a needle that big?”
“Stop whining, boy,” she says. “It’s a sedative.”
“Oh …” Nathan sighs, and Milo hides a little bit of laughter.
“It’ll still hurt a little, though,” the nurse says as she digs into his back.
Suddenly, the door bursts open, and Lana storms in, completely covered in blood. “Is he alive?”
The nurse looks up, her tool still stuck in Nathan’s back, and her eyes widen in shock at the sight of all that blood. “Oh my God.”
“It’s not mine,” Lana says swiftly, laughing it off.
“What happened to you?”
“Good question,” she says, grasping a few paper towels to wipe herself off, but it’s no use. “I’m fine. I just want to know if Nathan’s okay?”
“Working on it,” Nathan groans back.
She immediately walks to him and grabs his hand. “I was worried.”
“Worried? About me?” he retorts, coughing, then cringing from the pain. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a flesh wound.”
I laugh. “You’re only saying that because she’s here.”
“Shut up,” Nathan retorts.
The nurse plucks out the bullet, and he grunts in pain again, gripping the bedding with his free hand. “Goddammit.”