Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
And oh my God, what is wrong with me? My best friend’s life is in danger. My life is in danger, and I’m thinking about how my kidnapper didn’t kiss me. I glance at the stranger before going back to him and prodding when he chooses to remain silent. “Is he your guy? Does he… Does he work for you?”
Before he can respond, Peyton barges into the conversation. “I know who you are. I saw you on TV. You’re Arsenal Grayson. You’re the one who tried to kill my father that night.” She doesn’t let him respond. “You kidnapped my best friend? What, is Bo your buddy then?” Again before anyone can respond, she keeps going: “What is this, huh? Some kidnapping scheme? First, you tell your friend Bo to trap my innocent best friend with letters, then you kidnap her? And then your other lackey comes in and kidnaps me?”
Finally, Arsen deigns to respond: “Somethin’ like that.”
“Look,” Peyton goes, arms folded across her chest. “If you guys think my brother is going to give you money in exchange for us, then you’re fucked in the head, all right? Which we all knew anyway because you’re the Graysons but I want you to think this through.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.” She raises her chin. “My brother, I hate him, but he calls me like clockwork every Sunday. So if I don’t pick up my phone tomorrow, do you know what he’s going to do?”
“I’m sure you’ll enlighten us.”
“He’s going to think something is wrong. And then he’s going to think Graysons are behind it.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“No, it doesn’t. So you better let us go before my brother—”
“Think it’s enough,” the stranger interrupts for the first time.
And his voice makes the house shake. Or it should because of how deep and unused it is. I thought Arsen’s voice sounded unused the first time I heard it, but this stranger’s voice is really a bunch of put-together guttural syllables.
“Oh, now you talk,” Peyton snaps. “I kept asking you and asking you, for the past hour since I woke up in your filthy cowboy truck, what the fuck’s going on and who the hell are you and what do you want with me and what the hell am I doing at the Grayson ranch and you didn’t have the decency to say a word. Not a word. I don’t even know what the fuck’s your name and you think this is enough.” She scoffs. “Oh, you sweet summer child, you haven’t seen the kind of havoc I can wreak. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be cursing the day you ever laid your eyes on me.”
Silence follows her threat. Broken by a snort coming from the left. It’s Axton. Which creates a domino effect in the sense that the stranger lets out a long breath, as if he’s praying for patience. Haven, who’s also here, clears her throat and ducks her head to hide her twitching lips. Arsen is the only one who doesn’t show any outward reaction except tipping up his chin. “Haven.”
This gets Haven moving and she heads toward us. “Hi, I’m Haven. I can’t believe I’m having to do this a second time, but would you like to freshen up before you start threatening people?”
Peyton frowns. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I don’t even know who you are.”
“Peyton, lets’s go,” I tell her.
“But—”
“Just”—I squeeze her arm—“trust me.”
It takes her a few seconds, but she nods and just as we’re leaving, I hear him say to Haven, “They’ve got thirty minutes.”
With that, he turns around and walks out. Just like that. And as I walk away with Peyton, I realize that in this whole exchange, he never said a word to me.
Not one word.
“So you’re married,” Peyton goes.
I don’t know how long we have until our thirty minutes are up, but I tell Peyton everything. From the night he grabbed me by the motel to yesterday, which I spent waiting for them to tell me my fate. I’m not proud of it, but I may have broken down here and there, trying to catch my breath and swallow down my tears. It’s just that for the entire last week, I thought no one was coming for me. No one even knew I was missing.
But I was wrong.
Peyton did look for me, and she’s here now. She’s with me, and I know it’s not what I’d planned for, but God, I really wanted someone by my side. I wanted my best friend to be with me, and I’m just so happy and relieved that she’s here. And that she’s been holding me tightly through my entire story.
“No, you are. You’re the real Peyton,” I reply back.
My belly clenches in pain, and I don’t have it in me to even pretend that those words didn’t hurt, but I can’t focus on it right now. I’ll deal with my insanity later.