Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Daddy, I’m going to the party tonight.”
He twisted with my pink lace bra clutched in his fist. I don’t think he noticed, so I snatched it from him and ignored his impatient scowl.
“You aren’t going to any party,” he dictated. “I need to leave Illinois. I’m taking you to my brother where you’ll be safe.”
My head tilted as I frowned. I was used to him coming and going, but this held finality. “What do you mean you’re leaving Illinois?” The thought left a bad taste in my mouth, especially since he noticeably hadn’t included me. “Why wouldn’t I be safe here?” Uncle Ben was Daddy’s illegitimate half-brother after my late grandfather’s affair with another member of their church. I didn’t know many of the details, but I knew enough to know the end of the affair had been ugly. Uncle Ben and his wife, Gretchen, kind of gave me the creeps. Their religious views bordered fanatic.
“Later, baby girl. We don’t have much time.” He zipped up my backpack and moved to grab my arm, but I twisted my body, escaping his hold by a mere inch. I no longer had his attention when his gaze had fallen on the boxes.
I didn’t try to stop when he plucked the tiny velvet box from the bed. He gingerly flipped open the lid, and when his gaze settled on the ring, his face turned to stone. I didn’t know how to explain the ring’s presence or what it meant. I braced for his anger and the questions.
I didn’t expect him to place the box back on the bed carefully.
He grabbed my arm before I could think to escape and pulled me from my bedroom.
I never saw my home again.
A month after Daddy drove me to Tome and left me with my aunt and uncle, I learned he had been arrested.
I never expected his victim to be his best friend.
Chapter Two
MIAN
Present
RUN.
I couldn’t see past my tears. I couldn’t feel past my heart clawing against my chest and his blood coating my hands as I ran. I could only obey fear’s demand.
I pushed at the door, but my hands slipped on the first try. There’s so much blood. I threw my body into the door the second try. The light from the sun was an unwelcome change.
I deserved darkness.
I used my weight to push the heavy door closed, shutting in death and mayhem, as hard sobs shook my body.
I killed him.
When my legs threatened to collapse, I surrendered and slid to the ground. I’d only just closed my eyes—I wanted to let the pain consume me—but then I heard the shout.
“Princess?”
Another kind of terror seized me when I opened my eyes and found Z running toward me. When they found their brother dead, would they know it was because of me?
“Son of a bitch!” I recognized the sound of Lucas’s rage, but I didn’t get the chance to react. His strong hands closed around my upper arms and gently lifted me from the dirt. His fingers bit into my skin as he held me up, but fear of what would come next distracted me from the pain. “What happened?” Lucas demanded.
“Are you hurt?” Z questioned at the same time. He pulled me away from Lucas and held my face between his hands. His worried gaze searched mine. I wondered if he could read my guilt. “Where’s Angel, princess?”
My gaze slid away to fix on the dirt beneath us. “Inside.”
“Why is he—” He paused when his mind started piecing the answer together.
“I—” If I told them he was dead, would they see my guilt and know it was me? My eyes drifted shut as more tears began to fall, but I ripped them open again when the vision of me plunging into Angel’s knife that was inside him replayed all too vividly.
“Son of a— Is that blood?” Lucas blurted. My attention shifted to my bloodied hands at the same time as Z. Oh, God. They’d know.
They probably already knew.
“Fuck this,” I heard Lucas growl past the drumming of my heart. The cry of the metal doors as he yanked them open drowned out whatever Z was saying to me. When the warehouse doors closed again, he cursed and dropped his hands from my face to look over his shoulder.
I didn’t see them until they were already surrounding me.
“Take her and don’t let her out of your sight.”
* * *
KILLING ANGEL DIDN’T set me free. I was trapped now more than ever, and my prison was an elegantly decorated bedroom. Pacing the floor, I held Caylen in my arms as he screamed at the top of his lungs. I had no idea how much time had passed since Angel’s band of less than merry men took me from the warehouse. They’d brought me to the estate—the perfect prison.