Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
I was playing a dangerous game with Walker Ironside.
“Sloane.”
Turning from dumping dirty laundry into the bag attached to my cart, I found Aria hurrying along the carpeted hall toward me. She wore a deep frown.
“What’s wrong?”
Aria waited until she’d reached me. “I don’t want to alarm you, but there’s been an attempted breach of the estate. The security team are out checking it, but Jock has asked me to bring you to my office to wait there until we can be certain.”
My heart raced. “To be certain … that it’s not Nathan?”
She nodded.
“Oh.” Frannie opened the door of the bedroom we were cleaning, carrying a refuse bag. “Ms. Howard.”
Aria gave her a tight smile of acknowledgment. “I need to steal your colleague away for a moment. Will you be all right finishing up here by yourself?”
Frannie’s gaze filled with curiosity, but she nodded. “Of course.”
And that’s how I found myself in Aria’s office a few minutes later, jittery and hopeful that Nathan was stupid enough to attempt to breach the estate. He’d be arrested, and this could all be over soon.
Seated in the chair across from Aria’s desk, I tried to stop my knee from bouncing but couldn’t. Aria leaned against her desk, watching me with concern, but neither of us said a word. When her cell phone rang, we both jumped a mile.
She fumbled for it, cursing under her breath, and then her expression tightened. “It’s my mother.” She answered. “Mamma, can I call you back?” Aria’s lips pursed. “I’m sure that’s not true.” Casting an apologetic look, Aria pushed off the desk and held up a finger to me. She mouthed, “One minute,” and I nodded in understanding as she strode out of the office, gesturing that I should lock the door behind her.
Not even thirty seconds passed when my cell rang. Hoping it was Walker with some good news, I yanked it out and saw it was an unknown number. Usually, I’d ignore it because of spammers.
However, for whatever reason, my gut told me to answer.
As soon as I said hello, his voice grated down the line.
“If you ever want to see Callie again, you’ll come meet me.”
My heart raced, but this time I wouldn’t let fear win. He couldn’t get to Callie on Saturday, and he couldn’t now. “Callie’s in school.”
“School’s out, bitch.” There was a rustle and then ice flooded my veins at the sound of my daughter’s voice.
“Mommy,” she sobbed.
She hadn’t called me mommy since she was six years old.
“Callie!”
But then Nathan’s voice was back in my ear. “Proof enough.”
I stood, rage seething through me as I hissed, “You listen to me, you son of a bitch. If you do anything to hurt my daughter, I will put the next bullet in your fucking head.”
“Ooh …” He laughed softly. “I always knew you had wild in you, Sloane.” His tone hardened. “And she’s our daughter. Got my eyes. Look, I just want to talk without your bodyguards in our way. So here’s the deal: I’m going to give you instructions, and you’re going to tell no one because if you’re followed or I end up back in prison, the next time I get out, Sloane, I’ll kill our daughter right in front of you.”
I heard Callie’s frightened cries, and pain and terror unlike anything I’d ever known winded me. Silent, screaming sobs tried to burst forth, and I bent over, clutching my stomach.
“You got that? Sloane, you got that? Sloane!”
I fought through my panic at his agitated yell just as my phone screen showed Regan was trying to call. Probably to tell me Callie was missing. How did he take my girl?
“Fuck, Sloane?!”
I had to choke out the words. “I got it.”
“I’m going to send directions to your cell. You’re going to follow them. And you’re going to tell no one.”
“I’m on the estate. I can’t get out without the guards knowing.”
“Then do what you have to, to get out without them noticing. For Callie’s sake.” Nathan hung up.
I felt sick to my stomach, but I shut it down. I shut down everything so I could think.
Think, think, think.
My phone beeped with a text with the directions Nathan had promised. He was about thirty minutes south of Ardnoch.
Aria’s SUV. Unlike everyone else here who drove around in the estate fleet of Range Rovers, Aria drove a BMW X7 with tinted windows. Perhaps the guards would realize too late it was me driving out of the gates.
Perhaps it was stupid.
In hindsight, it was definitely stupid.
Not to call for help.
Not to tell Walker.
But I believed Nathan when he said he’d never leave Callie alone if I didn’t do this. And I had to believe that it was me he wanted, not our daughter. A sick part of me, that raging, exhausted part, wanted to fight him. Wanted to be the one to hurt him. He unleashed a savagery in me I hated him for too.