Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Her brows rose. “That was lucky. But what are you going to do once you get in their house?”
“We’re going to search it,” I answered with a shrug. “We’ve been ‘hired’ to pack all their shit. It’s our hope that they get careless and let us pack something that we can use against them. If it doesn’t work, then we’re going to do it the good old-fashioned way.”
“And how is that?” Mina whispered, trying not to bring Audrey into this conversation.
I looked over at where Audrey was sitting on the couch next to Sienna, who was quietly playing on her iPad, and lowered my voice.
“We’ll take them out, and make it look like their own turned against them.”
Mina’s jaw tightened. “Do you really think that’s going to work?”
I shrugged. “It’ll have to.”
Chapter 25
Living with her was like being in jail. I never knew if I was going to get shanked in the shower or fucked.
-Ghost’s secret thoughts
Ghost
“You know why I named you Tunnel, don’t you?” my father hissed as he pressed me harder into the ground.
“N-n-n-no,” I stuttered.
“Because I raped your mother in a tunnel that was partially underground. Forced her face into the mud and rode her hard while she…”
I woke up with a gasp.
Just a dream.
Fuck!
“Then, low and behold, nine months later you come along. I took you from your mama because she wouldn’t have been able to take care of you,” he informed me.
I shook myself off and attempted to roll over to get out of bed, my head a fuckin’ mess just like it always was. This was new, though. I hadn’t had a dream like that before. Though, it would explain a whole fuckin’ lot.
When I couldn’t roll all the way over, I lifted my hands to my face, and jolted when the ropes around my wrists forced me to stop.
Ropes? What the hell?
I sat up, and immediately wished I hadn’t.
Nausea rolled in my belly, and I barely contained the urge to vomit all over the plain concrete floor that I could now see.
I really did throw up when I saw what was waiting for me in the corner of the room.
My sister was there, naked, tied with ropes, also and staring at the wall as if something inside of her was broken. The pain in my chest became more acute when I saw that her legs were stained with blood.
The moment I vomited, she turned her head and stared at me blankly.
“Audrey,” I growled. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“Better than you,” she answered.
Her voice didn’t sound right.
It sounded as if she’d spent the last few hours in a perpetual state of screaming, and her voice was now hoarse due to the damage she’d inflicted by her constant screams.
I didn’t bother to look to categorize my injuries. I could feel every single one.
Left leg. Right foot. Right knee. Left kidney. Right ribs. Left hand. Right side of my face.
There was a very good chance that I had quite a few broken bones, too.
“Are you…did they…are you…”
She smiled sadly.
“No. Not yet, anyway,” she answered quickly. “But…they made me watch while they…they tortured you.”
I nodded mutely.
“Who are they?”
She looked down at her feet. “My mom. Our dad.”
My brows furrowed, then the words from the dream came back to me.
“Because I raped your mother in a tunnel that was partially underground. Forced her face into the mud and rode her hard while she…”
“Audrey, start from the beginning. I’m drawing a complete blank.”
She smiled sadly. “Okay.”
The more she talked, the more I remembered…and wished I hadn’t.
***
Twelve hours earlier
“We have about two hours until we’re leaving, baby,” I told Mina.
She looked over at me.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked warily.
I shrugged.
“Honestly?” I asked. “No. It’s probably a terrible decision. Likely, the moving thing won’t turn up anything significant, and we’re going to have to do it the hard way.”
She frowned. “Then why go through the pretense?” she questioned. “Seems to me, if you think you’re going to have to do it the hard way, then you might as well just start with it. Plan for it. And prepare yourself.”
I pulled her into my arms.
It was two hours before it was time for me to get on the road, and I’d been instructed to wake her so I could say goodbye.
Now, here we were, arguing about the same thing that we’d been arguing about for the last two days.
“Baby,” I said, dropping a kiss to her lips.
Then another, and another, until my total was the sum of seven.
“What?” she frowned, looking at me through the darkness.
The only thing lighting the room was the glow of the night light that was in the hallway.
I could just barely make out the glittering of her eyes signaling Mina’s impending tears.
“Baby,” I repeated. “Nothing will happen to me. I promise. I’ll make it out of this alive.”