AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he hangs up, he’s standing at the window looking out over his town.
His shoulders are pulled tight and his fists are curled tightly at his sides.
“Everything is a mess right now, J. We always knew that this was going to be the most challenging thing we’ve ever done. We knew we’d have to make sacrifices to get the result we wanted. I never promised you that it would be easy or without pain.”
“The fuck are you talking about?” I bark, unwilling to be talked in circles in the hope he doesn’t have to tell me the hard shit.
“Victor knows, J. He knows what we’ve been planning, and it’s on. Now. It’s happening right. Fucking. Now.”
My heart, my lungs, my stomach… all of them plummet at the cold delivery of his words.
“Now?”
“Now,” he confirms, his voice harsh and determined.
This time, there is no mistaking the confidence in his tone. He might have been trying to pacify me before, but this is real.
Everything we’ve been working toward over the past few years is about to come to a head. And here I am lying in a bed with fucking cannulas stuffed into the back of my hand.
Could I fuck any of this up anymore?
Slumping back, I stare up at the ceiling. The weight of the stupid decisions I’ve made press down on me, but still, I struggle to really feel it.
“He’s put me back on my medication, hasn’t he?” I ask. There’s no emotion in my voice, no nothing.
I don’t even know why I’m asking. The answer is obvious. I can literally feel it in my blood.
“You nearly died, J. Again. I was summoned to Mexico to meet with Luciana, I left you a note,” he says, spinning around and gesturing to my desk. “You were meant to ring me. I was going to explain everything.”
I don’t look at him. I can’t.
Regret and shame burn through me like wildfire.
But it’s too late now. I can’t take it back.
I just have to try and take the look of disappointment and desperation in his eyes like a man.
23
REID
Ipace back and forth in my office with Devin and Ezra watching my every move.
Ellis has left to go to class, but unsurprisingly, these two didn’t need an excuse to skip.
Just like Dev said on the phone when they were at the cabin, there was no evidence to help point us in the direction Victor and his goons have taken Alana and Mav.
Aubrey has yet to come up with anything useful so we’re still here floundering while they’re suffering.
Every time I so much as blink, all I see is the image of them Victor sent. Alana curled up and locked in what I can only assume is a heavy-duty dog crate and Mav hanging from a chain from the ceiling. But while that looked bad, it was clear that it was only the beginning. Fuck knows what state both of them might be in now.
That photo came through days ago.
They’re not dead. I’m confident of that fact. Victor wouldn’t have anything over me if he killed them.
He wants us all to suffer as much and for as long as possible.
“What do we do now?” Ezra asks, his fingers drumming against this thigh nervously. “Surely we can’t just sit and wait for him to make a move.”
