Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
That explained why Josh was shirtless and sweaty. He was fixing the bondage equipment he’d built into the frame, which clearly hadn’t held his powerful physique.
“You’re doing it wrong.” Liv parked her hands on her hips. “Stop.”
Goddamn, that commanding tone took Tate right back to the attic. His spine tingled with echoes of pain, the burning lashes of leather on his back, the skin-crawling feel of Van’s touch, and the fucking rules. Kneel. Eyes down. Bend. Suck.
The memories pissed him off, heating his face and clenching his fists.
Something moved in Tate’s periphery, and a moment later, Kate’s slender arms encircled his waist, her head tucking beneath his chin.
He pulled in a calming breath, ruffled her blond, baby-soft hair, and sent her back to the chair.
Liv smiled at him in greeting, and the scar that bisected her cheek pulled taut. The same scar that marred Van’s face. The matching lacerations served as permanent reminders that Van and Liv had suffered as much as Tate and the others before they escaped.
“Josh said you were here about Lucia?” she asked.
As Josh packed up the tools, Tate updated them on his search. They all knew he was looking for Camila’s sister. They just didn’t know the extent in which he’d gone with the private investigators and Cole Hartman.
“Cole found her, but I don’t know if she’s dead or alive. He said he’d come to me…” Tate glanced at his watch. “Anytime now.”
“He’ll come here?” Josh sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Liv onto his lap.
“Is that okay? I can leave.”
“Stay.” Liv hooked an arm around Josh’s shoulders. “If Van referred you to him, I trust him in my home.”
At the mention of Van, the room fell quiet. They’d all been there during Van’s reign of cruelty, but in the past few years, they’d watched him transform into something more human.
Still, there were things a person couldn’t forget.
While Josh and Kate had been forced to participate in intimate acts with Van, their buyers had demanded virgins, saving them from the worst of Van’s depravity. Tate and Liv hadn’t been so lucky. Ricky, Tomas, and his other roommates had likely been raped by Van as well, but they didn’t talk about it.
“Van seems hellbent on redeeming his transgressions,” Josh said, breaking the silence.
“Transgressions?” The whisper came from the chair in the corner. Kate shifted to the edge of the seat, gripping the armrests, her voice soft. “He’s a monster. There is no redemption for him.”
“Kate.” Liv’s cold tone cut like a whip. “I was a monster, too.”
“You saved us.” She pulled her knees to her chest and angled her face away.
“In the end,” Liv said, “he saved us in his own way. The money he gave—”
Tate shook his head at Liv. He knew Kate hadn’t touched her share of the six million. Despite his protests, she waited tables at a local diner in order to contribute to the household bills.
With a tug on Kate’s hair, he guided her out of the chair and toward the living room. There, he continued the conversation with Liv and Josh, outlining his speculation on Camila’s sister.
If Lucia had survived that crash, she would be thirty years old now. If she’d maintained a youthful appearance like Camila, she could still be valuable as a sex slave. She could still be alive.
Talking about it with his friends reignited the flame of hope he’d carried for so long. They didn’t ask him why he was so gung-ho about finding her. Maybe they knew. Hell, Van’s wife, Amber, had called him out for the way he looked at Camila. They all knew.
When a knock sounded on the door an hour later, he leapt to his feet, his heart hammering like a piston.
“I’ll get it.” Josh crossed the room and opened the door. “Can I help you?”
“Cole Hartman.” A tall silhouette hovered on the dark porch. “Tate’s expecting me.”
Josh stepped to the side and let him in.
“Is she alive?” Tate asked the instant Cole entered.
“Yes.”
Relief sang through his nerve endings and loosened his chest. Good fucking God, he didn’t realize how badly he needed to hear that. “Is she safe?”
Dressed in black denim and a wrinkled t-shirt, Cole looked like he hadn’t shaved or slept in days. As he slid a backpack off his shoulder, his expression was pensive. Solemn. “Take a seat.”
Not good. Not fucking good at all. She’d been missing for eleven years. Was she enslaved all this time? Beaten? Raped?
He shut the door on those thoughts and gathered his composure to make introductions. “This is Liv and—”
“I know who they are.” Cole gave the empty side of the couch a pointed look. “Sit down, Tate.”
Dread held him in place until Kate gripped his hand and pulled him down beside her, holding tight to his fingers. Josh settled in the side chair with Liv on his lap.