Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
The way he was staring at her told her that the truth might indeed be worse, and that made her pause. What the hell had he found out?
“Breakfast, then a shower,” he said. “And then we’ll talk.”
“Shower first,” she said. She wasn’t sure that she could actually eat any breakfast. Not with the way her stomach was rioting.
And she could really use a shower. She felt gross.
“I just want to make something clear first, though,” he said, grasping hold of her chin. “There’s no time, any time, day or night, that I do not want to touch you, that I do not want to hug you and kiss you and keep you close. Okay?”
Lily nodded. She wanted the same. She hated any sort of distance between them.
After their showers, which they’d had separately, much to her disappointment, she sat at the island while he made them breakfast.
“One day I’m going to have to learn how to cook.”
“I like cooking for you.”
“You do? But don’t you want me to sometimes cook for you?” she said.
He shrugged. “I like doing things for you. It makes me feel good. You don’t wanna take that away from me, do you, baby?”
“Well, if it makes you feel good, I guess I’ll just have to make the sacrifice of letting you cook for me.”
He set a plate of food in front of her and she stared down at the pancakes with bacon and banana on top of them.
They looked delicious, but she just couldn’t bring herself to eat anything. When she glanced over at him, he seemed to be having the same problem. Whatever he had to tell her was putting him off his appetite, and that made her feel even more stressed.
“Please just tell me,” she said. “The truth surely isn’t worse than what I’m imagining.”
He shot her a look. “I’m not sure. It could be.” He sighed. “Paddy found a video on the doctor’s home computer. We don’t know what other videos there are yet, or what the doctor was doing with them.”
“What was on the video?” she asked.
He turned to face her and she spun so she could look at him. He looked pale and stressed. She’d never seen him like this, and it worried her.
A lot.
“It was you, baby. You were on the video, and you looked like you were out of it, like you had no clue what was going on.”
“He videoed me while I was unconscious?” she asked.
“Well, your eyes were open, but you were definitely drugged, probably a high dose of Devil’s Breath or maybe something else. You were just lying there limp, and he was moving you around.”
Moving her around? What did that mean? And why did he look so upset by that? Was the doctor doing something else to her?
“I don’t understand,” she said. “What’s the problem? Why are you so upset by that? What was he doing to me?”
“He seemed to be putting you in different poses while recording you.”
Okay, she definitely didn’t like that. She didn’t like that he’d touched her while she was unconscious. She didn’t like that she couldn’t remember it, and that there was video evidence of it. “What do you think he was doing with the video?”
“That’s what we need to find out, baby. Was he just filming it for his own enjoyment, or was he doing something else with it, something worse?”
Like, what? She didn’t understand. What could he possibly be doing with a video of him moving her around into different poses while she was clearly drugged?
Surely, he wouldn’t want anyone to see that video. They’d see what he’d been up to.
“Was it clearly him in the video?” she asked. “He wasn’t disguising himself? There was no one else there?”
“He had a half mask on. We didn’t see anyone else. I’m guessing there are more videos that need to be looked at. That’s what Paddy’s doing now, going through everything he could find from the clinic and his home computer.”
She still had a feeling that she was missing something here.
“Did Paddy manage to hack into the computer at the clinic?”
“After being at the doctor’s house, we decided to go to the clinic. Ronan’s guys found a hidden area there. One that we think Doctor Wallace entered alone. Although we’ve set up surveillance to see if anyone else enters.”
“What was back there?” she asked.
“We found another woman,” he told her, giving her a worried look. “She was in a room in the hidden area of the clinic, drugged and unconscious.”
Her hand rose to her mouth. “Oh my God, why didn’t I consider that there could be other women? Is she all right?”
“Physically, yes, Michaela said she’s okay, maybe a bit underweight. She took blood to run some tests.”
“Where is she now?” she asked. “You didn’t leave her there, right?”
“No, she’s at Ronan’s.”