Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 40128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
I wave him off and then turn around and go inside with my cup of coffee. Goodness, we already feel like a married couple, and we’re not even close yet. My mother and I have lots of planning to do over the next two weeks before the big day, and with every second that passes, I get more and more giddy.
My phone rings, and I swipe it from my back pocket. “Hey, Mom.”
“We have another fitting tomorrow. Are you available to meet Crystal and me for lunch afterward?”
“Yes. I’d love it. I don’t have any classes tomorrow, so that should be perfect.”
“Yay! I’m so excited, sweetie.” My mother’s gushing only adds to my excitement. I jump about the kitchen, nearly sending my coffee splashing all over the counter.
I set it down and then add, “I can’t wait either, Mom.”
“Good. I can’t wait. We’ll drive together, then.”
“Works for me. I’ve got to get to class, but I’ll talk to you later.” I hurry to class and get through two hours of lectures. It’s time for one more class, but I decide to make a detour and head to the coffee shop. On the way, I give my bestie a call. “Hey, girl, how’s it going? It’s been a while.”
“That’s because you’ve been too busy with that player to talk to me anymore.”
“Will’s not a player. Why would you say that?”
“Come on. You moped about him for almost a full year, and you believe his lies so easily. I just don’t see why you fell for it.”
“Don’t be like that. Will has been amazing and completely faithful.”
“Just because he said so? That’s so damn naïve,” she says. Now I know why we stopped talking. She started ghosting me after being rude about my relationship with Will. She’s really under the impression that Will cheated on me.
“Well, I’m off to the coffee shop on campus. Call me whenever. I miss you.”
“Yeah.”
I end the call, feeling a bit saddened, and want Will to tell me everything is going to be fine. One more class, and then I can head home and get ready for dinner, I mentally tell myself.
I’m halfway to get my coffee when I feel someone behind me, which isn’t unusual given the campus is busy, but then a hand comes over my mouth and then I feel a prick in my neck. Slowly, I turn my head and recognize the eyes staring back at me. Shit. I brush my fingers over my father’s bracelet, knowing it’s his personal tracker on me, hoping it’s still doing its job.
I cry out and try to fight, but my attacker isn’t alone and before I can get my words out, the world darkens.
Chapter Fifteen
Will
Melanie was supposed to be home around two-thirty or three, given the traffic. I called her around that time because she never called me. My tracker shows her in Dallas, but nowhere near her car’s tracker. My heart pounds out of control.
I call her security detail, Dusty. “Where’s Melanie?”
He sighs and then says, “I lost her.”
“What do you mean, you lost tabs on my Raven?” I bark into my phone. After everything that happened, I’ve been trying to remain calm. The hacker wasn’t Damon because he wasn’t sophisticated enough, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have help.
Miles had gotten a lead on the hacker, but then his issue was finding out who poisoned his father. The hacker intentionally bombed the clubhouse to delay the hacking notice.
“We can’t find her,” Dusty says.
“Don’t fucking say that again. Give me an answer I want to hear, or you’ll find out I’m crazier than my father.”
“I was doing as you said, but I ran into her best friend, and we were talking when she spoke to Melanie, so I lost track of her for a bit. I assumed she had gone home when her car wasn’t in the spot it had been in. I drove home, and it was gone.”
“What friend?”
“The Beth friend. I ran into her at the campus, and she was just ending the call with Melanie.” Beth goes to school there as well, but I didn’t know they were still talking to each other. Melanie told me that Beth had been blowing her off lately.
I have my future father-in-law on the line before I waste another moment.
“What’s going on?” he asks, breathing heavily.
“She’s missing.”
“What the fuck do you mean, she’s missing?”
“Melanie’s been taken. She’s not answering her phone, and the tracker on her necklace isn’t anywhere near her car.”
“Fuck. She could be shopping,” Beast says, trying to calm me down. I’m flying down the road as fast as possible to get what I need for war.
He’s not going to like the next part. “It’s thirty miles away, but still in Dallas. I need an arsenal and a plan. I’m going to find my woman and whoever took her.”