Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“I had help in locating you,” Eva says finally.
I meet her gaze. “I reached out to you. Told you who I was with.”
“Yes,” she agrees, “but Seth’s name didn’t yield any results. Sure, his name is all over those medical journal pieces and articles with Doc Junior, however, I couldn’t find a location of his work or home.”
“Okay,” I say slowly. “Who was it?”
Eva grimaces. I’m not going to like this answer. Fear trickles through my veins.
“I—” Her phone buzzes and she looks down at it. Quickly, she texts something to the person before looking at me.
“I don’t want to know,” I murmur in a small voice. “Can we just focus on getting Kaitlyn?”
Her eyes shimmer with tears. The dread consuming me is clearly eating her alive too. There’s an unspoken understanding between us. Whatever this news is, she is going to hate delivering it to me as much as I’ll hate hearing it.
I want Kaitlyn here with me, safe in my arms. I want Caius too. Unfortunately, getting both of those isn’t going to be easy. Seth and Doc Junior aren’t going to allow me and Eva to waltz into that facility and take her without a fight.
Am I willing to do whatever it takes to get them back?
Fight my demons and face monsters?
A full-bodied shudder ripples through me.
I don’t want to. My survival instincts scream at me to run to the closet and hide. Terror claws its way up inside me, one red fingernail at a time.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to force away horrible thoughts. My closet back at home comes to view in my mind, except instead of me hiding within the stuffies and dolls in the shadows, I see Kaitlyn’s face.
She doesn’t hide like I do.
I can see her plain as day.
The monster will find her.
No. No. No. No.
Eva sits beside me, wrapping an arm around me. Though her hug is warm and comforting, it can’t save me from the awfulness shredding me from the inside out. Fear twists from something uncontrollable and overwhelming into a sharp blade meant to slay my enemies.
Fear turns into ferocity.
I’m no longer protecting myself.
I’m protecting Kaitlyn.
She needs me.
I have to face all the scary, terrible things because it’s the only way to get to her. I know this because Eva wouldn’t lie to me. If she says there’s no other way, then I trust her.
Doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.
The pain is already making me gasp desperately for air.
There’s a knock on the door.
Eva whimpers and clings to me. I know she doesn’t want to throw me into a den with a vicious tiger who tore me to shreds once upon a time ago.
But it’s necessary.
She has to.
“Answer it, Mom,” I choke out. “Let’s get this over with.”
Eva kisses my head and whispers how terribly sorry she is. I believe her.
I have to dig deep and think of Kaitlyn’s sweet giggles, her innocence, the love I have for her to get me through the next phase.
She’s my reason—the only reason I’d willingly put myself through this.
To protect that sweet little girl, I have to face a monster.
Not just any monster.
My monster.
The door opens and a lovely, demurely dressed blonde walks into the room. I stare at her red fingernails, frozen in spot like a stuffed bear in a pile in my closet.
Don’t move.
She won’t see you.
Be quiet, Romy.
I steel my spine and rise to my feet. With a fierce glare, I stare down the beast—the cause of my mental misery.
“You’re going to help me find Kaitlyn,” I hiss, voice filled with poison, all directed at her. “And then you’re going to get the fuck out of our lives forever, Vivienne, or so help me, I will kill you with my bare hands.”
Caius
Flying would’ve been much faster.
But flying leaves a trail and I don’t want to be tracked. Instead, I took my Range Rover over the Canadian/United States border, parked it in Spokane, Washington, and purchased a car in cash from some teenager who was selling his. It was a beater, and he wasn’t bright enough to understand the transfer of title work.
I swapped license plates with a car in long-term parking at the airport and then made my way out of the state. We’ve been on the road in an essentially untraceable vehicle ever since.
If Dad really wants to find us, he will.
My intent isn’t to hide from him indefinitely. It’s to put distance between us so I can figure out what the hell my plan is next.
We’ve been on the road for three days, sleeping in cheap motels along the way. LuLu has spoken little and focused on drawing in her iPad. I’ve stewed the entire way.
When I crossed over into Oklahoma, I expected to be hit with a wave of nostalgia. But I feel like my brain has been fucked with so much, I’ve lost what little precious memories of home I had. Luckily, my birth home was never a secret to me. I suppose since my real parents were dead, Dad didn’t have any reason to keep that information from me. It’s nearly six in the evening when I finally pull off the winding road onto the long driveway that leads to my parents’ land.