Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
“You better get in here,” a voice calls, and my blood turns to ice. I’ve heard that voice so many times, countless times. I’ve celebrated with the owner of that voice—laughed and joked. It’s Sebastian. “Or the same will happen to you.”
I swallow, walk around the bloody man, and enter the building. A naked bulb throws harsh light onto the chair in the middle of the room. A young woman is tied to it, a rag stuffed in her mouth, looking sweaty and terrified but unharmed so far. Behind her, a man stands with a gun aimed at her head.
The man has a deranged grin on his face. He looks wild, feral, crazed. He has the same bones, eyes, and facial structure as my old friend, Sebastian, but there’s something different—his aura. I’ve never seen Sebastian as a sadist before.
“Seb?” I whisper.
Three more men are in the room, all wearing masks. I don’t see any other guns, just the one Sebastian is holding.
“You painted a black eye on your face,” Finn mumbles. “You pretended to be a hostage. You forced that man to hurt me, drown me, and manipulate me.”
“I knew you’d go to Luke,” Sebastian says, sighing. “Oh, Finn, my dear boy, we could’ve done some really impressive things together.”
“Was it you the entire time?” Finn asks.
“Yessir,” Sebastian says proudly.
“What did you do?” I growl, wanting to run, to cry, to tear him to pieces all at the same time.
“Jealous, Lukey?” my old friend laughs. I’m tempted to think he doesn’t seem like himself, but that would be an easy out. I’ve just clearly never known who he really is. “I’ve been pushing you around like a goddamn chess piece ever since the VR stuff.”
“Wait, what?” I snap, my hands clenching into fists. “You were behind that? Why?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions.”
“Jesus Christ, Seb. Because I gave some interviews about the VR? Because I was proud of it?”
“You’ve always been so clever,” Sebastian says, chuckling. “Always so high and mighty.”
“We were friends.”
“I have no friends,” Sebastian snaps. “This little rat…” he says, nodding at Finn, “thought he was a master manipulator and one step ahead of me, but nobody is ahead of me.”
Finn narrows his eyes. “Is anybody else in here armed?”
“Finn,” I say, trying to get him to settle down.
“It’s just… I guess you don’t know firearms very well, sir. That gun has the wrong round in the chamber. It’s jammed. I can see the gap.”
Sebastian’s face crumples. Right away, I see that Finn is right from the panic shivering into my old friend’s face. No, I mean this sick fuck’s face. All three of the masked men pull out weapons, but not guns. One has a gleaming knuckle-duster, another a knife, and the third picks up a metal pipe from the floor.
Suddenly, Sebastian reaches into his pocket and takes out a knife, holding it above Ashley’s head.
“Okay, you got me,” Sebastian laughs, “but let’s see if you can get me before I stick this bitch.”
“This is madness,” I growl. “All of this because you’re jealous? I told you that you can give the interviews. You can be the face of the company. Let the girl go, and I’ll sell my half to you. I won’t even be involved in it anymore. I’ll give you everything.”
“You’re lying,” he says, but I can hear the hope in his voice.
He’s right. There’s no way in hell I’m giving him anything. I can’t believe I ever gave him my friendship. I can’t believe this is the same man who ran around with me, insane with excitement, in the early days when we were making a name for ourselves.
“I don’t want it,” I tell him. “I just want—”
“I know what you want,” he snaps. “You want that fat little piggy. You want Kayla’s chunky best friend.”
My blood was ice before. Now it’s even colder than that. I almost shatter my teeth from clenching them so hard. If it weren’t for the knife that he’s holding above Ashley—inches from the top of her head, not right at her throat—I’d dive at him. I still might. I’m shaking.
“You should’ve emptied Finn’s apartment,” Sebastian goes on. “I heard the recording. Tsk-tsk, Lukey. Not such a paragon now, are you?”
“There’s a way out of this,” I tell him.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Sebastian says. “I heard the recording, and then I had to look her up, see what she was like. You’re not exactly a ladies’ man, after all. Then I saw her—it. I saw it!” He cackles cruelly, and I start calculating the distance between us, wondering how power-drunk he is, wondering how he’d react if I rushed him. “You could have any woman you wanted, and you pick… that?”
“Shut your fucking mouth when it comes to my woman,” I snap. “I swear to God, you say one more word about her…”