Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Frankie lies on the table before me, her eyes wide and body rigid with that damn drug pumping through her veins. She’s supposed to be paralyzed, supposed to be helpless.
Yet I saw it. Just a twitch, but it was there. Her lips moved. She said something, but I didn’t understand it.
In my periphery, Wolf sits between Kody and Leo. His head lolls on his shoulders, his hair dangling in his face. He looks dead.
But he’s not.
My heart stutters, skipping beats as I try to wrap my mind around it. My son, who I thought I’d never meet, is here, breathing.
Knowing he’s alive but not safe is a cruel twist of fate. I’ve been on a roller coaster since I saw him, thinking I’d lost him only to find out he’s still lives.
The whirlwind of emotions hitting me one after another leaves me reeling and out of breath. But my expression remains composed, my hands frozen on my lap.
Kody has the knife now. I don’t know what he’ll do with it, but he’s smart. Smart enough to know he can’t make a move as long as Rhett holds that gun.
I just need to keep Rhett talking. Keep him distracted. Get answers.
He drones on in a sickening tone, vibrating with pride and madness as he explains everything that led up to this moment, how he meticulously planned it all, and how he orchestrated every move, with a detachment that makes my skin crawl.
He’s in control, or so he thinks. He doesn’t know Kody. He doesn’t know what’s coming.
“I saw Frankie first.” He reaches out and strokes her hair, testing our willpower.
All three of us tense, ready to lunge across the table and drag the chairs with us.
Unable to hold back, Leo releases a dark, guttural sound.
“Denver promised he would help me take her.” He scowls. “He said he would help me keep her without getting caught.”
“You didn’t think to ask her out on a date?” I growl. “Try to woo her the old-fashioned way?”
“She wasn’t interested. She was focused on her career and put me in the friend zone.”
“You told her you were gay,” Leo spits, seething.
“I never told her that. She assumed, and I let her believe it. I wanted more than a one-night stand, and that’s all she was willing to give anyone. Just one night.”
“Until me.” I meet her eyes.
She blinks once. Yes.
My chest fucking aches.
“You’re the reason Denver and I had a falling out,” Rhett says. “He mentored me for years. I no longer needed to collect flight logs from Alvis. Denver came to me on his own whenever he was in Anchorage. He taught me how to strategize, engineer bombs, utilize drones and spyware, and monitor Frankie undetected. He convinced me to be patient, to wait for the right moment. He promised that when the time was right, he would give me the coordinates to the cabin. He promised I could bring Frankie here, and we would have a life together.”
“A life together? You intended to imprison her.” My pulse accelerates, and my breathing turns shallow. “Just like you’re doing now.”
“I’m doing this for her.” Rhett glowers. “She’ll see that with time.”
Kody loosens a harsh, inhuman sound. “Denver said the same thing.”
“Denver was a liar. He wanted to ruin Montgomery’s life and told me that if I helped her meet him, he would help me rip her away, break Montgomery’s heart, and satisfy both our end goals. Then she would be mine.”
Instead, Denver kept her for himself.
For Leo, Kody, and Wolf.
To use her in a twisted bargain with the devil.
“You came in with a dislocated kneecap.” Rhett glares at me. “I assigned Frankie to you because I thought Denver would keep his word. For the next year, I didn’t think you had a chance with her. Then you did. You and Frankie became inseparable, got married, and Denver cut ties with me. Just like that. I couldn’t find him. I had stopped collecting the flight logs from Alvis and no longer had that connection. Denver evaded me. Used me. He saw me as a threat.”
He saw you as the unhinged serial killer that you are, Dr. Howell.
Denver despised violence unless he was the one wielding it. He knew what Rhett would do to her. In his sick way, Denver protected her by bringing her to Hoss.
The crazy shit he spewed in his video is starting to make sense.
Look around you. Is your admirer there now? Watching? You were safe with me in the hills. Out here, no hills can save you.
“How did you find this cabin?” I ask.
“When Sirena started helping you search for Frankie, I contacted her anonymously and offered her more money than she could refuse. When she clicked on the link to receive the payment, it downloaded spyware to her phone. That enabled me to monitor your search every step of the way.”