Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 80055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
She was dead.
The wet stuff I’d slipped in was her blood.
My heart raced as I tried to step out of it, but it was everywhere. At my back. In my hair. My hands.
Pulling away from my mother, I came to a stop when I saw my father, only, he wasn’t hung upside down.
Knives protruded out of him. One in each shoulder, legs, even his calves. I also saw needles in his face.
He was still alive.
One look at me and I saw the broken man. I had wanted this moment, only now, it came with me.
“It’s a pleasure to see you again,” Dean Parson said. He had a cloth in his hands. It was stained with blood.
I stared at him, knowing he’d be the one to kill me.
“You don’t have a clue what your father or brother did, do you?” Marshall Keller asked.
All of them were here. Even River’s father, Ace Block, but he sat in the back, just watching everything.
“My brother?” I asked.
“We know you saw what we did to him,” Daniel said with a laugh. “Our sons think we don’t know all the tricks there are in the book, but we do. We know a lot more than they can ever imagine.”
Licking my dry lips, I looked at each of the men.
None of their soldiers were here.
This was what added to the fear people felt. They didn’t use other people to do their dirty work. They relied on no one.
They were the real monsters. No one else.
I stood, covered in my mother’s blood. Sickness swirled within my gut, the food I’d eaten only moments ago threatening to come up.
I held it in, waiting, watching, hoping I could find some way to live. But it was all useless.
“Your father has been a very naughty minion,” Dean said. “Did you know he’s the one responsible for River’s kidnapping two years ago?”
This was news to me. “You caught the guy?”
“No, we caught the patsy they’d put in place. I always had a hunch it was someone we knew. I just had to be patient enough to wait for the bastard to get too greedy.” Dean approached me, a knife in his hand.
“I regret what I’ve got to do, Emily. I owe you a favor for saving my son, but I will repay that kindness. I won’t give you a slow death. It will be quick.”
Tears filled my eyes and I looked at Dean, knowing it was the best I was going to get.
I closed my eyes as I felt the tip of the knife near my throat.
This was it.
I loved four guys and I wasn’t going to be able to ever tell them. That was on me.
I hoped one day they would realize that I did love them, in my own way at least.
Taking a deep breath, I waited.
“Stop!”
I opened my eyes, jerking away from the point as I turned to see Caleb, Vadik, Gael, and River in the basement. They were panting as they watched.
I cried out as Dean grabbed me and held the tip of the blade against my neck.
“Get out of here,” I said.
“No,” Gael said. “Dad, no. Fucking no. You can’t kill her.”
A hand covered my mouth, cutting off my air. The sudden swift movement took me by surprise. I couldn’t hear what anyone was saying. The world had started to swirl. I couldn’t cope. I couldn’t breathe.
Just as I thought I was going to die, Dean let me go, but all of a sudden, everything went black.
****
Gael
My relationship with my dad had always been a love-hate one. I hated him but I also loved him. I had pledged my loyalty to the bastard but as I watched him punch the love of my life, if it wasn’t for River, Vadik, and Caleb holding me back, I would have killed the bastard with my bare hands.
First, he held a knife to her. Then he punched her.
Emily ended up in a heap on the floor. Completely out cold. I checked to make sure her chest was moving.
Ashley had come running to me the instant Emily had been taken. I’d already been arriving at River’s house as she burst through the doors. Caleb and Vadik had arrived next. River was making his way downstairs.
I had never moved so fast before in my life.
There was just no way we could let her die.
The revelation of how deep Bernard Crane’s betrayal went even shocked me. She couldn’t pay for those sins. There was no way I could let her. She had no right to die because of her father.
“Keep yourself together,” Dean said.
He wasn’t my dad at that moment. He was my enemy.
One person I wanted to kill.
“Keep your shit,” Caleb said.
Staring at my friend, I breathed in deep and as my friends released me, I stayed perfectly still.
Emily was still on the floor.