Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
I look at him, remaining calm, at least for now. “Do you think you being an asshole right now is going to make me lose it?” I ask with an eye roll.
“Elizabeth.” He says my name with such seriousness and takes a step toward me.
“Promise me you will stay calm.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“That was Mason,” he says. “He just found Letti.”
“Umm, okay, was she hiding?”
“He found her dead in her bed.”
I hear him say my name, but it doesn’t register.
Dead in her bed.
Like my mother was.
Maybe I’m dreaming.
I slap myself across the face, hoping it’ll wake me up, but I’m still standing here, staring into the eyes of the man who saved me many times from being alone in that house when I was married, but who is now the one responsible for breaking my heart.
“Say something, Elizabeth. You’re going pale.”
I can’t even fathom forming words right now. Thoughts are piling up in the back of my mind, but none are reaching my mouth. I take a tentative step back, and Milo reaches for me, but I put my hand out to stop him. His arm drops back to his side, listening to my unspoken instructions.
He’s lying.
He doesn’t want me here, so he’s lying to get me to leave.
“Talk to me,” he says.
But again, I say nothing.
I pick up my bag and head for the door. As soon as I reach to turn the knob and pull the door open, he says my name again. It makes me stop, and my hands grip either edge of the doorframe for balance.
“You’re lying in order to get me to leave,” I accuse.
Milo grabs my bag and throws it in the car. “We have to go. I have to find him,” he says.
“Find him?” I rasp.
His dark eyes meet mine, and he lays his hand on my arm.
I shove him away.
I don’t want his hands on me.
“Cody. I have to find Cody.”
I shake my head. “Cody? Why?”
For the first time, a profound sadness clouds his eyes. “Because he killed her.”
“No. No, you just let him out. You said so yourself.”
“That was an hour ago. From where we were keeping him to Letti’s is a thirty-minute walk,” he explains.
“She could still be alive,” I breathe, hopeful, but Milo shakes his head.
“Mason had to be dragged out by Morris. Morris is a wreck—Letti was his sister. I have to go. I have to find him.” He opens the car door, and like a robot, I get in. He drives to Letti’s apartment and I sit in the car as he gets out.
“Stay in the car,” he orders me before he closes the door.
What is going on? My head can’t wrap around what is happening right now.
Surely, it’s all fake.
Pushing the car door open, I stand on shaky legs and walk up the stairs to her apartment. I find Mason sitting outside her bedroom door, his head between his knees and his chest rising up and down with each breath. He doesn’t even look my way as I push the door open wider.
I hear Milo’s voice and Morris’s grunted response before I see her.
Blood covers the bed, and her feet are hanging off the side. A loud scream rips through me, causing both men to swing their heads in my direction.
“It’s your fucking fault,” Morris shouts at me with hatred in his tone. I turn at the sound of a loud smack and find Morris sprawled on the floor.
“Get up,” Milo growls at Morris before turning to me and softening his tone as he says, “I told you not to come in here.” He reaches for me and lifts me bridal style, cradling my head against his chest to keep me from seeing.
But it’s too late.
There is so much blood.
Her white sheets were coated with crimson.
And Morris is right—it is entirely my fault.
Milo carries me out as a police officer arrives. He nods to Milo, and they exchange words, but I don’t hear them before I’m moved again. He puts me in the car, buckles me in, and takes me away. Neither of us says anything as we arrive at the clubhouse. When he parks, he hits the steering wheel hard as Axe walks out. Axe opens my door and looks across the car’s roof to Milo as he gets out.
“Keep her here. Don’t fucking let her leave,” Milo orders.
Axe nods and helps me out. My eyes are so blurry that I just let him guide me as if I’m a robot. He takes me to the room where I have spent so much time reading to Milo and shuts the door behind him.
I fall to the floor, curl into a ball, and cry.
This is all my fault.
Chapter 44
Milo
“She is the prize.”
Ihate that bastard.
There is absolutely no other way to describe how I feel about Cody. He is a thieving asshole. The real reason I hate him, though, comes down to a woman with curly black hair and eyes that would haunt the devil.