Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
The driver sent her a warning glare in the rearview mirror. “I don’t know what your business here is, but nothing good happens here. I won’t go unnoticed for long, and the repercussions for getting caught won’t be good. You’ve got ten minutes.”
Madison scrambled out of the car. “I’ll try to do this in five.”
Then she darted for the underground parking entrance she’d last used to enter the building, Ethan on her heels.
“What is this place? What are we doing here?” he demanded.
She didn’t answer right away, focused instead on getting past the guards blocking the door she’d entered through weeks earlier. Again, she put on her brave face and acted as if she had every right to be here. Again, they gave her a once over and let her pass.
Madison sighed with relief the second they boarded the elevator and the doors closed. At the penthouse, she fitted her key in the lock, half-expecting that Todd would have had it rekeyed. But no. The door opened instantly. Thank god, he was either too lazy or too arrogant to think any woman could outwit him.
With her stomach knotting, she entered the glittering apartment where her life had forever changed. Where Brent Westbrook had been murdered. She turned to Ethan. “This is the place my husband conducts orgies and drug deals. He also brings hookers, mistresses, and the underage girls he likes to violate here.”
“Like the French attaché’s daughter?”
“Yes.” Madison was grateful Ethan had practically read her mind. “I need proof he’s defiling her.”
“In five minutes?” Ethan sent her a dubious stare. “Seriously?”
He was right. The task was next to impossible on a good day, and she’d inadvertently made everything more difficult.
“Got a better idea?”
Ethan pressed his lips together grimly. “No. I don’t.”
“Then I have to try! I don’t have a choice. I…” She swallowed back tears and tried to stay calm. This leverage was vital. She needed it before tonight—or she feared for the lives of Matt and her unborn baby.
“Okay. Hey, don’t cry. We’ll do our best. Just”—he patted her shoulder with gentle reassurance—“calm down. This place have cameras? Or other surveillance?”
“I don’t think so. The point of this penthouse for him is total privacy.”
“All right.” Ethan began casing the place. “Let’s do this.”
They split up, Madison starting in the living room, not quite ready to face the bedroom for fear she’d replay Brent’s gory murder in her head. Thankfully, Ethan headed straight there. While she searched—not even sure what to look for—she tried not to let terror overcome her. What happened if she failed? Would she be forced to flee and take her father into hiding while she ran from Todd, his family…and Matt?
Mere moments seemed to pass when she heard Ethan call across the unit. “Bingo!”
Madison went running and found him standing in a tiny closet she hadn’t noticed before tucked into the corner of the now-pristine bedroom. “You found something?”
“Footage of Todd and a too-young girl.”
Her heart surged, then she frowned. “Footage? But I thought…”
“I didn’t see any surveillance in the rest of the unit. So I put on my pervert hat and started asking myself, would I bother to rig such a sweet setup, big bed and two-way mirrors”—he gestured to the reflective surfaces covering the walls and ceiling—“just to see the girls I fucked from every angle in the heat of the moment? No, I’d want to go back and look at the event like a voyeur, whenever I wanted, from any angle I wanted…”
That sounded exactly like Todd.
“I started poking around at the walls. Lo and behold, the door to this hidden room popped open. This is Todd’s trophy and spank-bank collection in one. As soon as I figured that out…I busted into his computer and searched the video files by date, starting with the night we arrived in this fucked-up city. Here you go.”
Ethan pressed a button. The screen lit up with the image of a young girl with a waterfall of long, dark hair clenched in a man’s fist, big eyes looking up, and a bee-stung mouth encompassing a veined cock as she sucked. The man tossed his head back and hissed out a curse as he opened his eyes to the camera.
Todd.
She gasped. “I’m grabbing that computer.”
He closed the lid and held it away from her “What are you going to do with it? The minute he realizes it’s gone, he’ll come after you. He’ll know you mean to destroy him, and he’ll try his damnedest to kill you.”
She knew. “We have to keep him occupied until we leave for family dinner. After that, he won’t be able to touch me.”
At least she prayed that was true.
Reluctantly, Ethan handed her the PC. “If you say. Anything else we need here?”
She tucked the computer in her overlarge purse. “No. Let’s go.”
The place gave her the heebies, and they were running out of time.