Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
“This is nothing but an intervention, pretty girl. Relationship counseling in a sense.”
Relationship counseling? The words rattled around in my head. My mouth opened, a sharp retort on the tip of my tongue, but before I could get it out, something soft and damp was shoved between my lips. I jerked back, my muffled protest barely audible. It was a cloth, a gag.
His gloved hand stroked my hair soothingly, the gesture eerily gentle. I wanted to scream, to kick, to lash out, but I couldn’t do a damn thing. My heart pounded as his thumb trailed down the side of my face, his mask close enough that I could feel the faint heat of his breath. Then he straightened, stepping back to join the others.
His movements were unhurried, as if he knew he had all the time in the world to make his point. Each of their masks carried its own horror, and together, they formed a wall of terror that was impossible to ignore.
Wilder stood slightly apart, his towering presence commanding attention even without words. His mask, molded into a devilish visage with curved horns and an expression of restrained cruelty, glinted in the dim light, its black sheen absorbing the shadows around him. It was eerily formal, paired with his tailored attire that only added to the uncanny effect.
The girl’s mask was equally disturbing in its simplicity, a childlike porcelain doll’s face, grotesquely exaggerated with hollow eyes and painted lips that twisted into a mockery of innocence. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating, as their collective stares pinned me to the chair.
I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing for a moment of clarity. The soft hum of the music in the background only amplified the heavy tension in the room. My wrists throbbed where the twine cut into my skin. The cloth in my mouth was suffocating, forcing every shaky breath to echo in my ears.
Lucian stepped forward first, his movements calm and measured, like he was addressing an audience instead of a woman bound and gagged in a chair. His mask tilted slightly as if he was studying me. "You know us, Autumn. Maybe not as well as you thought, but you do know us.”
My stomach twisted as he stepped closer. I wanted to look away, but his voice had a magnetic pull that kept me rooted.
“You’re probably sitting there convincing yourself Wilder isn’t the man you thought he was,” Lucian continued, his voice deceptively soft. “Let me make this simple for you. He is. Wilder would never betray you. Never. Everything between you was and is real, including us.”
Someone laughed. Hunter. That had to be Hunter. “He only lures them into a sense of safety and want, but that’s all part of our job. He never follows through with more.”
I recognized the next voice just as easily. They were no longer distorting them. Atlas stepped forward to say his piece, Amber’s head dangling from his gloved hand by her bloodied strands of hair. Most of it seemed to be gone. I couldn’t fathom what was done to her for the end result to be this.
“It’s one of us who does the rest,” he added casually. “Wilder keeps his hands clean—well, most of the time.” He chuckled darkly, jiggling Amber’s head.
“Some girls have a mask fetish, you know. They don’t even realize who they’re really talking to.”
“Except this nasty cunt,” Romeo drawled, gesturing to Amber’s head. “She knew. And she was dealt with accordingly.”
“She was an entire trash receptacle,” Thorne added bluntly.
I worked against the twine cutting into my wrists, every instinct in me screaming to get away.
“I’m genuinely sorry we didn’t get rid of her sooner,” Lucian continued. “We always look out for each other. As part of our family, that includes you too.”
When I didn’t react, Wilder took over.
“We don’t just have money because of trust funds or good investments. Our real line of work is… specialized.”
I glared at him, biting down hard on the cloth in my mouth to keep from making a sound.
“I don’t want you to think we’re monsters that just randomly kill people,” he stressed. "We work for a very specific clientele. The kind that likes to watch."
My stomach churned violently, bile rising in my throat. I shook my head, trying to convince myself I’d misheard him.
“The girls are only a portion of our work. Believe it or not, people love watching others be terrorized.”
He gestured to the mask he wore.
“These? They’re usually streaming. Our clients get their kicks watching people lose their minds. Fear, chaos, death—it’s a profitable business.”
“We skipped the streaming for your benefit this evening, though. What happens between us is personal,” Lucian reassured me. We care about you.”
His tone was disturbingly sincere. “We won’t let anything hurt you. That’s the whole point of this.”
He said it like they were doing me a favor, and this was all some deranged act of love.