Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
“When did you put spyware on her phone?” I ask.
“When I sent her the information for Melanie Stokes.”
Fuck.
That was the first fucking week.
“We searched for this cabin.” Leo clenches his jaw. “With Sirena. Did you tell her where to search? Or where not to search?”
“Yes.” Rhett’s smile returns, cold and calculating, as he looks around the kitchen. “I was remodeling. I couldn’t have you finding it. Not until you were all together. I encouraged Frankie to unite the three of you. As much as I want her for myself, let’s face it. I don’t know these hills. I can’t survive here and keep her safe without you. But the six of us together? We’ll be one big happy family.”
He’s insane. Certifiable. Fucking nuts.
And Denver knew it.
Not all wounds bleed. Not all scars show. Some live beneath bones, cold and alone. In the chambers of frost, pain is my art.
Denver knew he scarred this man irrevocably. He knew enough not to trust him. That’s why he cut ties with him.
Denver created a monster more evil than himself.
“How did you text Frankie while sitting beside her on the yacht?” Leo asks.
“I scheduled it through a third-party service, using a fake number.” Rhett wets his lips. “When I called her, I used another service to create the computerized voice.”
“The phrase you used…” Kody inhales. “It sounded like something Wolf would say.”
“That was intentional. I spent some time with Wolfson over the past ten months. He loves to quote movies. His humor is dry and inappropriate. He’s hilarious.” Rhett rakes his eyes over Wolf, making my entire body clench. “I led you to consider him a suspect to keep you from looking in my direction.”
“Wolf was never a suspect,” I snap. “But everyone else was, including you.”
“Mm. I wasn’t at the top of your list. Don’t forget. I heard most of your conversations.”
“Why would you risk your career and everything you’ve worked for to do this?” I ask.
“This is what I worked for. This is what I want. To unify the Strakhs and become part of your family. I’ll lead you better than Denver did. I’m smarter and kinder. I killed for you.” He nods at the row of corpses. “I waited for you to come together. I want you all to see that this is for the best. You’ll thank me when it’s over.”
He’s wrong. I’ll never thank him. But I’ll make sure he pays for every life he’s taken, every horror he’s inflicted on Frankie. I’ll make sure he knows exactly who he’s dealing with.
Because this family, this chaos he thinks he’s controlling, we don’t go down easy. We fight, and we win.
“Here’s how this will go.” Rhett stands and pulls three syringes from his pocket. The gun doesn’t waver in his hand as he tosses the hypodermic needles onto the table in front of Leo. “This is the same paralytic I gave Frankie. Inject it into your arms. It’s just one dose. It’ll wear off in fifteen minutes.”
My breath hitches. He can’t be serious. But the look in his eyes tells me he’s deadly serious.
Leo growls, the sound vibrating in his chest.
Fifteen minutes is a long time in hell. What does Rhett have planned during that time?
“I’m not injecting myself with that,” I say, my voice hard as steel.
I won’t make myself helpless. Fuck that.
“You don’t get to decide.” Rhett’s expression darkens, his calm demeanor cracking. “You do it, or she dies. You all die.”
The gun presses harder into Frankie’s head, and a vise clamps around my lungs.
Why would he kill us after spending all this time collecting us?
I shift my eyes along the row of corpses on the other side of the table.
He’s a serial killer.
If he doesn’t kill us today. He’ll kill us, eventually.
My mind spins, trying to find a way out. I’m not about to make myself vulnerable like that. Not with Frankie’s life hanging by a thread.
I can’t let this happen. We can’t give him what he wants.
Before I can react, Leo reaches for the syringes and passes them down the table. “We’ll do it.”
Kody doesn’t say a word, just grabs a needle and removes the cap. His eyes flick to mine, and in that brief glance, I see something. A message. A plan. But I can’t decipher it. My mind is too clouded by fear, by the fury steaming from my ears.
“We want her to live,” he says. “Trust me.”
“You have two seconds to plunge those needles before I squeeze the trigger.” Rhett meets my eyes.
I’ve never been one to back down, never been one to surrender control.
As I watch a stream of tears track down Frankie’s temple, I know I don’t have a choice. If I don’t do this, she’s dead. We’re all dead.
Trust me.
I trust Kody and Leo with my life. And hers.
My pulse thunders as I snatch the syringe and flick off the cap.