Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Rounding Aria’s desk, I yanked open the drawers until I found her car keys. Grabbing them, I hurried out of her office, glancing left and right, relieved to see she was nowhere in sight. Never had walking through the castle been so nerve-racking as I tried to keep my steps slow and calm. I passed Wakefield, who gave me a nod of hello, but otherwise didn’t stop me, and then I was out through the staff exit.
Aria’s BMW gleamed under the fall sun. As soon as I got in, I drew up the navigation map and figured out where Nathan was from his directions.
Storm’s Bluff. I’d never heard of it, but it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere.
The urge to drive like a maniac was real, but I drove steadily, my hands trembling around the wheel as I kept glancing in the rearview mirror, expecting someone to come racing out of the castle, demanding where I was going.
No one came.
As I approached the guarded exit out of the estate, I thought I might throw up, my heart raced so hard. Sweat dampened my armpits and along my hairline as the SUV pulled up toward the exit.
The gates swung open before the guards could even see my face.
They thought I was Aria.
As soon as the opening was wide enough, I floored it.
I sped onto the main road, too fast, afraid to look in the rearview. Instead, I drove toward Ardnoch. When I was supposed to slow inside the village, I didn’t.
My cell rang again, and I glanced at where I’d put it on the passenger seat and saw it was Walker. The entire drive, my phone didn’t stop. Walker, Regan, Aria, Brodan, Walker, Walker, Walker. Call after call.
They knew.
I reached over with one hand and put my phone on silent. They were all probably frantic, and I hated to put them through that, but I knew Nathan. He’d keep his word. We would never be free of him if I didn’t do what he said. My daughter would never be free of him.
And yet he’d underestimated me. He thought that I’d go to him and let him do what he wanted.
He didn’t know that a mother would kill to protect their daughter.
That I would kill to protect Callie.
My fury drove me to him. It kept me calm, focused, despite the trembling in my limbs.
When the GPS brought me to coastal land, I realized it was some kind of parking lot. There were two trailer homes on it. Beside one of them was an old blue car. But nothing else. No one. No witnesses.
As I stopped the BMW, the door to the trailer nearest me opened.
Nathan came out of it, dragging Callie down the steps.
Grabbing my phone, I stuffed it in my pocket and then jumped out of the SUV, almost falling in my hurry to get to Callie.
Nathan whipped out a gun and pointed it at me. “Ah, ah. Stay there.”
Raising my palms outward, I halted.
Callie stared at me, pale and tear-streaked.
“It’s going to be okay, baby girl,” I promised.
“Were you followed?” Nathan asked.
I finally looked at him.
He was thinner, his cheekbones sharper. His features harder. Maybe it was because I hated him now, but I couldn’t see any remnant of the beautiful boy I’d made Callie with. His insides were finally becoming his outsides. “I don’t think so.” I didn’t tell him about the cell in my pocket, the one I’d had to silence because it was filled with calls from people who knew we were in danger.
“Time we had a little chat, then.” He gripped Callie harder, and my daughter winced.
I’d hurt him for that.
It took everything within me to keep my expression impassive. “We talk if you let Callie go.”
“You think I want to hurt my kid?” Nathan sneered at me. “You drove me to this, Sloane. Anything that Callie’s feeling right now is your fucking fault! You turned her against me!”
Our daughter whimpered in his grasp, eyes pleading with me.
“Nathan,” I said calmly, taking a tentative step toward him. “You’re right. And that’s not Callie’s fault. It is my fault,” I lied.
That seemed to ease him a little.
“So let Callie go, and you and I will talk.”
“Mom!”
I shook my head at her, begging her silently to be quiet.
Her lips pressed together as tears fell down her cheeks.
I’d hurt him for every one of those too.
“Callie can stay here, and we’ll go for a drive. Like I said, I ain’t got no beef with my kid just because her mom’s a cunt. But I will have a problem with her if you don’t do everything I say.”
“I can’t leave her here alone,” I told him gently. “She’s only ten, Nathan.”
“Then leave your cell with her, and she can call someone after we leave.” He gave her a shake. “But you don’t call them until five minutes after we’re gone. You hear?”