Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
He sneers at me, shaking his head in vehemence. “I’ve invested too damn much in this project, Romy. You’re not going anywhere.”
Can I stab this man if it comes to it?
I think so.
I want to think I can.
He inches closer to me, seemingly unafraid of my knife. On instinct, I take a step back. Like a snake, he strikes, hand reaching for me. I slash at the air, making contact with his arm. It’s a superficial wound, but it makes him bleed, and better yet, halt in his pursuit.
“You cut me,” he growls. “This is why you need to stay locked up in the lab. You’re fucking batshit insane.”
“I’m insane?” I cry out, emotion clogging my throat. “You kidnapped me, scrambled my brain, and made me think I was your wife. That’s psychotic behavior, Seth. You don’t help people. You hurt them. You’re a criminal.”
“I won’t allow you to leave me,” he says, voice colder than I’ve ever heard it. “Get that stupid fucking thought out of your head.”
I wave the knife at him. “I’m holding the weapon here, so you’re hardly in a place to make demands.”
The next several seconds go in impossibly slow motion. Him reaching to the right. My eyes following his movement to the stove. Him grasping the handle of the skillet with the now-smoking burnt pancake. Me calculating what his plans for it will be. And then the next second goes in lightning speed.
Seth swings the skillet at me, slamming the hot metal into the side of my head. The knife drops with a clatter and I crumple to the floor right after. My vision fades to black.
I should have never come back.
I’m on a cloud.
Floating, floating, floating.
It’s warm here.
“She’s waking up. Thank fuck.”
I blink my dry eyes and find Doc Junior’s face close to mine. The light in the exam room is harsh and I wince at it. Doc Junior snaps at someone before the light dims. I attempt to move, but I’m sitting in one of their chair traps, my head snug in the contraption.
“Let me go,” I plead, unable to produce tears. “I’m hurt.”
“That you are,” he agrees. “The burn isn’t horrible, but the knot beneath it was pretty concerning. I can’t believe he hit you with a frying pan.”
I choke on a sob. “Kaitlyn. She’s not safe.”
“She’s fine. They’re checking her over, but she’s fine.”
“Where is he? You have to get me out of here.”
He chuckles. “You forget whose side I’m on here. Seth’s my best friend, Romy. Not you. Friends don’t let their friends’ wives get away.”
“I’m not his wife.”
“For all intents and purposes, you are.”
I attempt to move, but he has me pinned in this chair. I’m not getting out of here until he releases me.
Doc Junior nods at someone behind me and then I hear a door close softly behind them at their exit.
“Did you know?” I croak out. “That I’m your sister?”
He arches an eyebrow. “I know everything. Question is, how do you know?”
My head hurts too badly for these games. “Where’s your loyalty to your own flesh and blood?”
“Answer the question.”
“Vivienne.”
“Ahh, same as me. Does my father know you’re his?”
I close my eyes so a wave of nausea will pass. “I don’t know.”
“I’m just glad I didn’t fuck you the night we met. That could’ve been regretful later.”
He’s delusional if he thinks I would ever be willingly interested in someone like him.
“You can free me and Kaitlyn,” I tell him. “No one has to know. I’ll go into hiding. It’s the right thing to do.”
“The right thing to do,” he says, shaking his head. “I’m not interested in that. What I do want to know is how in the hell you overrode the Stem Lock technology. Was it really the foil all along or something else?”
“No comment,” I spit out.
His eyes darken. “No wonder Seth has his hands full. You’re a troublesome bitch. Don’t worry, sis, I’m going to get you fixed up. You’ll be brand-new tomorrow.”
The thought of waking up in Seth’s bed, an abused and braindead robot, sends chills down my spine. “One day you’ll pay for this. You’ll all pay for this.”
Doc Junior leans in close and squints as if he doesn’t understand. “Wait. Who’s going to make us pay? You? You can hardly move and are completely at our mercy. The police? We know them all.” His grin turns wolfish. “People like us don’t pay for our sins. We’re paid for them. Revered for them. Worshipped for them. You of all people should know this by now. You’re a Langston, but you have Huxley blood in you.”
“He will,” I threaten. “My fiancé. Caius.”
A girl can wish, right?
Doc Junior’s uproarious laughter tells me otherwise.
I’m trapped and no one’s coming to save me.
Caius
I’m numb.
Have been since the emotional reunion of LuLu with her parents at the Tulsa International Airport yesterday morning. I gave her one last hug and then I had to walk away.