Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Did you hear anything? See anything?” I ask.
“No, I was unconscious when they brought me here. When I woke up, Claire was with me. She said she was kidnapped from outside her house. Not long after I woke up, they came and got her.”
“What did they look like?”
“I don’t…I don’t know. They were big; one of them had a tattoo on his forehead of a spider,” she says, and a chill slides over me, knowing that was the same person who threatened Kayan at her apartment.
“We need to look around and see if we can find anything to use as a weapon to protect ourselves when they come back. My fiancé will be expecting me home soon, and when I don’t show, he’ll come looking for me,” I tell her, trying to comfort her and myself.
I just have no idea how long I was out, or how long it took for them to bring me here. I hate this. I can’t imagine what Wes is going to do when he realizes I’m not on my way home.
“Come on,” I whisper, and we begin crawling around on the floor, trying to be careful, because there seem to be some parts that are weak in the floor, like the structure is old. The floor is covered in a thick layer of dust, and my hand runs over a puddle of thick liquid, and when I lift my hand close to my face, my stomach turns as I see it’s actually blood. Someone was hurt here, hurt bad. It’s not a little blood; it’s a lot of it.
“Oh, God,” I whimper in fear as the weight of the situation crashes over me.
“I found something,” Ellie says from across the room, and I wipe my hand on my jeans and go towards her. When I make it to her side, I see she has a two-by-four with a thick rusty nail sticking out of one side.
“This is good,” I say, giving her a hug. At least we won’t be going down without a fight. “Let’s see if we can find anything else, and then we’ll come up with a plan.”
*
Wes
“Where’s July?” Mic asks, and I look from the TV to my phone and feel myself frown. I spoke with her fifteen minutes ago; she should be home by now. I put the phone to my ear and her phone rings and goes to voicemail.
“This is July. Leave a message…or not. Who leaves messages nowadays anyways?” She laughs, and a bad feeling settles in the bottom of my gut. I click off the phone then redial, and it rings then goes to voicemail again.
“What’s up?” Harlen asks as I step out onto the front porch, where he’s having a cigarette.
“Something’s off,” I tell him, waiting to see if her car comes around the corner. The store that we always go to is about ten minutes from the house, if that, and she was checking out when I hung up. “July’s not picking up her phone.”
“Maybe she can’t reach it,” he says, and I nod, but I know that’s not the case. Something’s definitely off.
“I’m giving her three more minutes, but then I’m taking off to look for her,” I tell him, putting my phone back to my ear and trying her again.
“I’ll ride with you,” he agrees, going into the house, coming back moments later with his jacket and handing me mine.
“What’s up?” Mic asks stepping out onto the front porch.”
“Gonna ride out with Wes to check on July. You stay here and have her call if she gets back,” Harlen tells him, and I pull on my jacket then try her number one more time.
“Fuck,” I clip and head towards my bike, swinging my leg over my seat, and Harlen does the same with his. The rumble of our pipes fills the air as we pull out of our driveway. I ride ahead of Harlen onto Main, heading right to the store, where I know July was last.
The moment we get there, I see her car in the parking lot off to the side of the door, where no one would see it. My stomach drops and my adrenaline kicks in as I pull into the space next to it and look inside. Her purse and the groceries she had just bought are sitting inside on the passenger seat. I open the back door, knowing not to touch the front in case someone needs to dust for prints, and reach in to grab her bag, pulling out her cell to see if she had gotten a call from anyone else, and there are no messages or anything in her call log.
When I lift my head, I see Harlen is on the phone, so I head into the store to see if anyone had seen anything, which no one has, and they don’t even have cameras, so that’s out. When I get back outside, Jax, Talon, Sage, and July’s uncle Nico are waiting near her car, with Harlen, Mic, Everett and two officers I don’t know.