Page 113 of Unmask

Her face filled the screen, shadowed and pale. Her silvery hair was down, a little tangled. She looked…calm. Too calm. Like she was pretending. Like she was barely holding herself together under whatever monster had forced her in front of that camera.

“Kreed…” Her voice was quiet, steady, her light-blue eyes wide. “If you’re watching this… Don’t come looking for me. That’s what they want me to say, but fuck their speech.”

My pulse stopped.

“I don’t have much time,” she continued. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You were right. I should have trusted you sooner, but I need you to make good on your promise. Do what you’re exceptionally good at.” She rushed the words, trying to get everything in as those emotionally filled eyes of hers silently pleaded with me. A door flung open off camera, and from the shift in her gaze and their set determination in her features, I knew she was almost out of time. “I forgive you. And I lo?—”

The screen went black. Silence stretched in the room like a noose. No one moved. No one breathed. “No,” I muttered. “No, no, no.” My chest heaved. My brain scrambled.

What promise?

I hated promises. I didn’t hand them out. Not unless I meant them. They were too damn heavy to fake. But then it hit me,hard enough to stagger.I’ll always find you, little raven. That’s a promise.

My eyes burned. My jaw locked.

This wasn’t a goodbye. It was a dare. A challenge in a whisper. She knew I didn’t back down. Kaylor knew me better than anyone, knew that I never listened when people told me no, and I sure as fuck wasn’t about to start now. She wanted me to hear between the lines. She wasn’t telling me to let her go. She was counting on me to do the opposite. She was still fighting.

And so was I.

I was about to become the Vipers’ worst nightmare. I was about to show Rusty the true monster he thought I was, and anyone who stepped into my path would be nothing but collateral damage.

My hand snapped back, hurling the burner across the room, but it didn’t hit the wall with a satisfying crash. The device landed straight into Raine’s hand as he caught it like the wide receiver he was known to be in high school. “As much as I sympathize with your need to smash shit, this might come in handy in finding her. Assuming you want her back.”

I looked up, breathing hard, a storm in my eyes. My brothers knew me well. “I’m gonna tear them apart,” I said. “Rusty. The Vipers. Anyone who had a hand in this.”

“They just declared war,” Maddox said under his breath.

I nodded once. “Good. Because I’m going to fucking destroy them.”

“Kreed?” Raine’s voice was steady but urgent. “What’s the move?”

They stole what’s mine. And I didn’t take kindly to thieves. “We’re getting our girl back.”

My girl.

TO BE CONTINUED…