Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“I think ruin would be too small of a word for what I want Julia to experience right about now,” I admitted.
I took a step toward the side of the building, and had just rounded the corner when a wave of worry hit me.
“I’ll get some eyes on her,” he said. “And I’ll find what she loves the most and take it.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but never got the chance.
I was so lost in thought and grief—my heart literally aching for what Haze and Desi had to go through—that I didn’t give the direction I was heading much thought.
Not until it was too late.
I stepped one foot around the corner and was caught.
Today I chose violence.
—Haze to Nastya
NASTYA
A hand covered my mouth, and I inhaled deeply.
That turned out to be my last thought for a very long time.
How did I know it was a long time?
Because when I next woke, the sun wasn’t nearly as bright.
I could tell that it was still up based on the way the sun shone through the windows that I was tied to a chair in front of.
I’d been awake for ten minutes, and I only knew that because, to steady my overreacting heart, I’d started counting.
I was at six hundred, and my heart rate was still galloping.
“What are we going to do?” I heard asked.
They—three people—had been talking in the other room for all ten of those minutes.
“We have to take her back!” The woman’s voice sounded desperate.
I liked her idea.
“We can’t take her back. If we take her back, my son goes down for kidnapping,” a man vehemently disagreed.
“Well, your son should’ve thought of that before he kidnapped my ex-husband’s new bitch!”
Ahhh.
So that was who it was.
Julia and I guessed her boyfriend.
The ‘son’ must’ve been the man who’d threatened me the other day when he’d been looking for Desi.
“We can’t take her back, because now we’re accomplices,” the man, who I assumed was Julia’s boyfriend, Rich, said. “We’ve had her for over two hours now.”
Two hours?
That explained the shift in the sun.
“Her phone’s been going off like crazy, too,” Julia said. “They know that she’s missing.”
“Why the fuck would he even bring the phone?” Rich grumbled.
“I brought it because I didn’t want to leave it on the ground and alert anyone that I’d taken her,” the third voice chimed in.
He was listening to it all, but he barely ever replied.
It was like he was disconnected.
Like he was a part of the conversation, but only peripherally.
“Why did you do this, Eddison?” Rich growled. “Jesus Christ.”
“You said that she was ruining your life, Julia,” Eddison said, sounding…lost.
As if he really couldn’t believe that he was having to explain it to her.
“I know, son. I know,” Rich said. “But what did we tell you about the private conversations that we have? We talk about it, but we’re not actually going to do them.”
“You talked about running over that dog, and Julia did it,” Eddison pointed out.
“That was an accident.” Julia tried to cover her tracks, but Eddison disagreed with her.
“No, I watched you from across the street. You tied his leash to the door handle and then made it to where he couldn’t go anywhere else when you started backing up.” Eddison sounded confused.
“Really, Julia?” Rich groaned.
“No one was supposed to see!” she cried out, as if that was an excuse.
The roiling in my belly hyped up at Eddison’s words.
Julia was fucking sick.
What kind of disturbed woman did that to an animal and lived with herself afterward?
What was she trying to do? Gain sympathy while ridding herself of a problem?
“I was just trying to…”
I didn’t hear anything more because a wave of dizziness overtook me.
At this point, I didn’t know what the dizziness was from—whatever they’d dosed me with, or low blood sugar.
I tried to remember how much of the Snickers I’d gotten to eat and failed to produce the memory.
Probably not nearly enough.
Pairing it with whatever Eddison had given me to lose consciousness, my body wasn’t too happy right now.
The sweating and the trembling would normally indicate low blood sugar.
The confusion, nausea and blurry vision would explain it, too.
But at this point, I didn’t know which symptoms were from what.
Not that it mattered.
I doubted they’d care if my blood sugar was low.
Then again…
“Hello?”
The talking in the living room stopped.
“No, you go,” I heard Julia hiss. “She doesn’t know who you are.”
“Put on a mask,” Eddison suggested. “That way she can’t see your black hair and full beard.”
I would’ve laughed had this not been so serious.
“Seriously, Eddison,” Rich hissed. “Be quiet. You’ve done enough.”
The man came in with a ball cap pulled low over his face, so I couldn’t see his eyes.
He was big and bulky, and looked a lot like his son.
“I’m having a hypoglycemic episode,” I said. “My phone’s in there making a ton of noise because if I don’t get something to eat and fast, I’m going to start having issues.”