Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
But Beast isn't sane. And she sure as hell isn't what he needs.
I think about the girl we found not long after our Vanguard escape. Fourteen years old. Chained to her father. More dead than alive. Beast killed her old man and carried her for three miles through the streets while I provided cover. We got her to a friend’s house. Well, it was Beast’s friend. No fucking idea how the hell he made a friend, but didn’t ask questions either. He made sure she was safe before we continued our trip.
Meadow, I think her name was.
Sometimes I wonder what would've happened if we'd kept in touch. If Beast had found her again when she was older. If he'd — she's dead.
The thought cuts off like a switch. He got the news not long after she arrived at his friend's place. Overdose. Couldn't handle the demons her father put inside her.
Gone.
Like everything else good in this world.
I light another cigarette and watch Beast pretend to care about whatever Yana's saying.
This is what we do. We destroy everything we touch.
Better Melissa hates me than — The doors burst open.
Travis barrels through, wild-eyed and bleeding from a cut on his forehead. His shirt's torn. His knuckles raw.
“They took them!” His voice cracks across the room. “Somebody fucking took them!”
Everything stops.
The music. Conversations. Laughter.
The world narrows to Travis's words.
They took them.
I'm moving before he finishes his sentence. Crossing the room in three strides. My hand fists his collar, slamming him against the wall.
“Who?” My voice doesn't sound human. “Who the fuck did they take?”
“I don't—I was outside—I heard screaming—” Travis gasps for air. “They grabbed them. Put them in a van. I tried to stop them but there were too many—”
“Who. Did. They. Take?”
“Millie!” The name explodes from his mouth. “And Melissa! They took Millie and Melissa!”
The world ends.
Stops.
Like someone cut the power to reality.
I shove Travis out of the way, and he slides down the wall, talking, but I can't hear him anymore. Can't hear anything over the roaring in my ears.
Melissa.
Millie.
Gone.
Beast appears beside me. “Hella. Hella, look at me.”
I can't look at him. Can't look at anything. My vision's tunneling. My chest is too tight.
They took her.
Someone took her and I wasn't there.
I pushed her away, and now she's — “Hux!” Beast grabs my face, forcing eye contact. “I need you focused. Right fucking now.”
“They took her.” The words scrape out of my throat. “They took both of them.”
“I know. And we're getting them back.” His voice hardens. “But I need you thinking, not losing your shit. Understand?”
“I pushed her away.” My hands won't stop moving, fingers curling and uncurling against nothing. “I told her I didn't care. I made her think—”
“Hella.” Beast's grip tightens. “Save it. You can fall apart after we get her back. Right now, I need my VP. Not a lovesick asshole.”
His words slice through the fog in my head. Not enough to clear it completely, but enough that I can breathe again.
“Okay.” My voice finds solid ground. “Okay. What do we know?”
Ripper shoulder-barges the others. “Travis saw three men. White van. No plates. Drove south toward the highway.”
“Security cameras?”
“Checking now.” Frost's already on his phone. “But the exit angle's shit. Might not have caught anything.”
“Get me something.” I turn to Travis. “You said you tried to stop them?”
He nods, slumped against the wall. “I was having a smoke by the bikes. Heard someone yell. By the time I got around the building, they were shoving Melissa into the van. Millie was already inside. I tackled one of them but—” He gestures to his face. “Got clocked with something. Gun, maybe. When I came to, they were gone.”
“Did you see any of their faces?”
“Masks. All of them. Metal things, like nothing I've seen before.”
“Fuck.” I hesitate, but then turn to Beast. “This is professional. Not some random grab.”
“Agreed.” Beast's jaw is tight. “Someone's been watching. Waiting for an opportunity.”
“Millie's stalker?” Ripper asks.
“Maybe.” My insides clench, knotting themselves into something cold and wrong. This isn't random. Someone's been planning.
Yana appears, her face drained of colour. “What can I do?”
“Nothing.” Beast doesn't even look at her. “Go to my mother's house with the other women. Lock the doors. Don't leave until I tell you.”
“But—”
“Go. Now.”
She flees.
Jada pushes through next, Phoebe right behind her. “I'm staying,” Jada announces before anyone can argue. “Don't even try.”
“Same,” Phoebe adds, her jaw set. “Melissa's my best friend. I'm not sitting this out.”
Beast looks at me. The resignation in his expression tells me everything—he knows these women, knows that look in their eyes. They won't back down. Not for this.
His jaw works before he speaks. “Fine. But you follow orders. No heroics. Understand?”
They both agree before Phoebe goes back to panic mode, tapping on her phone and calling whoever.
“Frost, what've we got on cameras?” I ask.