Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
“Why …” The word tore from my throat, barely audible by the time it reached the air. That was it. That was all I wanted to know. Why did someone want to take my life? Not on a whim. A plotted assassination. “Why me?”
“If you did anything to Slade …” His voice carried an edge.
I blinked at Slade again and again. Why didn’t he speak? If it were my uncle trying to see if I was safe, I would have yelled and pleaded for help. I would have said something.
“Why me?” I repeated. In my mind, it was the only question that deserved an answer.
“Because your dad is the reason Slade grew up without a father … the reason I no longer have a brother.”
My head shook. He had the wrong person. Not my dad.
“Jackson Knight, formerly Jude Day.”
My head continued to shake as my attention shifted to Slade’s face. He held me captive with just his presence, but the look in his eyes morphed from resignation to something darker.
“No …” I said.
“A soldier in the dismantled organization called G.A.I.L—Guardian Angels for Innocent Lives. Jude Day was trained to protect the innocent by removing threats. Just like Slade.”
“No …” I whispered as Slade’s forehead tensed along with his jaw, hands curling into fists.
“Yes, Livy. Daddy Dearest was a trained assassin … just like Slade. He took more lives than your pretty little head can even imagine. On his final killing spree, he put a bullet between my brother’s eyes out of revenge. And he left a little boy without a father … he left me without my brother.”
“Y-you don’t know my dad.”
“No, sweetheart … you don’t know your dad. He’s an animal that needs to be put down, but not before he suffers … the way I’ve suffered without my brother, the way Slade suffered without his dad, the way Mary suffered as a single mom. That’s three. Three lives destroyed. So I’m taking three lives to even the score. Well … two. I already took one.”
“Dad …” I choked on his name. He killed my dad.
“Not yet. He’ll be the last … after he knows I took his world. And let’s be honest … it will be a mercy killing. I honestly didn’t think he would survive after your mom’s accident. Did you know he slept on her grave for days while you were with your aunt? I watched him. I fed off his suffering. It felt so fucking good, but not as good as it’s going to feel when I deliver you, well, part of you, to him.”
The phone fell from my hand as waves of pain gripped my body, shaking me to the core. My breaths came one right after the other so quickly it felt like I wasn’t getting any oxygen at all. It wasn’t an accident. Abe killed my mom. Or …
I stepped back until the wall caught me as Slade studied me. Was he just an extension of Abe? The killer giving all the credit to his handler? I began to crumble, sliding down the wall. “Y-you killed my m-mom …” I glared at Slade and hugged my bloodied hands to my chest as my butt hit the floor.
Slade reached behind him and grabbed the gun. I jumped when he pulled the trigger, shattering his phone on the floor and ending the call with Abe while my ears rang from him firing the gun. “I didn’t.” He lifted his gaze from the gun to me, his tone eerily calm. “But it sounds like your dad put a bullet in my dad’s head, and that’s a problem, Liv.”
I didn’t—I couldn’t believe that about my dad. Some black ops group? An assassin? Then again, I thought about Jessica and her skill set that I knew nothing about until the day she fractured a piece of my innocence with her fists.
Clarity blurred.
Colors faded.
Reason and purpose for my own existence started to wither like a starved plant after months of a summer drought.
Nothing in my life was what it seemed to be just weeks earlier. Twenty-one years of lies. If you didn’t know where you came from, it was hard to know who you were—are.
“We have to go. Get up.” He aimed the gun at me, jerking it in an up motion like the threat of dying mattered to me at that point.
It didn’t.
He retrieved a bag from his closet and set it on the bed. Pulling out his holster, he secured it around his waist and filled it with the gun in his hand and another gun from the bag along with extra ammunition magazines. Then he covered everything with his shirt and nodded at me. “Get. Up.”
I didn’t.
Slade grabbed my arms near my shoulders and lifted me from the ground. When I didn’t force my legs to keep me standing, he tossed me on the bed. I felt so numb, so empty, so lifeless.