Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 123212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
I wonder if Laurelle would notice if I grabbed a bottle from the main cellar and left this alone. She can get her revenge on her ex herself. I don’t want anything to do with it. Besides, I don’t need to give her more ammunition to use in her grand plan of getting me away from Colton. She can get her own hands dirty. I’m not going to be her little errand girl.
I start heading back toward the stairs when a soft rattle grabs my attention and I spin around, nearly knocking over a prized bottle in the process.
What the hell was that?
I search through the room before giving up and shrugging it off. It’s got to be my mind playing tricks on me.
I start for the stairs again when I hear the same noise, only this time it wasn’t so soft and I’m damn sure that shit wasn’t my imagination. Shivers run down my spine and I find myself creeping through the wine cellar.
Please be a rat, please be a rat.
“Hello?” I call. “Is someone down here?”
I get no response and find myself curling my fingers around the closest bottle of wine, gripping it tightly and preparing to use it if I have to.
My mind instantly takes me to the DeCarlo family. It’s only been a little under two weeks since they stormed through here. What are the chances that one of them has been hiding out down here, waiting for the right moment to strike? Colton declared that he will get them back so I don’t doubt that they’re on edge. He's that powerful that he could destroy their whole legacy with just the click of his fingers.
I instantly shrug that thought off. I doubt someone is going to wait down here that long. It has to be something else.
I turn a corner and come to a standstill as I find a big metal door that looks like the kind of door that banks would use to guard their safe. This door means fucking business. This door means secrets.
What has Charles been hiding down here?
I should be walking away. I should take the stupid bottle of wine and run yet something has me walking toward it. I need to know what's on the other side, I need to know what Charles has been hiding.
My hand curls around the big metal lock and I give it a hard pull while hearing the rattle louder on the other side. The lock slips out of place with a loud bang and my heart races.
I let out a shaky breath and grab the handle while readying myself to run. The door is heavy and I give it a hard yank, trying to prepare myself for what’s on the other side.
The room is in darkness but as the door slowly swings open, the light from the wine cellar seeps in and lights it up.
A loud gasp travels up my throat and my hand tightens around the wine bottle as a grinning, malnourished, and beat Jude Carter stares back at me.
“Well, well,” Jude says, yanking on the thick chains that keep him locked in the room. His eyes travel up and down my body as he licks his lips. “I guess Colton finally decided to deliver me a little gift after all. Why don’t you come over here and let me finish you off?”
His voice sends chills sweeping over my body, reminding me of the way he touched me, the way he violated and raped me, and I can’t allow that to go unpunished.
I have to do something.
A darkness seeps into my soul, a darkness I wasn't aware that I possessed and for a brief moment, I feel for Nic as I finally begin to understand him, understand the bloodlust, and the need to take justice into my own hands.
It’s been three weeks since he raped me and three weeks of people desperately searching for him. If I was to let him go, I risk him coming back and I risk him telling people where he’s been. I can’t allow that to happen. I can always go to the authorities but just like the poor girl that came before me, she was called a liar and he got away with it without even a slap on the wrist. I’d rather die than let that happen.
There’s only one thing for me to do—I have to kill him. I have to end this.
I raise my chin and step into the secret room, realizing that this isn’t Charles’ dirty little secret at all, it’s Colton’s. He’s kept him chained down here for three weeks, lying every time someone asked him if he knew what had happened, lying when he told me that he had no idea where he was, lying, lying, lying. Just like Nic. Just like Sebastian, Kairo, and Elijah.