Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
A gasp rasped from me when I found it, and I dumped it out into the palm of my hand. My eyes darted between it and the picture.
I didn’t know why I was searching because I already knew it was the same.
This bracelet that I’d had hidden in my room until it’d been gone. Stolen, I’d thought. Until I’d found it in Emmalee’s things.
When I realized she’d taken it from me, I’d thought—I’d thought maybe she’d done it as a reminder of the hatred, too. A reminder of the one who’d hurt us. Ruined us. The one who’d stolen Jana from us. Plus, all those other girls.
I’m not even close to being a good man. I’m not the dragon slayer you think I am. I’m the dragon.
Oh God.
Dizziness nearly knocked me back to the floor when I stood, and the frame slipped from my fingers. My hand shot to the wall to steady myself as I swayed.
Panic blistered beneath the surface of my skin.
The realization was too much to bear.
No.
No.
Bending in two, I pressed my hand to my stomach, trying to stop the bile that raced up my throat.
Quavers of horror rocked through me.
I couldn’t…I—
Maci’s little voice filtered through the walls from where she played with her dolls.
Desperate, I shot into action.
I would protect her. The way I promised my sister I would always do.
I ran out of my room and into hers, trying to keep it together when she looked up at me with that precious, trusting face. “Hey, Auntie Em! You wanna play wif me?”
“I think…” I ran a flustered hand over my face. “I think we should go for a walk. In the woods.”
We couldn’t go down the main road.
Otto was there.
Protecting us.
Guarding us.
Sickness boiled.
Excitement blazed through Maci’s features, and she popped onto her feet.
“You know I really like walkin’ in the woods, Auntie, but I only gotta do it when I got you or my daddy.”
My knees wobbled, and I swallowed around the torment that threatened to gush out.
“Then we’d better hurry,” I told her as I took her hand and hurried with her downstairs. Revulsion crashed through me when I peered out through one of the big windows and saw Otto out in the distance, his phone pressed to his ear, the man laughing as he paced back and forth.
How?
How could they ever laugh after the things they had done?
“This way,” I told her, the words barely audible.
“Is it a secret?” Maci whispered too as I all but ran with her into the kitchen.
“Yes. A fun game. We have to be really quiet.”
“Like hide and seek?” She squeaked it low, her green eyes so bright.
“That’s right. In case Otto or Kane try to find us.”
My purse and phone were on the counter, and I turned the location off on it before I tucked it into my purse and slung the strap over my shoulder.
We moved to the back door, then I pulled in a steeling breath before I unlocked it and cracked it open.
We slipped through, and Maci followed my lead as I kept my footsteps light, barely breathing as I hurried with her across the deck and down the steps and out onto the rambling lawn.
Fear pummeled me since we were right out in the open, and I ducked down as I gripped Maci’s hand and dashed with her toward the bank of trees that loomed off to the side of the house.
Praying that we could disappear into their cover before someone noticed.
That I could make it into town and get to the police station before they began to track me.
Maci giggled quietly. “We’re so fast and sneaky, Auntie Em.”
“You’re doing a great job, sweetheart,” I rasped, the words quaking as my breaths spasmed violently from my lungs.
I nearly gasped out in relief when I made it to the yard’s perimeter where we ran into the hedge of pine trees, then a shout of horrified surprise jolted out of me when an arm suddenly looped around my neck and dragged me back. The other hand clapped over my mouth to suppress my scream.
Malice rode out with the words he tsked in my ear, “It’s about time you came out to play. He can’t protect you now.”
FIFTY-TWO
KANE
“Is all that inventory accounted for?” From where I stood in the stockroom at Kane’s, I gestured with the end of my pen at a crate. I’d spent the last thirty minutes jotting notes on the inventory sheet attached to my clipboard, trying to catch up on some of the tasks I’d been neglecting since Maci and Emery came into my life.
Not that I was regretting a single second that I’d spent with them.
Mallory sent me a grin. “It is…as you would know if you checked the inventory on your tablet.”
I chuckled a low sound as I crossed the crate of vodkas off my list. “Hey, now, you know I like to do things old school.”