Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
She couldn’t stand it if anyone got hurt because of her. Then the guy wearing the mask raised his gun, pointing it straight at Dahlia.
“No!” she screamed. “No, I’ll go with you. Just leave my friends alone.”
“Maeve, no!” Dahlia yelled. “The guards are coming.”
She got to her feet, stumbling as her head swam.
“It’s all right. Just . . . just tell Gray I love him.”
Dahlia sobbed. “Tell him yourself when he comes to find you.”
She just hoped like hell she got that chance.
43
Markovich answered his phone with a frown. They were at Suck ‘n Blow taking in the damage. “What is it? What? What the fuck do you mean someone blew a fucking hole in our fence? Is Dahlia all right? Maeve?”
Gray just knew.
He knew that she was gone. He didn’t need to see Markovich’s horrified face. To hear the words that came from his mouth.
His girl was gone.
There was a ringing in his ears.
He couldn’t hear anything.
He was going to pass out.
“Gray! Fuck! Snap out of it, man!” Markovich shook him. “Don’t make me fucking punch you.”
“Let go of me.”
Markovich dropped his hands.
“Tell me.”
“The girls were outside with Robert and Ilya. A drone dropped a small bomb. It created a hole in the wall for that bastard to drive through. He must have hacked into the cameras because no one saw anything until it was too late. He took Maeve, Gray.”
“We’ll get her back.”
“Of course we will.”
Gray took out his phone. After his initial freak-out, he felt surprisingly calm. “No, we really will get her. Because I have a way to track her.” He turned his screen around to show Markovich. “There. That’s her.”
“Thank fuck for your paranoid, controlling ways,” Markovich replied.
Gray would come for her.
She had to keep the faith. It was hard. Especially when she’d panicked in the beginning, thinking she’d never see him again. Never see her friends.
Never give Immy another hug. Never dance all night with Cat. Or have Sampson grumble at her. Jump in puddles with Dahlia.
She’d never kiss Gray again.
Hold him.
Tell him she loved him.
But then this asshole had cuffed her to the underside of the passenger seat. And she’d stared at her wrist, eyeing her bracelet.
That was when she’d realized that Gray would always come for her.
She wasn’t alone.
She had so many people who loved her. She’d never be alone again.
The asshole who’d kidnapped her didn’t drive for long before pulling off the road. Then things had gotten rather bumpy. Which hadn’t been pleasant for her poor, bruised body as she’d crouched in the footwell of the passenger seat.
God, she hoped that Ilya and Triple-T were okay.
And Dahlia, she’d looked so scared.
Please let them all be okay.
She wasn’t sure she could live with herself if they weren’t.
It’s not your fault.
It’s this asshole’s fault.
He parked the vehicle then got out, humming a tune to himself. Was this fun for him?
He came around and opened the passenger door. Reaching down, he unlocked her handcuff where it was attached to the seat. Then he quickly grabbed her free hand, securing her hands in front of her.
He tugged her from the seat.
Fuck. He was strong.
He started humming that song again. And she realized why it sounded familiar.
It was one of Jenner’s earlier hits.
Could be a coincidence. Although it made her stomach roll over with nerves.
He dragged her toward a dilapidated hut. Oh God, was this where he planned to kill her?
All of her bravado left her in a rush.
The asshole kept humming that song.
“How did you find me?” she asked as he sat her on a chair in the middle of the cabin. She glanced down and saw that the chair was bolted to the floor.
Before she could use some of her mad ninja skills, he had her feet secured with rope to the bottom rungs of the chair. And her body was tied to the back of the chair with more rope.
This was something he’d planned.
“Well? Aren’t you going to talk?” she asked.
He moved in front of her, staring down at her from behind that ridiculous mask.
“Who are you? Where am I? What do you want?”
Would she ever see Gray again? Tell him she loved him? A sob escaped her.
“Please, let me go. What did I ever do to you?”
“You’re going to be mine.”
She jumped as he replied. That was unexpected.
“Do I know you? What do you mean, I’m going to be yours?”
“You’re destined to be mine. He said so.”
“Who . . . who said so?”
The asshole turned around, then drew up his top, revealing his bare back. For a moment, she worried that he was stripping so he could rape her.
Then she saw a tattoo in the middle of his back.
In the cult, when someone was chosen by the Deity to become a Sentinel, they were given a tattoo. A series of Celtic knots that went in a circle with an eye in the middle.