Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Instantly, we’re rushed and surrounded, completely barricaded and hidden behind no less than a dozen guards.
The Grecos, Ander, and Damiano lead us back into the property, all of us at a slight jog until we reach the bulletproof Hummer forty feet ahead. We jump inside, and just before the door can close fully, a large hand, charred with blood beneath its fingernails, catches it.
My sister folds her hand in mine, and I clench it as Sai climbs in with us.
Blood leaks down his left temple, but it’s as if he doesn’t feel it, his face a mask of nothingness as he quickly glances our way, eyes flying over us as if to check if we’re all right.
When they meet mine, I feel my sister wince, and I know I’m drawing blood from her, but she only covers our joined hands with her free one. He gives a small nod, waiting.
This has always been his way of letting me know it’s okay, that he’ll deal with it, handle anything that needs handling, and I need not worry. So I give him the response he’s after, a single nod back, and just like that, he faces forward.
Nobody speaks a word as we haul ass back to the manor, and just as we were led into the SUV, we’re led into the safety of my home, cocooned by the others.
The girls rush me the moment the barricade reveals us, security, with semiautomatic weapons surrounding them, having stayed behind to guard the girls. The heavy doors slam behind us as a number of team members double down. Metal bars descend from where they are hidden in the walls, locking and latching and twisting.
Calvin rushes from his office then. “I just finished watching the footage. You were ambushed. They knew you would be coming here, and they knew your father would see to it that you arrived safely.”
“Wait.” I dart forward, panic licking across my spine. “What are you saying?” My eyes fly around. “Wait, where’s my dad?”
Calvin’s lips thin. “They took him.”
My face falls, and I have to bite into the side of my cheek to keep myself from shaking like a leaf in the wind because, holy shit, the tsunami washing over me right now. It threatens to knock me off my feet, right onto my ass, until I’m drowning in the ocean. I know he went out first, I know he went down, but I thought … I don’t know that I had time to think anything.
I look to my sister, hoping she understands what I’m trying to tell her without words, and when her lips remain sealed, her eyes blank and her face expressionless, I know she does.
From the corner of my eye, I find Sai. He’s moving quickly, looking around every corner you can see from here, his body movements jerky and putting me off-kilter even more.
He tears at the curtains, shredding them with his teeth and I watch as he lowers it to the melted skin of his right hand, but before he can wrap the silk around it, my eyes zone in on his ring finger. His bare ring finger.
His guardian token, the one that represents his dying devotion to me. It’s … gone. Removed. Acid, heavy and hot boils beneath my skin as sweat breaks out all over me.
I track his every step, cementing the spaces he looks and touches to memory so I can ask someone else to retrace them, but who? Who can be trusted if not the man I’ve trusted with my life more than anyone, my own father included? Horror and bitter betrayal threaten to spew from my mouth, but I swallow beyond the vomit.
“We need to get you guys in the panic room,” he calls over his shoulder. “I’ll take you and—”
“No,” I cut him off, a little too fast perhaps, but my voice remains steady. But seriously. No fucking way. There is one way in and one way out of the panic room. We are not delivering ourselves on a platter.
“We’re going to the basement.” I leave no room for argument. “The training room and the bunker down there should be enough, and the largest of our weapon inventory is there. Damiano will lead us down and the boys will stay with us.”
While Sai grows silent, the slightest of creases forming in the corners of his eyes, that’s the only hint of disagreement or surprise he shows. I’m not exactly sure what he’s thinking, but I know he disapproves of my decision, just as he knows he can’t exactly override it. He could follow us down there and demand to stay with us, but I could argue he’s needed more here and it would be never-ending.
Thankfully, Calvin agrees, calling Sai and a few of the other guards into the chancellor’s suite for a quick debrief. “We’ll go over the footage and circle the grounds as one,” Calvin shares.