Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Allie left. I try to consider things from a different angle. How long has she known she had to marry that fuckwad Lowry? When did I spot her kissing that man in Seattle? Almost immediately after she dumped my ass.
I could let her run, let her lick her wounds and be pissed off, or I could go there and make her see the truth. Make her stand up to her mom. Help her out of this arrangement. I know the decision I’m going to make even without thinking it through.
I shift through the crowd and overhear a man talking to another. “I had Jackson take her home. She looked so distraught.”
My spine goes straight. Oh, he better not fucking be there when I arrive if he wants to keep his balls. My truck is waiting where I left it as I march through the quiet lot. I climb in, teeth gritted, and peel out.
I’m prepared to break down the gates if necessary, dead set on getting inside the house. Thankfully for them, the gates are open, though the security guys are absent for some reason. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. I drive through the gate knowing I’ll be picked up on security cameras later. I don’t give a shit.
A Lamborghini is parked in front of the house. He’s still here. Blood swooshes in my ears by the time I climb out of the truck, the gravel crunching under my feet. The world around me is red. I bet he’s all over her by now, touching what’s mine, thinking he can get away with it. My stomach turns, but I hold on to the feeling. I let it push me forward and up the front stairs, where I find the door unlocked.
I barely swing it open when I hear a sound that sends a chill down my spine.
Allie is screaming. It’s not a scared or shocked scream; it’s deeper, darker than that. The bloodcurdling, deafening kind of scream. I rush inside and start calling her name.
“Allie!” The sound of my voice doesn’t drown her out. I throw myself toward the fancy sitting room. There’s a split second when my mind doesn’t want to process what I’m seeing. Her green dress is now black.
No. Not black. Red. Soaked.
Stained with the blood that’s pooling on the hardwood. Allie’s sitting on the floor, still screaming, her face a sheen of white, her eyes glazed over, her bloody hands shaking. A lamp on the floor next to her has its marble base covered in blood.
A man lies face down, sprawled across her legs, pinning her to the floor. With a gaping, glistening wound on the side of his head.
Chapter 18
Allie
This isn’t happening.
It’s a nightmare.
It has to be a nightmare.
I don’t understand what I’m seeing.
Why is there so much blood on my hands? What happened?
There’s a voice somewhere in the middle of it all. Someone is screaming. I realize then the sound is coming from me. Slowly, another voice fills my ears. Someone yells my name.
I look around, my scream finally cutting off, searching for whoever the voice belongs to.
“Allie!”
My head flops back and forth like a doll.
“Stop! Listen to me!”
Somehow, that voice breaks through to me.
I blink at him, trying hard to focus on his face. “Kade?” It’s barely a croak.
“What the fuck happened?” I can see the panic in his eyes, and I make the mistake of looking down at the body lying across my legs. The panic rises again, and this time, it’ll kill me, I know it. It’s going to choke me until I have no air left to breathe.
“Allie!” Kade’s face is close to mine, filling my vision. “Stop screaming. Breathe. Look at me.” He cups my cheeks, his voice gentling. Soft like I haven’t heard in a very long time.
“...I didn’t…”
He looks down at the body. The dead body. The dead body lying on top of me. I’m losing it again. The world starts to go gray, and I’m almost glad. This has to end. I can’t handle it. “Relax. Stay with me,” he whispers in that soft tone, and I want that softness so much that I do what he says for once in my life.
“Help me.” He’s my only hope now. The only thing I can cling to. His features tighten and harden, or at least his jaw does, but his eyes remain soft and on me. “Please,” I beg, babbling, while his face blurs through my tears. “I-I don’t know what happened. He was… he was trying to…” I can’t bring myself to finish speaking. I don’t even want to think about it.
It’s a relief when he takes Jackson by the shoulders and rolls him off me—at least, until I see my fiancé’s blank, dead eyes. They’re still wide open, like he was surprised by what happened. What happened? The last thing I remember is blacking out. I couldn’t have done this. I wouldn’t kill someone.