Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Go ahead, darling,” Romney taunted as he yanked my hair back so rainwater went into my mouth and nose. It was raining so hard, I couldn’t even open my eyes against the onslaught. “No one is going to hear you.”
I tried to scream again, but instead, I choked and struggled to cough up the water in my lungs without breathing in more.
He laughed as he tightened his grip on my hair and leaned down to whisper in my ear, “You are mine now, and there isn’t a thing you can do about it. Your father will honor that marriage contract or face the scandal of having his precious daughter outed as a whore.”
“I’ll never marry you, you dickhead,” I choked out as lightning flashed across the sky again, followed by another deafening boom of thunder.
The other men had already reached the van and held open the back doors, waiting for Romney to roll me the rest of the way.
Then two hollow-sounding pops cut through the air.
CHAPTER 38
REID
This shit was never going to happen again.
Charlotte was soaked through, blood still dripping down one of her arms.
The sight nearly knocked me to my knees. I would never let this happen again.
When I walked into her hospital room, I realized she must have just been taken.
The blood on the floor was still wet, leaving a blood-smeared wheelchair trail.
The nurses had been on a shift change, so they had no idea where she’d been taken.
The head nurse taking over rounds hadn’t yet made it to her room.
I told her to stay where she was and lock down the rest of the floor while I followed the bloody path leading to a well-hidden service elevator.
The second I was in the elevator, I pulled my gun, not wanting to scare the nurses and then get slowed down by security.
I didn’t know where they had taken my girl, but I knew I had to get her back before they left the building.
Once they managed to get her to a second location, the chances of me finding her alive were slim to none.
I would find her, but the sooner I found her, the better.
Protecting Charlotte was my responsibility, and nothing was going to stop me from that.
There was a small puddle of her blood on the elevator floor, with two separate sets of tracks. That meant not only were the tracks heading into the elevator, but there would be tracks on whatever floor she got off on.
I started by hitting the button for the first floor, thinking that was the most obvious.
When the doors opened, there was nothing on the smooth tiles other than a little bit of dirt and grime, so at least I knew that that floor hadn’t just been cleaned.
I considered heading to the roof, knowing there was a possibility of her attacker taking her by helicopter. But first, I wanted to check the basement level.
Something in my gut told me she was on the ground, not in the air.
I hit the button for B1 and checked my gun as I waited. I knew it was clean. I knew it was fully loaded, but I had to do something other than stare at the pool of my girl’s blood on the floor.
When the elevator doors slid open on the first basement level, I saw the trail of blood leading out. This was where they had taken her. I wanted to run after her, shouting for her, but I knew better.
There was too much I didn’t know. I didn’t know how many men had her. I didn’t know if they were armed or what condition she was in.
I had to be smart about this.
Moving as swiftly as I was able, I crept down the corridors, keeping close to the wall, my gun aimed at the floor directly in front of me. I saw a black canvas bag that had a few strands of her beautiful hair left in it. Whoever had put it on her had ripped it off, clearly not caring if she knew their identity.
My heart froze in my chest as a cold sensation crawled up my spine. The only reason an attacker would remove a blindfold from their victim was if it didn’t matter if the victim knew who had attacked them.
They weren’t trying to hide their identity, so they were either stupid, or they intended to kill her.
I moved faster, needing to get to her now.
I followed the trail around a corner, and that was when I saw them.
Three assailants, all wearing ski masks. It looked like at least two were armed with a single pistol each, and probably a few that were hidden. The third man, a much slimmer man, didn’t have anything other than the audacity to hit my woman.
I saw them through the glass double doors. The two larger men ran through the rain to get to the truck. The skinny one stopped and ripped her hair back, holding her under the torrential downpour of freezing rain.