Total pages in book: 170
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
“I sw-swear,” I say and swallow thickly, “I didn’t tell anyone anything.”
With that the grinding behind me begins again as I’m lowered quickly down, and I scream.
DECLAN
The chill of dread overwhelms me with each hard step of my oxfords slapping against the floor carrying a sense of finality as I make my way down the corridor to where they’re keeping her. It’s as if I’m suffocating even though my lungs are filled with oxygen.
Swallowing thickly, I read the text again. She hasn’t admitted a thing and he’s unsure of how much more they should push her. He requested they go easy but according to him, it’s proving more difficult to retrieve information without pressure. There’s a dull thud in my chest at the thought and a sickening churn in my gut.
I won’t fucking allow it.
My pace quickens and my numb body moves of its own accord. There isn’t a possibility that the information came from anyone else. I created the false figures in the dummy file myself and my family knows it. It was a test I didn’t think was needed, but Carter insisted, and she failed.
She played me for a fool.
As I look around, I hate every inch of this fucking place.
Over the last year, I’ve spent more time in this wing of our home than my own. Each of us has our own part of the estate, designed for comfort and with anything our hearts desire … and then we have this hall. I spend my time at The Club or here … rarely ever in my own corridor anymore.
With my blunt nails digging into my palm, I resist the disappointment that comes over me. I couldn’t last five minutes alone in that office, not knowing what Braelynn was saying and how she was reacting.
Carter said I shouldn’t watch. He said to stay away until it’s done. In this life, you don’t disobey. I can’t fucking stand it, though. She’s mine, even if she was only using me.
My throat goes dry and my stomach twists into an iron knot. I can’t not watch. I can’t stay away. Even if she did betray me, I’m the one who let her in.
My little pet, and her sins, are my responsibility.
Just outside the soundproofed room, I pause, unsure of myself and unsure of everything. Gripping the handle, a single thought pushes me forward: I don’t want this dragged out. It needs to be over with. One way or the other.
The dark enclosed space is ten by twelve by twelve feet. It’s large enough to house the machinery and equipment necessary for interrogations. The vision of her, behind this door, sickens me. My wish was that she would own up to her deceit, they would leave her for me and then I would see to her end. As much as I loathe it, we cannot have rats among us. And a rat can’t leave after witnessing what happened with Scarlet.
But almost two hours in, she hasn’t admitted anything. She hasn’t said a word and Nate attributes it to going easy on her. All I want is for this to be handled and done. I can’t fucking breathe waiting for the end.
Agony seeps into my veins as I open the door and I’m greeted with her screams. Their backs are to me to my left where they watch Ronnie raise the machine. I can’t see her from behind it all, but her frantic screams paralyze me with a terror I’ve never known.
“Just one name and you can come out,” Ronnie says calmly with authority, and the anger that rings through me is unnatural and uncontrollable.
“Declan,” she whimpers.
“Declan’s not coming. Now give us the name of the person who came to you for information.”
“Please,” she barely gets out, her voice so small and the chatter of her teeth louder than the words she can manage. Every step I take is without my conscious consent. My feet move one after the other. I can feel Nate’s and Hale’s eyes on me as they watch, dutifully.
“It can all be over for you,” Ronnie says. My heart beats in time with every stride until she comes into view.
The sight of her destroys me. My Braelynn.
Soaking wet from the top of her head, her dark hair is stuck to the sides of her face, and her eyes are reddened even though her lips are blue. “Declan,” she whispers and everything in my vision turns red as her eyes roll back. The iron cage is lowered and she screams out our safe word.
Red. She cries out for me to stop it all.
Out of everything to come from her, out of every word to hear.
My intention was to confront her, to tell her I know the leak could only be her. That I’m the one who set up the trap to expose the rat and that it kills me she betrayed me. I would have given her anything. I was fucking falling for her like a fool.