Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
“Again, I’m sorry that I’ve upset you.”
“You did more than that. You broke her heart. Again. And it ain’t just us you’re so selfishly hurting. It’s the parish. The people who helped you get to where you are, the bishop who placed you there.”
I knew all this. So, I said nothing.
He spoke into Hannah’s ear as he turned her around and led her back to their parked car. I wouldn’t be getting a ride with them, but it was only a two-mile walk.
I pulled out my phone and called Saylor, needing to talk to her. Explain why I’d handled things the way I had. It rang…and rang…but no one answered. Not even her voice mail.
Thirty-Nine
Saylor
The raging headache I’d suffered all day had finally eased. It had taken most of the day and a lot of water. The only problem now was I had no distraction. Every good memory I had of Jude would make tears fill my eyes. I missed him. The urge to unblock his number and call him, beg him to talk to me, was hard to resist.
Right now, however, I had been dragged from my house and my grieving by Bane freaking Cash.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I glared at Bane’s back.
He had shown up, demanding that I go with him. Gathe had apparently done something that he needed me to help him fix.
Since when did they want me to get involved in family stuff?
I had pointed that out, but he said if I didn’t go, then Gathe’s life might be in danger.
That got me slipping on my tennis shoes, then slipping my pistol into the waistband of my jeans, just in case this was dangerous, before leaving the house with him.
I might be wallowing in my sad existence, but I wasn’t about to let something happen to Gathe. Bane being the one to come get me meant it was serious. Seeing as he didn’t like me and he was also the second-in-command, behind Linc. Trivial errands weren’t his concern.
“How much farther do we have to go?” I asked, trudging behind him through the woods on the back of his father’s property.
At least, I thought it was still Cash property. It was way out here. We had driven past his dad’s house a while back, then been on foot for what felt like several miles. Probably was only one, but I didn’t like the woods, especially at night.
He stood and bent down over some brush, and I watched him, confused. Had he dropped something? If he had, it was too dark to see in that pile of stuff. I started to tell him he needed to use his phone’s flashlight when I heard a faint click, and then he looked up at me.
“Come on. Down here.”
Down where? I walked over to peek and see what the heck he was talking about when he lifted a trapdoor. Light spilled into the darkness, and stairs appeared, going underground. I knew then what this was. I had heard them talk about “the underground” and “cellar” for years, but I never expected to get to see it.
I didn’t ask if he was sure. Thoughts of Gathe being hurt had me climbing down into the surprisingly cool, damp concrete tunnel. Bane followed me and pointed up ahead. I went a little slower now, not sure what to expect. Cigarettes, earth, and another scent I couldn’t place met me, the farther I went.
A room appeared, and I stepped inside.
Sucking in a breath, I looked at the man they had hanging by his wrists from the ceiling. His front was caked with dried blood, and his head hung forward as his body appeared limp.
Had Gathe killed someone, and why was Bane showing me?
I started to ask him what the hell this was about when the man slowly lifted his head. Swollen black-and-blue eyes that could barely see out through slits. Battered cracked-open lips. Blood running from the nose all the way down his neck. It took me a moment, but then I saw it. Recognition slammed down on me, taking my breath. As I stood there, frozen, my eyes melded to his. Then, a wail tore out of me, and I ran to him.
“GET HIM DOWN!” I screamed, alarm, panic, and anguish overtaking any other emotion that had been controlling me before.
My hands gently touched his face.
Oh God, oh God, oh God. What had they done to him?
“NOW! GET HIM DOWN NOW!” I demanded, swinging around to see where the hell Bane was and why Jude was still hanging here.
“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed. “I am so sorry. This is my fault. Oh God, this is all my fault.”
“Move so I can get to him,” Bane said, standing behind me.
I nodded, stepping back, then stopping. “Don’t do anything else to hurt him,” I warned.
His eyes dropped to mine. “I came to get you, didn’t I?” He reached up and untied Jude’s hands with such precise skill that he made it look easy.