Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
She ended the call and handed the phone back to me. “The front gate is taken care of. They’ll get right in.” I didn’t take the phone. I knew what she’d done. There was no way Brinna took that letter opener and stabbed herself. That was the story, but I knew better. I knew my daughter and I knew how she looked when she lied.
She bit down on her bottom lip and put the phone in my pocket herself.
I didn’t know if Sam had fallen asleep. She told me she was going to crawl in bed. I’d meant to check on her, but the talk with the boys took precedent. After that, I’d wanted to figure out what to do with Sabrina. Considering what just happened, I was praying with everything in me that Samantha had fallen asleep and would remain asleep.
I did not want her to walk in and see what I saw.
I said under my breath, “Show me your hands.”
She blinked, the corners of her mouth curved down, but held them up. They were clean. Which meant she had taken the time to wipe them clean somewhere.
There was movement happening around us.
Logan was taking instructions on how to stop the bleeding now, not later. Steele was doing what he could to help without letting go of his sister. Beltraine was on the phone with the emergency responder. Axel had gone to open our initial gate leading to our house and wave down the ambulance.
And for myself, my daughter took priority.
I tugged her aside, speaking low, “Paramedics are going to come in here. They’re going to survey the scene before they get her on the stretcher. They’ll haul ass out of here with her, but the police will be called. What you’re going to do is stay behind. Whatever you used to clean your hands, you’ll find it and you’ll burn it. You hear me?”
Another scream hurled through the air.
Logan was straddling her, pushing down a towel over her stomach. She came awake, violently, but he held my gaze. His eyes were dead serious.
He knew what happened. He might not know the specifics, but he knew me. He knew Maddy. He knew there’d only be one reason why I wasn’t over there helping.
A flicker passed from me to him before he nodded, just slightly, and turned his attention back to the screaming girl. Maddy gave the initial story already. When the paramedics would ask what happened, they’d recite it. They wouldn’t think to question it. My daughter was smart, too smart. It was eerie how smooth all of this had been for her, which meant we had a huge problem on our hands.
“What?” Sam stumbled in the doorway, a hand pressed to her stomach. “Oh my God. Maddy!”
She ran for us, ripping Maddy from my arms and into her arms. She rocked her, hugging her before continuing to take in the rest of the scene.
I held my breath, waiting to see Sam’s reaction. There’d been another scene like this that she found by herself, when she was younger. I knew that’d been traumatizing to her and worried she’d be retraumatized.
Her forehead wrinkled and her eyebrows pulled down. She locked onto me. A darker question passing from her to me, asking me what the hell happened. I couldn’t answer, but I let my gaze drop down to my daughter.
Sam slowed until she was standing still, holding our daughter. Her gaze fell, still going at the slow pace, to Maddy. She gazed at her daughter before continuing, her head moving so she could see the scene again.
The paramedics rushed into the room.
Logan was still in place over her, stopping the bleeding. “I wanted to cauterize it, but my wife said that could make it worse. An infection or something?”
“Okay. We’ll load her up. You’ll need to stay on her.”
“No.”
“Yes—”
Logan moved, and one of the paramedics cursed, taking his place.
Steele yelled, but the other paramedic began giving him orders. Steele followed them and soon they took her out of the house.
Steele went with them. So did Beltraine.
I followed until the ambulance was gone. Beltraine and Axel got in their car and trailed after them. Once the gate was closed again, Logan turned to me. All pretenses were gone. He demanded in a no-nonsense voice, “What the fuck happened?”
I grunted, moving past him. “What the fuck do you think?”
I motioned to him. “Check the security footage. We don’t have cameras in the house, but double check nothing is on the ones we do have.”
“And if I find something?”
“Wipe it.” I glared at him. “What do you think?”
“Just making sure we’re aware of what we’re about to do.” His face was grim. “We still have the shareholder meeting.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Everything had to happen on the same night.
I took a second. I needed to regroup. I needed to think of every fucking detail to make sure nothing slipped through when Sam spoke up from in the hallway, “Go.”