Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
My mind races, every scenario I can imagine more terrifying than the last. Who are they? What do they want with me? My thoughts spiral, desperately searching for a reason but finding none. I’ve never been involved in anything that would lead to this—nothing that makes sense.
Are they serial killers? Rapists? If they’re masked, maybe that means they won’t kill me since they’re keeping their identity secret. Strangely, that one thought gives me hope.
I’m a good girl, keeping utterly still and my mouth shut as we traverse the streets of Lexington. The two men don’t talk so I can’t glean any clues as to what they want and I’m too petrified to ask. Instead, I focus on my breathing, trying to quell the panic that claws at my throat. I’ve read about situations like this in the mystery thriller books I love. I’ve seen them in movies. Stay calm. Observe. Remember details. But nothing prepares you for the cold, hard reality of being snatched from your life by masked strangers.
They make no effort to conceal where they are going and this ratchets up my terror again, because dead people can’t give away locations. We leave Lexington, jump on I64 East which takes us straight to Shelbyville. Are they from my hometown? Are they taking me home? Going to kill me in my home county?
But we pass by Shelbyville and drive straight for the heart of Louisville.
Although I’m a Kentucky native and I’ve been to Louisville many times in my life, I don’t know it all that well. We navigate unfamiliar city streets into a rather seedy area, making so many turns I’m completely lost. Finally, the driver pulls up behind what looks to be an abandoned warehouse. Everything is dark, no working streetlights and no people around. The perfect place to do dark deeds.
The men waste no time dragging me from the vehicle, the blue-eyed guy pressing the gun to my back so that I behave as requested. I’m so scared he’s going to pull the trigger accidentally that I barely pay attention to where we’re going. It’s a cavernous building that appears to have once been a manufacturing facility but it’s completely empty now. Just worn brick walls and dusty concrete flooring. An interior light glows weakly at the far end in what appears to be a room with a large window that overlooks the plant floor. I imagine that’s where the facility manager probably worked, the glass cut out in the wall so he could make sure things were running smoothly.
I’m guided in that direction, neither man saying a word. When we reach the office, I’m ushered inside and the blue-eyed monster the other man called Bellamy steps in with me. The brown-eyed man says, “I’m going to park the car.”
His partner doesn’t reply, merely pushes me over to an old metal desk with a chair. With a hand on my shoulder, he shoves me down into it.
“I’ll be right back,” the brown-eyed man says, and I can hear a slight tinge of worry in his voice. “Do not touch her while I’m gone.”
Bellamy says nothing and instead sits down on the corner of the desk. His gaze falls on me with the weight of Thor’s hammer and I’m forced to look away. I can’t tell who has seniority in this partnership but he’s not taken to task for his failure to respond, and then the brown-eyed man is gone.
I watch as he melts into the darkness of the warehouse, the light on in the office and lack of illumination beyond making it a pitch-black blanket of unknown. It makes being stuck inside here with this monster that much more terrifying because I don’t know which is the bigger danger. Somehow, I think I’d prefer to be in the dark, not knowing what’s lurking behind me, than sitting with this asshole who likes to hurt people.
CHAPTER 21
Gabe
Glancing at my watch, I see that Kat’s now twenty minutes late, but I don’t let it upset me. She’s never been extremely punctual in casual situations. I give my attention to the layout on the coffee table. A critical once-over and I deem it romantic enough. Fresh flowers, strawberries and a bottle of chilled wine. I thought Kat and I could hang out on the couch for a bit and talk, but not for too long. She has an early day tomorrow, as do I, and I’m going to need time in the bedroom before we go to sleep.
I’m helpless not to smile when I think of how far we’ve come in the last few days. It’s been a slog just being able to have a civil conversation with her, but the tide has turned and there is finally a bright spot in my future. After all the heartache from Alaine’s death, to losing Sylvie to the Blackburns, to my father’s perfidy, I’ve somehow come out of this with a gift.