Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 103431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“I swear to god, if you don’t—” Shock steals my words as he brings his bloodied fingers to my lips, smearing them with the warm, coppery liquid.
He dives down, sealing his mouth to mine, licking and sucking at my blood-soaked lips.
I’m damn near feral trying to get him off of me. Without the use of my arms, I do the only thing I can think of—I bite him. Hard.
He bellows like an angry bull as he jerks his head away from mine. My victory is short-lived though, as his fist barrels into my temple.
“You stupid fucking bitch.” He wraps his hands around my throat, squeezing like his life depends on it. “Useless. Fucking. Bitch. Whore.” His grip tightens with every word.
My face feels like it’s burning right alongside my oxygen-deprived lungs as silent tears slide down my cheeks. Please stop. Please, please, please, I beg silently as my head begins to pound.
My throat joins the inferno raging through me, even as my feet go ice cold. My body’s at war with itself, desperate to stay alive but losing the battle with every second that passes.
A loud roaring sound fills my ears as my vision flickers, and I know.
I’m going to die here. In this weird, hot metal building, all alone at the hands of a man I was foolish enough to call a friend.
This is it…
I’m not walking away from this alive.
THIRTY-EIGHT
ELLIS
My phone rings with an incoming call from Silas as I turn onto the narrow, unmarked switchback road that leads me up the mountain to my girl. “I’m fifteen minutes out.”
“I got in touch with a friend in the area. It’s an abandoned storage unit.”
“Fucking hell, man.” I’m tempted to punch the gas, but speed would be detrimental on this treacherous road.
“I can see your tail lights. Keep it steady, Wilder. We’re nearly there.”
“Ten-four,” I say, coughing to hide the tremor in my voice as I end the call.
The climb up the mountain is slow—painfully slow—but I do as Silas said and keep it steady. My eye on the prize, so to speak.
Finally, after what feels like a goddamn eternity, the ground levels out, and the road widens. The area seems abandoned. Nothing for miles in either direction, but I keep going, following the little flashing dot on my screen.
I breathe a sigh of relief when a few miles later, a chain-link fence wrapped in barbed wire comes into view. I squint to make out the faded letters on the sign—Downey & Co. Storage. This is it.
I park at the gate waiting on Silas and crew to roll up so we can discuss our plan of attack.
He rolls up next to me, four other guys filing in behind him, all simultaneously killing their engines as I roll down my window.
“You sure this is it?” he asks.
I glance down at the little blinking dot on my phone; we’re practically on top of her now. “Positive.”
“How you want to play this?”
“Get my girl by any means necessary.”
Silas nods thoughtfully. “We going in guns blazing and hoping for the best or what?”
“Nah. We go in quiet.” My police training kicks in. “The last thing we want is for him to know we’re coming.”
Another nod. “First thing’s first—this lock.” He points to the chain wrapped around the gate, secured with a padlock. Silver, you’re up.”
Silver drops his kickstand and springs into action, approaching the gate with a compact manual cutter. He forgoes the lock and instead cuts through the chain, allowing him to unravel it and open the gates.
Job done, he nods and waits for further instruction.
“We move in by foot,” I begin laying out my plan. “I’m tip of the spear so I’m the first face Scarlet sees, but...”
“No buts,” Silas says. “We’ve got your six.”
I nod as I turn off my truck and hop down, slipping through the gate. It’s a little awe-inspiring as Silas and his men—men whose names I still don’t know—wordlessly fall into step behind me, ready and willing to face down whatever waits for us inside these gates.
We make our way in on silent feet, winding through row after row of borderline decrepit storage units.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Smoke murmurs as we turn down the last row, stopping in front of the roll-down door of unit fifty-seven.
I nod in agreement.
“This it?” Silas asks.
“This is it.” The sound of Scarlet’s muffled screams filter through the door, sending dual waves of hope and despair crashing through me. Hope, because she’s alive, but despair, because in what state?
“Silver.”
He steps forward, inspecting the door, before bursting into silent laughter.
I signal for us to fall back. “What?” I growl, seething at the thought of him laughing as she suffers.
“This guy’s a fucking idiot.” He points to the lock. “The door’s not even secured.”
Suddenly, his outburst makes more sense.
“His dumbassery is our gain,” Silas says, rubbing his hands together. “We’ll get the door leaving you free to make entry.”