Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 72308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Her labored breaths ceased almost immediately. Her eyes were closed, like she was already half asleep. The fire had died down at some point during our fucking, and despite how large the bedroom was, the windows were fogged from our heat.
She turned on her side, makeup running from the moisture she’d shed from her eyes. She seemed knocked out already, fucked into exhaustion.
I stared at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling and slowly cooled off, letting the sweat evaporate from my skin.
My phone vibrated on the nightstand.
The only calls I got this late were work-related, so I reached for the phone and glanced at the name.
There was no name.
I rolled out of bed and moved toward the window to keep quiet. “Grave.”
“Sorry to disturb you at this hour, but I thought you should know something.” It was a voice I didn’t recognize. It belonged to a man who seemed eager to ruin my evening, not apologetic. “I’ve taken the woman you adore. The only way to get her back is to take her place. If you refuse, I’ll fuck her in every hole I can find, and once I’m finally bored with her…which may take a while…I’ll kill her. You have twenty-four hours to decide.”
I stared at my own reflection in the glass as I listened to all of that. “Who’s the woman I adore?”
“Is that how you really want to play this?” he said. “Or should I just kill her now and come for you next?”
“Karl.” I didn’t recognize the voice, but I recognized the rage. “Roan is playing you. He’s the one who switched my patient with your brother—and you’re falling right into his trap.”
“Maybe. But there’s no way to really know, right? Since you killed him and everything…”
I stared at my reflection.
“Twenty-four hours. That’s it.” Click.
I listened to the dead line for several seconds before I finally lowered the phone to my side. Buck naked, I stood near the glass and stared before I turned around and looked at the woman he should have taken.
She was sitting up in bed, and judging from the horror in her eyes, she’d understood the details of the conversation. “Someone’s taken Camille…?”
“I have to call Cauldron. Have my driver take you home.” I walked into the closet and pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved shirt before I headed for the door.
Elise was halfway dressed. “Why would someone take her?”
“I told you I have enemies.”
“But she has nothing to do with that—”
“That’s not how this world works.” I left the bedroom and headed to the elevator.
She was right behind me, her shoes in her hand. “Does she know something she could share?”
“No.”
“Then what’s the point of hurting her?”
“Because it’ll hurt me.” That was why they took her. I killed Karl’s brother. It was only fair to kill the woman I loved.
Elise stood next to me in the elevator, her mouth shut, her eyes averted.
I didn’t have the luxury of consoling her. I couldn’t alleviate her insecurities. I had twenty-four hours to save Camille’s life, and I couldn’t spend a single moment on Elise.
I went to Camille’s apartment first.
Just on the off chance it was some sick joke. Just on the slim possibility they’d hit the wrong apartment. But one look inside that place confirmed the truth. A lamp was shattered on the floor. The TV was still on even though no one was home. Drops of blood were on the floorboards like someone had been slashed with a knife. There was definitely a struggle.
“Fuck me.”
I headed to Cauldron’s apartment next. In the middle of the night, I woke up Pius and demanded Cauldron be disturbed. I paced in the sitting room as I waited for him to get his ass out here. My heart was racing with adrenaline, but on the exterior, I looked perfectly calm. I was just as afraid of not getting Camille back as I was of telling my brother what had happened to her.
Cauldron finally made it down the hallway, barefoot and bare-chested, his eyes pissed off because he assumed whatever I needed was trivial and not worth this midnight visit. “What is it?”
There was no good way to say it. None at all. “Karl took Camille.”
It took Cauldron a solid five seconds to process it, either because he was still partly asleep or the information was just so terrible he couldn’t believe it. “Why would he take Camille?”
“An eye for an eye.”
The reality hit him like a punch to the face. His expression changed, the cords in his neck tightening as he clenched his jaw. The veins in his forehead suddenly popped to the surface. His eyes were so angry they deepened in color. It looked like he might let out a scream any second. “What does he want for her?”
“Me.”
He stared at me.
“A trade.”
After a long stretch of silence, he spoke again. “They’ll kill her anyway. They’ll just make you watch.”