Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
“No, I didn’t.”
“Cool! Did you take pictures? What did she look like?”
“Mengele.”
“What, Daddy, we didn’t get to see what it would look like on a real human, and since we don’t test on animals, we can only guess what it would do.”
“I didn’t take any pictures, but I can tell you that she looked like her face was burnt by some kind of acid. It was red, there were boils, and the skin appeared to be peeling around the eyes and lips. Her nose looked like it got the worst of it, maybe because she smelled the flowers.”
“It’s plastic anyway. She can get a new one.”
That is one vicious little girl.
“She’s ten? You’re ten?”
“Talking to me is a privilege; you do not have that privilege, Ryder Sumner.” She laughed, and I could hear what sounded like other little girls laughing in the background.
“Wait a minute? I’ve heard that before.”
“Oops.”
“Mengele!” Static came through the speaker, and she was gone, or so it appeared.
“Does she have me bugged? How? Elena said that to me last night.”
“Fuck!”
“What is it, Zak?” Mancini asked at his outburst.
“The scanning device we put in his watch. How the hell did they get in there?” That started off another round of questions that were flying too fast for me to keep up, which was fine because I was still trying to figure out how a group of ten-year-olds was doing all of this.
“Is she some sort of child prodigy or something? How is she doing all this?”
“Or something, leave it at or something. She’s not going to make it to eleven if she doesn’t quit her mess.” Lyon growled at the computer.
“Mengele, did you listen in on their adult conversation?” Lyon asked as if he knew she was still there listening in.
“Not all of it, Daddy, just enough to know if he needed flowers as well.”
“And?”
“He’ll live…for now.” I think I was more afraid of that answer than of what any of the men in the room could do to me.
Chapter 52
*Janie*
“Where’s Ryder? I want Ryder.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re not allowed any visitors at this time.”
“Well, has he called? Has anyone?”
“I’ll have to go check in a minute.” I don’t even remember how I got here or what happened after I collapsed on the floor.
My hands were tied to the hospital bed and bandaged, probably to keep me from tearing at the flesh on my face, which was only now starting to settle down from that awful itching and burning that was driving me insane.
I’d already answered all the questions the doctors had asked, like where I’d been in the last few days or if I’d tried anything new and such, all to which I’d answered no, and their seeming ignorance as to what was happening to me was only adding to my fear. I tried to tell them about the flowers, I even tried to get them to read the message on my phone, but it was gone. Now they probably think that I had indeed lost my mind.
I’d heard them whispering about closing off our home as if it were contaminated or something, and now there was no sign of Ryder anywhere, and I couldn’t get ahold of my parents. Even Mary and Scott seem to have gone MIA in the last couple of hours.
I had a very bad feeling in my gut, but that’s nothing new. Anytime I was away from him for too long, the fear takes over, and I was reminded once again of my mother’s warning about always sticking close to him so that the love spell couldn’t be broken. I wished she’d told me when we first started that it was possible for it to wear off with time.
I stupidly thought that it would last forever, that once we were bound together, it would be everlasting. But obviously, something had gone wrong, and it started when he first disappeared from his last tour. I knew then when all the rumors started that he was the man in the crowd of Elena’s fans, that things were starting to go south, and those social media posts hadn’t helped. The only thing I had to hold onto was the fact that he’d come back to me, and he hadn’t been anywhere near her since his return to L.A.
I’m not too worried, though, because it had worked once without him even having to be there, and I’m sure it will work again. But how am I going to face him looking like this? When I get my hands on that little bitch, and yes, the voice I’d heard on the phone was that of a little girl, I’m going to do more harm to her than she could imagine.
I have no idea who or where she is, but I’m sure Mom and the aunts could cook up something that would work, but first, I need to get out of here. They said I had to stay here for a while, but I’ll figure something out, I always do, and there’s no way I could stay away from Ryder that long.