Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
Numb.
I’m numb, cold…dying.
The world is happening around me—people staring, taking a wide berth as they pass, cars moving. I feel as though everyone’s looking at me like I might have broken out of an asylum. No one asks if I’m okay. No one approaches me to see if they can help.
I’m beyond help. I glance around, circling on the spot, the madness of London a blur of color and noise. She’s gone. I throw my head back to the sky and roar her name.
Chapter 30
CAMI
I don’t know where I am. I haven’t seen a thing since I looked into the blackness of his eyes past the balaclava. I screamed and wrestled with him until exhaustion rendered me immobile. My brain isn’t working. My body is shutting down. The blackness is now constant, my eyes covered, and my ability to scream has been taken away by the rough gag strapped in my mouth. There has been no talking. I don’t know how many of them there are. I’m cold, too. Strangely, I’m not crying anymore. I’m scared, but I’m not crying. If I had the ability to think, I might wonder why.
But I don’t.
So I remain silent and unmoving on the hard floor, praying.
Chapter 31
JAKE
My body is sore, my eyes are sore, my heart is sore.
She’ll be frightened. She’ll be calling for me.
I run back to my car, calling Lucinda on my way. “Hello?”
It’s not Lucinda’s voice. “Heather?”
“Oh…”
I frown down the line. “Where’s Lucinda?”
“Um, she’s waking up.”
It falls into place very quickly. Lucinda wouldn’t have let Cami leave her apartment if she could physically stop her. Which means she couldn’t physically stop her. “What did you two do?”
“What did you do, you arsehole?” she counters scathingly, making me drink in patience before I lose the plot. “Camille’s dad told her you’re married!”
“Shut up, Heather,” I hiss, damning Cami’s determined little arse to hell. She didn’t know about Charlotte. Heather doesn’t mention that monumental point, and I could see by the shock in Camille’s eyes. Logan dug only deep enough to find out about my wife, Monica, and didn’t go any deeper, happy enough with the information he’d found to turn his daughter against me. “Cami’s been taken.”
“What?”
“She’s been fucking kidnapped! Put Lucinda on!” I jump into my car and waste no time running the red light, smacking my horn to startle the pedestrians crossing. “Move!”
“Jake?” Lucinda sounds weary, and for a fleeting second I wonder again what the fuck Cami did, but I don’t have time to go into that now.
“Cami’s been taken.” I swing a hard right, knowing exactly where I’m going. Blood is flowing through my veins like poison, threatening to turn me to a point of no return.
“Oh, shit. Where are you?” Lucinda asks, warranted worry evident in her tone.
“I’m about to go psycho on her father.”
“Oh, fuck. Jake, don’t do anything stupid.”
“Too late.”
* * *
I dump my car in a no-parking zone outside Logan Tower and race toward the building, pushing my way through the doors with force. The glass ricochets off the wall, sending a deafening crash through the lobby. Everyone falls silent and turns their attention to the doors and the murderous man steaming through them.
I keep my focus forward, seeing the X-ray machines up ahead and the old boy who keeps watch. His eyes grow wider the closer I get, his stocky frame dropping from the stool he’s perched on. I don’t give him a chance to try and stop me. I reach to my back and pull my gun, pointing it straight at his head as I stalk forward. There’s no need to follow it up with a warning.
Smart man.
He backs up, hands raised, eyes now bulging. “Whoa, matey! Let’s not be hasty.”
I snarl, passing through the machine and marching on, leaving behind the alarms going wild behind me. I push the call button with the barrel of my gun and an elevator opens immediately. I walk in looking calm as can be, which defies the chaos coursing through me.
I’ve never been in an elevator for so long. By the time I reach the very top of Logan Tower, I’m ready to shoot my way out of the metal keeping me prisoner, delaying me from finding her.
I stride past the reception desk, where a gaggle of women are gossiping, and keep moving down the corridor to Logan’s office. The women’s high-pitched chatter soon dulls to silence before the panicked whispers start. But no one tries to stop me. The comfortable weight of my gun in my hand tells me why.
As soon as I reach the door I turn the handle, but it doesn’t shift. I laugh wickedly and move back, bringing my knee up to my chest and throwing my foot into the wood. The crash doesn’t even penetrate my fog of fury.
Logan jumps in his chair, his desk phone at his ear, and one of his minions staggers back in shock. “It’s fine,” Logan says down the line, obviously reassuring whoever’s called up to advise him of the madman on the loose. “Everything’s fine.” He hangs up slowly, his eyes wide and cautious.