Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
She lies on her stomach, head to the side, dark hair hiding her face. Her arms are still tied behind her back and secured to her ankles in a hogtie position. “Untie her!” I bark at them as they just stand around staring.
“Her neck is broken.” Sin whispers, kneeling beside her while looking up at Ryat.
“No!” I shove Tyson out of the way and drop to my knees next to her.
“Saint?” Tyson places a hand on my shoulder, and I push it off.
“Someone give me a fucking knife,” I demand.
“Here.” Ryat kneels on the other side of her and opens his pocketknife. He cuts the rope that binds her wrists to her ankles, and they fall to the ground. I pick her up in my arms, and her head falls to the side. Sin was right…her neck is broken. My shaky hand pushes her dark hair from her face, and I take in a deep breath, pulling the body to me.
I drop my head to hers and let out a cry of relief. Dropping the body, I stand and look at Kashton who also stares at the dead woman. When his eyes meet mine, he frowns. “Where the fuck is she?”
“So this isn’t Ashtyn?” Jenks asks. He, Alex, Finn, and Colton stand quietly to the side.
“No!” I growl, my shaking hand pushing my hair off my slick forehead. “How the fuck did you find her?” I point at the dead woman. I’m not sorry she’s dead. I’m just glad it’s not my wife. But the fact that this was a setup makes my stomach knot more than it already was. What was their plan? Did they think I’d find her so quickly? Was this just a ploy to keep me busy for however long while they took my wife out of the country? It hasn’t even been two hours since they sent the videos, but they had been pre-recorded. How and when did they switch out the bodies?
“After watching the video, I decided to try to track the vibrator…”
“Excuse me?” Kashton asks, frowning.
Finn holds up his cell. “The vibrator is linked to an app. Anything linked to an app requires some sort of Wi-Fi, which allows me to track the signal.”
“Can you track the cell it’s coming from?” Kashton asks.
He shakes his head. “I tried, but it’s no longer in service.”
“FUCK!” I take a step back from the woman.
“We’re not going to give up.” Tyson steps in front of me. “We’ll find her.”
But the question is, will she be dead? I don’t ask that out loud because we’re all thinking about it.
“It has to be an inside job.” Kashton is the one who speaks next. “We’ve got to find out who the fuck got access to Carnage and how.”
As much as I hate it, he’s right. I need to find her, but I also don’t want to be looking blindly. I need answers, and I’m only going to get them if I know who has her.
“But where do we start?” Sin is the one who asks.
I look at him, and I’m thankful that we didn’t kill him when he gave us the chance. And the fact that he showed up to help when he knows I was using him as bait. My eyes drop to the dead woman at our feet, and I get the first glimmer of hope. It makes the corners of my lips twitch. I love a good bloodbath. “I know just where to start. Bring her.”
ASHTYN
They say death is peaceful. They say there’s a white light and that you have this sense of serenity. A calmness washes over you as you accept that it’s all over.
Is that only if you go to heaven?
Because I’m pretty sure I’m dead, and everything hurts like hell. I’m freezing. Like a bone-chilling coldness that has my entire body shivering. My jaw is sore, my teeth locked down tightly on the ball shoved into my mouth. Lips cracked and face swelling.
I hear voices and music in the distance. It takes everything I have to lift my head. A light shines ahead of me, and I can see through the back of a house. The floor-to-ceiling windows allow me an inside view of the three-story mansion.
I’m not sure how I got here or how long we’ve been here. But I woke up like this what seems like hours ago. From the looks of the trees that surround me, I’d say I’m in the woods. My wrists are tied together with rope and secured above my head to what looks like a metal pole that runs between two trees. It pulls my torso tight.
My legs are spread wide open, rope wrapped around each ankle and secured to cinder blocks that I’m standing on. I try to pull free, but all it does is feel like I’m tearing my muscles.