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And the cuff sliding free.
33
ALIK
My car fishtails around the corner to the dirt road that leads to Creeper’s friend’s property.
I don’t know if she’s there or if she’s even alive, but my eyes stay trained on the road with an intensity like every second counts. Because it does.
What are they doing to her right now? What could I have prevented if only I’d gotten here sooner?
What if I’ve got it wrong, and I’m wasting time?
My mind burns with these thoughts, and I can feel Arthur in the passenger seat thinking the same. Fox and Zinovy are in an SUV behind us, medical supplies at the ready that I hope to God she won’t need. If she does, I’ll never forgive myself.
I should’ve gone to her weeks ago. I should’ve begged her for another chance, confessed to her all my sins, professed my unrelenting love that will keep me up every night until I see her again.
I didn’t know who I was before her, but now I feel as though, without her, I can never be me again. Ineedher. I don’t know if she needs me in her life emotionally, but right now, she needs my protection. If only I’d understood that sooner, she wouldn’tbe in danger now. Creeper would’ve already been dead. Olive would be home,safe.
Please be alive.
The car slips on loose dirt, and I lose control for a moment but don’t dare slow down. I won’t chance Olive having any time to spare.
“There.” Arthur points to the house up ahead, and I gun it, my foot pressing the pedal to the floor until we’re almost to the driveway where I whip the car in. Zinovy and Fox pull in behind us while I slam the car into park and click the safety off my gun, my stare aimed at the vehicles parked in front of me, Creeper’s pickup among them.
She’s here.
Blood rushing through my ears, I cock my gun and throw open my door, turning my head to Arthur when he does the same.
“You’d better stay here,” I say to him.
He glares. “She’s my daughter.”
“Exactly.”
His lip curled, he pulls his own gun from the holster on his side and climbs from the car while I do the same. I’ve taken a step toward the run-down, yellow house when a car zooms up the driveway and screeches to a stop a few feet from me.
I raise my gun at the windshield, my muscles tense, but lower it when I recognize the green Camaro. Finn steps out of the car.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you have all the fun, did ya?” He winks, pulling out his gun and gripping it with both hands.
I pause only a moment to give him a thankful nod before I stomp up to the house, my brothers, Arthur, and Finn, behind me. It’s likely they know we’re here, so I don’t bother with stealth.
I want them to know I’m coming. I want them to know the suffering they’re about to face.
I throw open the screen door and jiggle the locked knob before kicking in the wooden front door. My gun swings around the empty living room, my ears immediately picking up the music coming from a room down a hall.
I swing that way and stalk toward it, my jaw clenched as I move down the hallway and through the entryway to a kitchen, my finger over the trigger, ready to fire.
Blood.
So much blood.
My stomach rises into my throat, and my heart stops at the sight. For just a moment, I think I may drop my gun, faint at the sight, the smell of the love of my life’s remains.
But then I see her.
My jaw unclenches, and my gun lowers as everyone floods into the kitchen, as ready as I was.
