Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Nav quickly threw me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing, and I couldn’t fight it. I started whipping my body around.
“How can you do this to me?!” I broke down, crying uncontrollably. “How can you fucking do this to me?!”
I didn’t give him a moment’s peace. I screamed and fought the whole way he carried me through the private hangar on our childhood home’s property. After our father murdered our mother, he moved us out of this estate, and I’d never been back.
This place haunted my dreams, and I thrashed around, desperately trying to get free. It was absolutely no use.
“Please!” I begged with everything left inside me. “Don’t do this to me… please!”
“Sloan, calm the fuck down!” Nav roared, holding me tighter against his already strong-ass hold.
He was built like a brick wall, and it didn’t matter how hard I battled him, I wasn’t going to win.
“Nav… he’s going to punish me!”
I was terrified he was going to lock me in his office and make me stay in there alone. I wouldn’t survive it. I closed my eyes as he opened the front door and walked over the threshold. I wanted to pretend this wasn’t happening, even if it was just for a second.
Nav slammed my feet down on the floor, making me dizzy.
“Walk,” he demanded in a detached tone I’d never heard out of his mouth.
Luke walked in next with X behind him, aiming a gun at his back. Having him there for me somehow gave me the strength I needed to face my death. My father wouldn’t kill me. He’d do much worse, and my brothers were willingly handing me over to the devil.
Shaking away the fear, I focused on not passing the hell out. With one unsteady foot after the other, I walked through the foyer of the house that owned my soul.
The furniture was covered in plastic sheets. There were spiderwebs in almost every corner as we stepped through the entrance and up the stairs that led to his office. Dust covered every piece of furniture from the table to the wall art to the decorations spread throughout the vast space.
At one point, we lived here.
Never happy family, but a damned one.
I hated that I was giving up this easily. It wasn’t in my nature, but I was also ready to get this over with. With each step, my heart accelerated a little faster, beating a little harsher.
More demanding.
Anxious for what was still left to come.
I took in my surroundings as I made my way up the tattered staircase, noticing the pictures on the walls were all coated in dust and cobwebs. I couldn’t see us peeking through the haze of the frames.
The humiliation and dread for the future were neither here nor there. It didn’t matter anymore.
When we reached the top of the stairs, I felt Nav’s gun dig further into my back. “Don’t make me carry you in there, Sloan.”
I tripped over my footing, and I stopped again once we were in front of his office door.
“It’s showtime,” X exclaimed. “Open the door.”
I reached for the knob, slowly turning it, having no time to prepare for the unexpected. I hesitantly opened the door, and with a wide stare, my eyes tore from one nightmare to the next. I shifted my frazzled glance from the spot where my mother was murdered that still had her dried, old blood on the floor to the path where my father stood.
Unable to hold in my emotions, I was suffocating for my next breath.
My chest tightened.
All the blood drained from my face.
I was suddenly freezing cold.
Bitter fucking cold.
And as white as a ghost when my mom’s ghost was beside me, fueling me with the courage to overcome my punishments. There sure as hell wouldn’t just be one. My feet were glued to the dirty floor beneath me.
More flashes lit up with strobes of light, and the echoing booms sounded off the concrete walls. A wave of guilt and shame cascaded down my body before pushing the door open to his office.
My father wasn’t in his usual place from when I was a child. He wasn’t sitting in his leather chair, busying himself with seedy deals. He stood by the huge bay window, looking out at the rain pouring down on this damn property.
He stood with his back to me, his hands in the pockets of his slacks.
Just waiting for us.
LUKE
Her tears fell onto the floor, and I clenched my fists. Through the emotional chaos exploding around us, I found Sloan’s petrified stare.
Her bruised cheek
Her disheveled hair.
Fear radiated through every inch of her skin onto my flesh, becoming one with my dark soul. At that moment, I didn’t need a gun, a knife, or any weapon to kill me. Seeing her expression was enough to fucking end me right then and there.