Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 32646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 163(@200wpm)___ 131(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 163(@200wpm)___ 131(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
A shadow fell over Shaw’s face, and my gut churned. “Trent is in ICU on life support,” he said quietly. Tears filled my eyes. Trent, while I hadn’t known him for very long, was a good guy and an even better friend. He didn’t deserve to get tangled up in this giant web I was now in, yet he had been. All because of his affiliation with me.
“Oh,” I croaked, reaching up to swipe a tear away.
“What’d you do to her?” Cameron growled, dropping my plate of food on the table with a clatter that made me flinch. He slipped his fingers into my dark hair, scraping his nails along my scalp in a way that settled me.
“She asked about Trent,” Shaw calmly informed him.
Cameron looked down at me, a frown pulling at his lips, but he didn’t say a word. Once Shaw was done inspecting me and he’d assured Cameron my burns were healing well, I turned to the table and began to eat. Cameron just nursed a cup of coffee, his eyes tracking every move I made. While before, it might have annoyed me, especially to have him—or anyone, for that matter—just stare at me while I ate, it was comforting now. I knew Cameron would keep his word; he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
Konrad came over after sending Blue and Grey to the kitchen to help Blakely clean up. Cameron eyed him, his upper lip curling the slightest bit, but Konrad just simply nodded once at him as he pulled out the chair across from me and settled into it.
“If you’re coming over here to say something that’ll upset her, we’re gonna have fucking problems,” Cameron warned him.
Konrad ignored him, his dark eyes locking on mine. “Can I see your wrist?” he asked.
Without a word, I held my left wrist out, chewing slowly on my last bite of scrambled eggs. He gently cradled it, eyeing the burn wound, his jaw clenching so tightly, I could see the muscle in his jaw ticking. Finally, he released me, and I pulled my arm back into my lap.
“I rescued Blu and Grey from a man involved in all this bullshit,” Konrad told me. I blinked in surprise. “They have the same mark you do, though Grey’s has stretched over time since he was kidnapped as a boy, and Blu’s has faded into a pink mark since she was kidnapped a few years ago.” My heart throbbed in my chest for them. Both Grey and Blu seemed so young… just how young had they been when they’d been kidnapped and raped and tortured?
“We’re trying to dismantle this ring,” Konrad said. My heart skipped a beat in my chest. “If you’re feeling up to it, Shaw and I would like you to come sit in the chapel and tell all of us everything you remember. Any big players. Guards. Doctors. We don’t care—we want anyone who participated that you can remember.”
I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “I can do that,” I said softly. “I want them to pay. Not just for me. But for Trent.” My lips trembled, and I clenched my fingers around the fork I was still holding. “And for the girl who they killed simply because she couldn’t be used due to her endometriosis.”
Cameron gripped my thigh, his fingertips biting into my skin through the sweatpants I was wearing. I didn’t let a single tear fall, though my heart was aching something fierce. Konrad nodded once. “Whenever you’re ready, we are, too,” he told me, standing up from his seat.
I stood from my chair, no longer hungry. Cameron pressed his hand to my lower back. “I’m ready now,” I told Konrad’s back. He turned to look at me, a bit surprised at my words. I tilted my chin up, steeling myself to retell the horror I’d gone through.
Something akin to respect gleamed in Konrad’s eyes, and he nodded once.
By the time I was done talking, Cameron was silent. Eerily fucking calm. His eyes were flat and cold, like he’d shut off everything in his body to keep himself from raging and losing his shit.
“You were set up,” Cameron said as Ace passed him a blunt. He quickly lit it, inhaling a lungful of smoke. He let it settle before slowly releasing it, turning those vacant eyes on me. “Benjamin Carlisle, Carmen Rigby, Jeffrey Richards—yeah, we figured out long ago they were on someone higher-up’s payroll. I’m guessing that’d be Johnny Dorman.”
What?
Shaw nodded in agreement. Anger burned through me so fast, it turned my vision red for a moment. “My fucking boss?” I seethed.
Cameron nodded. “Yeah, little devil. Your goddamn boss. He was probably given orders, and like the little bitch he is, he followed them, turning his back on you and Trent.”
“I could have died,” I croaked. “Trent may die.”