Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
We’ve got to see it through.
I pry open the case, and immediately a terrible stench hits me.
What the fuck?
I hold my breath and continue, lighting the flashlight on my phone.
My stomach lurches as my mouth falls open, a strangled breath catching in my throat. A cold, creeping numbness spreads through my limbs, rooting me in place. My mind scrambles to process what I’m seeing, but it’s too much—too awful. My pulse pounds in my ears, drowning out everything else as the scene before me sears itself into my brain. It can’t be.
It can’t fucking be.
I swallow and look again, confirming the horrific thing I just saw. I bend over and heave, but nothing comes out.
I fall to my knees, unable to believe it. Unable to believe that such a terrible fate would befall such an innocent young woman. An innocent young woman who had been through so much, who had her whole life ahead of her.
Alissa was wrong. The crown in the riddle wasn’t referring to Rouge’s tiara.
By crown, it meant head. As in a human head.
A severed human head.
The severed head of May.
The Seven of Spades has been discarded.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
I knew Rouge was a shady bitch, but I had no idea she was capable of anything like this.
And all because this young woman dared to break the rules.
She spoke to Alissa. Broke the vow of silence that all the Aces Underground employees are sworn to uphold.
Rouge told Alissa that she had been suspended. That she would be back.
Alissa!
I bend over her, make sure her breath is still steady. It is, thank God.
But we’ve got to get out of here.
If Rouge did this to poor May for speaking out of turn, God only knows what she’ll do to us once she learns that we found this out.
I look around. The rosebush is still dug out of the earth, and we’ve made a mess of things here.
We can’t just turn around and run. Alissa isn’t even conscious. But we shouldn’t leave any evidence that we were here.
Because if Rouge has even an inkling of what we’ve discovered?
Our heads are going to be buried right next to May’s.
2
ALISSA
Metallic clinks. The sounds of soil moving around.
It’s cold.
And I’m not in my bed. I’m lying on a hard surface. Concrete.
Heavy breaths. Coming closer to me.
My heart pounds, and I flutter my eyes open.
Everything is blurry at first, but it slowly comes into focus.
A man with a spade, quickly shoveling dirt back into a small hole.
And it all comes barreling back to me.
We found that hatbox. And inside it…
Oh my God.
Did I dream that? Did I hit my head while we were digging and have some terrible, gruesome nightmare?
But I already know that’s not the case.
The image of May’s severed head is one I will carry with me to my grave.
The skin of her once-beautiful face now stretched tight over the bones of her skull. Her long dark hair matted with soil and tangled beyond recognition. Her eyes robbed of all light, slightly sunken into their sockets. Her jaw slightly unhinged, as if she too is in an eternal state of shock to have ended up buried in a hatbox in this park by the airport.
I should feel nauseated at the thought, but I just feel…sad.
I stifle a sob. Several tears silently flow down my cheeks as I sit up.
“M-Maddox?”
He turns around, dropping his shovel as he rushes to my side. “Alissa! Thank God, you’re okay.”
I rub at the back of my head. “I’m alive, but I’m not okay.”
He kneels and strokes my hair. “I know, baby. I’m not either.” He darts his gaze around the area, frowning. “But if we want to get out of this park alive, we need to leave everything as we found it. Rouge can’t know that we were here.”
“Do you need help?”
“No. I’m almost done,” he says. “You just keep an eye on the parking lot.” He hands me the keys to my car out of his pocket. “If anyone—anyone—pulls into that lot, I want you to grab your car and run. Leave me behind.”
“No! I won’t leave you, Maddox. I’m the reason we’re here in the first place. I was the one who wanted to check things out tonight.”
“And I was the one who had the riddle. I could have chosen not to share it with you.” He rubs my shoulder. “Alissa, please. Don’t fight me on this.”
“Fine.”
But I’m not going to abandon Maddox here. If anyone discovers us here, we’re going down together.
Because I’m in love with this man.
I was doubting it at first, but the sight of May’s severed head, as ghastly as it was to behold, gave me a much-needed reminder.
We’re all going to die sometime.
And I want to die in the arms of Maddox Hathaway. I want to marry him, grow old with him, watch our children and grandchildren grow up.