Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
But it was dread that slithered through me when I felt the alarm on the other side of the door. I thought River must have sensed it too because a frown cut across his brow and he knocked on the door with the back of his fist.
One second later, Miss Liberty ripped it open, horror drenching her face.
“Oh God, River…I can’t find Nolan.”
FIFTY-SEVEN
RIVER
Charleigh was rocking on the couch wrapped in a blanket. Unable to sit still as she swam through the anguish. Finding out that Nolan was her biological son and losing him in the same goddamn breath.
While I stormed back and forth across the living room, trying to tamp the rage. To save it up for the fucker who I was going to carve into a million little pieces and take pleasure while doing it.
“We’re going to find him.” Raven whispered it where she sat next to Charleigh, rubbing her leg like she might be able to give her comfort.
Knew there wouldn’t be an ounce of comfort until we brought Nolan home.
We’d warred about going to the local Sheriff. We’d been feeling him out, trying to decide if he could be trusted to be brought in, but we hadn’t been able to discern that yet.
So there we’d been, weighing risks, and my crew had decided we had to continue to go this alone.
But this was my fuckin’ son we were talking about.
Charleigh’s son.
“We are going to find him,” Otto grunted. His attention flashed to me. It was one of those moments when I knew the old wrath that had lived in Otto had been revived. When I knew he’d gladly go up against this monster and rip him to shreds. Make sure he suffered the gravest pain.
Fucker was going to have so much of it, he’d be begging us to cut short his last breath.
We’d searched the entire fucking town and came up empty, so my crew had gathered here at the house. Trent and Jud had come, too. Their kids were out playing in the back with Eden and Salem watching over them.
It was fucking gutting that Nolan wasn’t out there with them.
An atrocity that wasn’t going to go without penalty.
My hands fisted as I turned and started back the other direction, boots causing an earthquake on the floor. I dipped my head and ran my hand over the back of my neck in an attempt to squash the brutality that pounded through my veins.
Bloodlust on my tongue.
So excruciating that death was the only thing I could taste.
I wanted to hunt. Track him down. But just taking off in some random direction wasn’t going to do Nolan any good. Not when we already knew the reason for him going missing.
This motherfucker wanted Charleigh.
Drawn, my gaze shifted to the woman who’d come into my world and obliterated my foundation.
Her hair was a mess, and her eyes were nearly swollen shut, but she was still the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. Most glorious kind of beauty I’d ever touched.
I’d fallen so fucking hard for her there would never be any getting up from off the floor.
I’d be on my knees for eternity.
Maybe I should have known the pull between us had to be something bigger than the both of us. Should’ve known the energy that compelled had drawn her to this place because she should have been here all along.
Kane, Jud, and Theo were talking in hushed tones in the kitchen, no doubt trying to come up with a contingency plan, while Trent and Cash remained quiet on the other side of the room…just fuckin’ waiting.
On a shattered breath, pain ricocheted from Charleigh, and another sob ripped from her throat.
In a flash, I was on my knees in front of her.
Hands on the outside of her thighs, rubbing up and down. Hoping to give her some comfort the way Raven had been trying to do, only I wanted to crawl all the way inside her. Rid her of every ghost. Slay every fucking monster.
Fine.
One monster would do.
“I can’t believe I failed him again. If I would have…” She choked over the words that had kept trying to get loose for hours. Blaming herself for not admitting to me who she was, thinking that might have changed something.
“No, baby, no. You had your reasons for not telling me your identity. You were protecting yourself the only way you knew how to do. You had no idea that Nolan might be involved this way. Not one fuckin’ clue.”
And we still had no idea which of them Frederick had discovered was alive first. If one or the other had drawn him here. The only thing we weren’t questioning was it was him.
If only I’d have been able to sniff that bastard out that day when she’d come to me, but I had a hunch Frederick Winston wasn’t acting alone. It was unlikely I would have recognized who’d been tracking her through town.