Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
I reach her and carefully say, “Hi Lilian, I’m Aviana. We’re not here to hurt you, honey. We’re here to bring you home.”
She looks up at me, tears running down her face. “I know who you are,” she sobs. “That’s not why I’m crying.”
“What is it then?” I ask softly.
“They killed him. They killed him...”
My entire world stops.
My heart lodges into my throat.
For a second, I forget how to breathe.
“Who, honey? Who did they kill?”
“My daddy.”
“WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?” Cohen roars, lunging at Benedict, his hands going around his throat and tightening as he shakes him.
Benedict’s face goes a dark shade of red as he gasps, unable to push Cohen’s hands away because he is bound. Alarick and Kendric move quickly, jerking Cohen away and holding onto him as he roars with anger, trying with everything he has to get back to Benedict. Briella and Lilian are sobbing in the corner, Briella’s arms wrapped around the young girl, a blanket over her body to keep her warm. Merleigh is standing beside me, clutching my hand so tightly my fingers hurt, but I don’t pull away.
Tears threaten to roll down my cheeks. It takes everything in me not to break right now. I want to scream and break down, but I can’t. Everyone else is falling apart. Someone has to hold them together. Samson is dead. The very thought of that makes me sick to my stomach; it makes the ball of tears stinging my nose want to burst forth and not stop. I can’t give in to them, but knowing he didn’t even get the chance to meet his baby...it crushes the very parts of my soul I honestly didn’t believe could be crushed any further.
I’m breaking.
We all are.
“I don’t know where he is,” Benedict roars. “You heard my partner. He didn’t see Samson. He got the girl and got the fuck out of there. If that man is there, then you need to go and find his body. I have nothing to do with this.”
“You’re a fuckin’ liar,” Cohen bellows, and my heart breaks for him. I want to go over and hold him, but that won’t help things right now. “You did this on purpose. You set this up. You couldn’t get away with not having one of us taken down.”
Benedict’s face is so hard his mouth is a pale, stretched outline. “I did nothing of the sort. I held up my end of the deal. If your friend wanted to go out there and risk his life, it wasn’t on me. How the hell do you think I could have planned him running away? Control your man, Alarick. I will not help any further if you don’t.”
“Take him outside,” Alarick orders Kendric and Mykel, his voice equally as broken.
The two men take Cohen outside, and he resists the entire time. When they’re gone, Alarick walks over to Benedict and leans down close. “You call every person you know. I want a breakdown of the bodies found at that scene. I want to know where he is. I want him home with his club.”
Benedict nods and begins making phone calls. Bohdi stands by the window, staring out, his body stiff. We’re all feeling this, every single one of us. How the hell are we going to get past this?
I glance over at Lilian, who has her face buried in Briella’s shoulder, sobbing so heavily it makes my heart ache. That poor girl, with everything she has been through, now she has to live with this, too? Nobody deserves that kind of pain.
I wonder how Zariah and Waverly are doing with Angelica? Do they know yet?
It’ll break their hearts, too.
Oh, Samson.
We sit in silence for what feels like hours as Benedict makes calls, trying to find out what he can. On his last call, he hangs up and looks to Alarick. “His body is not on scene. He isn’t there.”
“Where the fuck is he then?” Alarick barks, fists clenched.
“Someone took him?” I croak. “Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know,” Benedict says. “I have an officer calling the hospitals. Perhaps he was taken to one in an attempt to save his life.”
“I saw him get shot,” Lilian whispers. “They shot him so many times, he fell on the ground, and there was blood coming from his mouth...”
Her voice is so pained it makes me feel like I might just vomit. I cross my arms and rub them, trying to make my body feel just a touch better than it feels right now. It doesn’t work. I still feel as though I’m going to lose it and start screaming at any second.
“Did you see him die?” Alarick asks her, his voice quieter when he speaks.
“No, but...he couldn’t have lived. He couldn’t have. You didn’t see it.”
Alarick glances at Bohdi, and in a careful voice, he orders him to call the local hospitals.