Total pages in book: 331
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
He looks up at me. His wide eyes search mine before they glance at my blood-stained clothes.
“Well, well, well,” I say, the dots instantly connecting, and I want to strangle him to death. It was right there in front of my face all this time. “My neighbor Christopher.”
Saint looks at Haidyn and whispers, “Neighbor?”
Haidyn shrugs at Saint, just as confused. They still don’t know about the house I bought to be close to Eve.
“It’s starting to make sense now.” I nod to myself. “How Evan knew to enter and leave her house from the back door. I didn’t have cameras back there. I bet you had the car ready and waiting for Evan after she stabbed him.”
He looks away, and I walk over to the counter and pick up the pack of Haidyn’s cigarettes. “String him up,” I order, my voice now as cold as this room. Then I grab the lighter next to the pack.
The crying session that Haidyn and I just had in the morgue was exactly what I needed—almost therapeutic. It reminded me of the cry that Elli had after her therapy session.
Giving them my back, I listen to him struggle as the guys get him ready for me. Numbly, I dig through the cabinets to find what I’m looking for. Honestly, I’m winging it.
Picking out a few things, I turn back, taking a drag from the cigarette. He hangs from his tied wrists above his head.
“My wife is dead.” I say the words I’ve refused to acknowledge thus far, and it knocks the wind out of me. My legs threaten to give out, but I remain upright. I can’t look weak right now. I’ll save it for later when I’m all alone in our bed. “And someone has to pay for that.”
“I didn’t do it,” he screams. “I didn’t have a say. I was ordered—”
I place the tip of the knife to his neck, and he swallows. “You will suffer for my loss.”
The whole fucking world will pay for what the Lords cost me, but I’ll start with this piece of shit. I step back, giving a humorless laugh. I can feel my mind slipping. Whenever they ask why a man has gone crazy, the answer always starts with She…
“And you know what?” I ask, not expecting him to answer. “After I found out she was a founder, I started taking the enhancements.”
Audible sighs of “shit” and “fuck” fill the cold basement.
No one knew that I was taking them. Not even my wife. “So I’m going to have a lot of time on my hands now.”
He breathes heavily. “I didn’t hurt her.”
I look at Sin and Ryat. “We found him behind the cathedral in the cemetery,” Ryat informs me at my silent question.
“Then who did?” I demand, looking back at the kid.
“I…I don’t know…” he sobs. “But I can prove it.”
Proof? Fuck, I want to vomit, knowing exactly what he’s going to say. “How are you going to do that?”
“My cell,” he rushes out, looking at Ryat. “He has my phone. The guys made me record it. It’ll show I didn’t touch her.”
Ryat pulls the kid’s phone from his back pocket, and I just stare at it. Do I want to see what happened to her? This isn’t like her videos from Dollhouse. They aren’t from years ago, the pain I know she survived. It’s going to be from an hour ago, and now her body lies in the morgue.
I look at Haidyn, and he takes my silent request, snatching the phone from Ryat’s hand and connecting it to the TV screen on the wall, navigating to the video. The cathedral doors fill the screen.
Eve walks in moments later. She’s wearing my white zip-up hoodie, dressed in jeans and platform boots with her hair up in a tight ponytail and her makeup done. She’s my angry angel. Ready to take on the world.
Four Lords stand at the Lords’ altar, and I watch the fifth enter behind her, pointing a gun at the back of her head. She refuses to do what they want, and a part of me wishes she would have just gotten on the altar. Maybe it would have stalled them. Given me enough time to arrive and save her. She knew we were looking for her. That I would have found her.
Eve’s shot in the leg, and the sound makes me flinch. She falls to the floor. A Lord walks down the aisle and grabs her. A blood-curdling scream comes from her before she’s slammed onto the altar. She pulls a gun from the back of her jeans and gets off a shot, falling over to the other side of the altar and out of sight.
One walks around and then falls to the floor, telling me she was still alive and able to shoot. Two down. She’s a good shot, but they were ready for her.