Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Which led me to now.
I didn’t have the keys. They were put in a night deposit box for the company that was servicing it.
However, I did know how to hotwire damn near anything—a useful skill that I’d had since I was a young child with a wild streak.
Rushing toward the boat, I hotwired the damn thing and was speeding out of the bay, making a wake in a no-wake zone and not giving the slightest fuck.
One thing I knew I would have to do was navigate the pass at night. That was tricky for even me, because I knew that Coran wouldn’t be able to keep her for long. I’d be at his stupid fuckin’ island in about two minutes. Regardless of the danger, the pass offered or not.
The boat sang as I pushed its limits, slowing down only for the necessary areas, before making it through the pass as if it was daylight. The harder I pushed the boat, the more I realized that I really, really needed to look into a boat that could drive just like this one. The adrenaline thrumming in my veins from the way it was slicing through the choppy water was heaven to my soul.
What else was heaven? Finding the goddamn island in the distance, lit up like the crack of dawn. It was a beacon for me, and I headed straight for it, knowing without a doubt that there was nothing in my way.
From the side, I could see another boat making its way toward us from the opposite end, and knew that it was likely Karen making her way from the other marina.
I didn’t slow down at all as I circled the island and came up on the shore with a little more force than I’d intended, beaching the boat about halfway up.
I didn’t bother to tie it down.
Instead, I walked around the backside of the island, opposite the dock that was made for the boats, and wondered what kind of security Oberon had.
My guess, a lot of it.
He could have the whole godforsaken island monitored for all I knew.
What I did know, however, was that security or not, I’d be getting into that house.
I’d also be burning it to the ground when I was done. Parole or not, jail time or not, I wasn’t allowing the home to exist anymore. And I’d finish the fuckin’ job on Oberon, because there was no goddamn way that he didn’t know that his son was a sicko.
Hopping the back fence when I came to it, I was just starting up the sloped yard when I heard the other boat do the same thing I’d just done.
I halted, knowing that having backup would be a good thing, and waited for Karen.
When I saw her shadowy form, I hissed out her name.
She reacted as if I’d slapped her.
“Shit,” she hissed, dropping the gun hand back down to her side. “You’re lucky you didn’t get shot. I thought for sure that you were already inside.”
“Just got here,” I admitted.
“Did you steal a Coast Guard boat?” she asked in awe.
I didn’t bother to answer her.
Heading up the grass toward the house, we both stopped on the porch and glanced inside from either side of the large, plate glass window.
What I saw nearly made my heart leap straight the hell out of my chest.
“Who is that?” Karen asked. “There aren’t any women that are supposed to be living with Oberon.”
I swallowed hard as my voice rasped out of a choked throat. “That’s my mom.”
• • •
ALICE
I’d never really thought myself empathic in any way. Honestly, I thought that kind of stuff, astrology and empaths and all that rigamarole, was just an easily explainable coincidence.
However, I knew the moment that Cassius was on the island.
I wasn’t sure how I knew, or why, because there wasn’t anything outwardly that had alerted me to his presence. I just had the complete and total knowledge that he was there and would save us shortly.
“Let’s talk about how you have someone here that was supposed to have died years ago,” I said, feeling my stomach jump and roll as the nervousness tore it up.
“Let’s talk about why you would talk when I told you to SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Oberon roared.
Coran rounded on his father. “You don’t talk to her like that!”
Whoa.
Was that how I should play it? Play them against each other?
Should I get their mind off of me and force them to question each other?
I wasn’t really sure how this was going to work out.
I knew for a fact that Oberon had a gun. I could see the handle of his pistol hanging out the front of his T-shirt. I could also see his anger at the situation and his mental instability.
He did not like having me here. More so, every time it was mentioned—it being Cassius’s mother—he twitched.