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)
It’s shoved open, hitting me so hard that it knocks me on my ass. “What the…?”
“Hi, sweetheart,” a man says, entering my room.
I know him. Miles Hopper. He’s a sophomore this year at Barrington University. I’ve seen him at the house of Lords. He’s a couple of years younger than Saint. “Get the fuck out of my room.” They’re not friends, so I’m not sure why the hell he’d be here. Unless my brother sent him. But I don’t remember Adam being close with him.
He reaches around into his back pocket and removes a zip tie. The smile he gives me makes my stomach sink. “Come on, baby. You love it when Saint ties you up and plays with you.”
I scream, trying to get to my feet, but he’s faster. Grabbing my hair, he yanks me over to the side of my bed and pins me to it. I try to push myself up, but it’s useless. He grabs both of my arms, his fingers digging into my skin as he yanks them behind my back and secures my wrists together tightly with the zip tie. Then he wraps his arm around my upper arms and drags me out of my room, down the stairs and to the living room. Letting me go, he shoves me forward. I trip, falling to my knees.
A set of black boots steps in front of me, and the tip of a knife on my chin forces me to look up at him. “Where is your brother?” Tyson Crawford demands.
I knew this would happen. It’s better that you don’t know. Adam said that to me when he told me he was leaving. “I’ll never tell you,” I say through gritted teeth.
He sighs, crouching down in front of me. His elbows rest on his thighs. “You understand I have to hurt you if you choose to protect him, right?” He runs the blade over my heaving chest.
“Do what you have to do,” I spit out, refusing to give in. I won’t die for a Lord, but my brother? I have to give him time to find answers. I don’t know what’s going on, but he was physically shaken up. I’d never seen my brother like that before.
Standing, he shakes his head. “What a waste.”
“You’re the waste.” I pull my lips back with a growl. “Doing whatever the Lords tell you to do. You’re nothing but a fucking puppet.” The Lords think they have power, but they don’t. It’s a joke. They do as they’re told when they are told to do it. I never understood how much they control them until I became Saint’s chosen. He’s always being called to Carnage. Or ordered to do something that he can’t tell me. And what he did to that woman…
Tyson throws his head back, laughing. “What’s that make your brother?”
“He had the balls to stand up for himself,” I snap, not really knowing what else to say. But the longer I keep him talking, the more time I have that he won’t kill me. “To get away from them.”
He smiles. “Why didn’t he take you and your mother with him?”
“He’ll come back for us when the time is right.” I lift my chin. I believed Adam when he said he’d be back. I’m just not sure when that’ll be.
Tyson steps over to my mom, lying on her stomach with her hands tied behind her back. She screams into the duct tape over her mouth when he grips her bleach-blond hair and jerks her up. He stabs her in the chest and yanks it out.
“MOM!” I scream, jumping up and rushing over to her body that lies on the floor.
But he steps in front of me, wrapping a hand around my neck, lifting my feet up off the floor. Our faces almost touching, he says, “Still want me to do whatever I have to do?” He arches a brow.
I’m sobbing, my body shaking in his hand as I look at my mother lying dead on our floor. Tyson loosens the grip on my neck, and I choke out, “I … don’t know anything.” Why would he think that I do? I’m no one. Just a woman in a man’s world. A fucking chosen that a Lord gets to use.
Miles enters the room, and he holds up my cell phone. “Let’s see if we can get him to come to us.”
Tyson tightens his hand on my throat once more, and I thrash in his hold as he chokes me. I try to fight, but there’s no use. My body is shutting down, betraying me. My eyes start to roll into my head, and he lets go, taking a step back. I fall to my knees, coughing and spit flying from my mouth, sobbing once again.
He moves to stand behind me and grips my hair, yanking my head back as Miles stands in front of me and holds up my phone. “Smile for the camera,” he tells me as I try to breathe through the sobs.