Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I stalk to the kitchen, mostly for the distance, and grab a burner phone from the drawer. “In a minute. Right now, I need to check in and get rid of the car.” I point at her, the phone curled in my fingers. “You stay here. Don’t make me chase you today. You won’t like what happens.”
Her eyes stretch wide, but she nods and wraps her arms around her waist. “I’m going to see if I can find something to wear.”
I resist getting one last look at her bare skin and leave the house, locking the door behind me.
The street is still empty as I climb into the car and head toward the lake. It’s getting dark, and thankfully no one is in the adjacent park. I park on the bank and work up the nerve to drive the vehicle into the water, it’ll take a minute to get out of the car, and there’s always a chance I won’t make it.
I open the door, drop the phone on the bank of the lake, then slam the door shut. It only takes a minute to drive into the water and another to slither out of the window, the frame scraping and bruising my arms and shoulders as I work my way out of it.
When I make it back to shore, I snap up the phone and leave. If anyone sees the car sinking, I don’t want them to see me alongside it.
The trek back to the house is harder than our escape. My muscles are screaming, and all of my blood seems to be drained to my cock. Rationally, I know it’s the drugs and the days of captivity, but it only fuels my rage, driving it higher the closer I get to the house.
As I walk up the street, trying to look inconspicuous in my blood-stained clothes, I snap open the phone and send a coded text to Kai. No doubt they are all hunting for me. Now he knows I’m alive, which safe house we are holed up in, and when I’ll check back in with him again. I need to ensure no one follows us before we go to the penthouse. The Doubeck epicenter isn’t a secret, but I won’t bring a threat to our doors. Not when I can deal with it on my own.
I twist the phone in my hands and drop the pieces in some overgrown grass as I approach the final turn up the quiet street. It takes a minute to get to the door and check the neighboring houses for onlookers before I go inside. No one seems to be out, thankfully.
I slip inside and lock the handle lock, the deadbolt, and the chain that is usually left unlocked. It won’t keep out a determined intruder, but it’ll give me enough notice to grab a gun and take care of things before someone reaches us.
Turning to face the living room, I pause. It’s empty. Everything neat and tidy, just as it was the moment we arrived. Most importantly, she’s not here, and though I didn’t specify where she could go, I assumed she would stay put.
The rage I’d been stoking slowly on my walk surges up like a wildfire, and I stalk toward the bedroom in the back of the house. It’s also empty. As is the bathroom, the kitchen, and the small supply room that takes up the second bedroom. “Priscilla. You better fucking be here, or we are going to have fucking problems!”
There’s no answer, and I start throwing open closets, flipping up the edge of the bedding, and then I have to take a second to curtail my rage before I destroy the place before I’ve taken a decent shower.
I head back into the kitchen, open the laptop on the counter containing the cameras inside and outside the house, and rewind the footage. I spot Cilla as she heads into the bedroom, but she never comes back out. She couldn’t have climbed out the window, right? Why would she when she could walk right out the front door?
Slamming the laptop shut, I go back to the bedroom and scan the space. It still looks the same, except the curtains are pulled tight, keeping the room dark. I flip on the bedside lamp and spot the discarded underwear she’d been wearing near the dresser.
It takes me a minute to track the smudges of her footprints on the carpet leading into the closet. I slam open the door and spot her cowering in the far corner, her legs tucked up in front of her, arms wrapped around them.
“I know I didn’t specify where you could go, but I didn’t think I’d have to search high and low for you?”
She shakes from her hiding spot. “ I told you I was going to find some clothes.”