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)
Are they here?
There’s a picture frame on an end table, but it’s too far away for me to make out the details. I’m pretty sure it’s a man, a woman, and a child.
Just some family.
I turn to indicate we should follow the others, when I hear it.
A scream.
One filled with pain and terror.
The hairs on my arms stand on end.
It’s a woman. When she does it again, I realize I recognize it.
Romy.
“It’s her,” I hiss, backing up so I can try to charge my way through the door.
Nees stops me by grabbing my bicep. “Let me break in. I can do it with my knife. Stealth mode, remember?”
As much as I want to ignore him and do it my way, I know he’s right. If he can get us in without making a scene, we’ll be able to sneak up on them.
It’s hard to stand by when you can hear the woman you love screaming for help.
The woman I love?
My heart aches at the thought of someone hurting her. I’m desperate to protect her from the entire world. I miss everything about her so damn much. If that’s what love for a woman feels like, then yeah, I guess that’s what it is.
Nees messes with the door for a long twenty seconds or so before it pops open. He pockets the knife and then pulls his Glock out. I stalk past him into the home. The sounds of sobbing are coming from the back, behind a closed door. Two doors down the hallway, a dog starts barking. Nees rushes past me to check in that direction.
The door where I can hear her crying is locked. A well-placed kick sends it flying open. Light from a bedside lamp reveals a scene that sickens me.
A blond woman is naked and curled into a ball, trembling violently. Her arm is stretched at an odd angle, handcuffed to the headboard. My gaze lands on her ass that is covered in blue striped bruises and scabbed over welts.
Rage bubbles up inside me, causing everything to turn red except her. She’s lying in a puddle of what looks to be semen.
The bathroom door is closed. I can hear the shower running. Whoever did this to her is inside, showering as if this is fucking normal.
Is it normal?
Has he been raping my damn woman for the past six months?
I storm into the bathroom. A bearded man gapes at me in shock through the glass. He’s covered in suds, clearly washing away the evidence of his depravity.
Unable to see anything but him and the horror he caused her, I raise my weapon and don’t think twice.
Pop!
The glass bursts into a million pieces as the bullet pierces the door. With a groan, the man stumbles back into the wall. He grabs at his stomach with desperation as if his soapy hand can do something about the bullet hole there.
Newsflash. It cannot.
I put another bullet in his thigh. This makes him scream in pain as he crashes to the floor. Once I turn off the water, I crouch near him, glass crunching beneath my boots. I dig the hot barrel of my gun into his thigh, reveling in the horrified scream that escapes him.
When I look at his face, I realize I recognize him. Dr. Portman. That douchebag who wanted to dance with my woman the night of President Huxley’s event. The same night I asked her to marry me.
Blind rage is quelled by satisfaction as I watch his face drain of color. Crimson blood pools beneath his naked body.
“You took her from me,” I growl. “You fucking took what’s mine.”
His head lolls to the side and he groans. “My wife. Mine.”
This fucking guy.
I lift the Glock and fire another shot, this one putting a hole through the center of his neck, destroying his throat. He’ll never say those words again. Or any for that matter.
“Mine,” I snarl. “Always mine.”
Someone screams from behind me and then a little kid runs with her bare feet over the glass past me. “Daddy!”
“Fuck,” Nees snaps nearby. “She was too quick.”
I realize the girl clinging to the dying man in front of me is Kaitlyn.
“You killed my daddy,” she says, crying hysterically. “Please don’t kill my mommy too.”
“Get her out of here,” I rasp out to Nees.
He huffs because this isn’t going to be easy. Sure enough, when he grabs Kaitlyn, she flips the fuck out, screaming and clawing at anything and everything. Dr. Portman stares at her, eyes glazing over as his life bleeds out of him.
Nees stalks out of the bathroom with Kaitlyn howling. I stand and follow after him but stop at Romy’s bedside. A key for the handcuffs sits on a dresser out of her reach.
“I’m here, love,” I murmur as I unlock the handcuffs as gently as possible. “I came for you. I found you. I’m getting you out of here now.”