Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
“If you hurt her in anyway, I will bury you, both of you,” I said quietly, every muscle in my body clenched tight. “Do you understand?”
There was silence before suddenly, he came on the phone.
“Alright you rich prick,” he mumbled. “We’re gonna need one million bucks, today, in cash. You fucking got that, moneybags?”
“No deal,” I growled.
He laughed. “Fuck you, man. You wanna gamble with her life?”
“She’s your daughter,” Lincoln hissed, his hand balling into a fist like he might put it through the dash speaker.
“Yeah?” the man snickered. “Well it sounds like she’s your whore, so—”
“You’re a dead man,” Lincoln said quietly, his eyes narrowed and looking straight ahead. “You’re a fucking dead man.”
“One million, you pricks!” Kenzie’s dad spat into the phone. “We’ll call you back in one hour to tell you where to—”
I ended the call abruptly.
“You bring a gun?”
I shook my head, glancing at Lincoln. “You?”
“Nope, but it doesn’t matter,” he growled. “Just get me in that room, and I’m going to put your sister and that piece of shit in the fucking ground.”
The rage exploded through me as my hands gripped the wheel tight. My foot brought the pedal to the metal as the car thundered down the backroads.
It was time to take back what was ours.
18
Mackenzie
I screamed into the gag in my mouth, kicking out and trying to break free, even if I knew it was hopeless. I was tied to an old wooden chair, with an old t-shirt or something stuffed into my mouth. The rope dug into my skin, burning and cutting me, but I kept struggling anyway.
No way was I going to just sit there and let them try to do this.
I could hear my dad on the phone with what had to be Wilder and Lincoln, and slowly, I could feel my heart sinking. It wasn’t like I had any love left for my father — not after the life I’d had and all the ways he’d abandoned me and neglected me. But the fact that my own flesh and blood would kidnap me and try and barter me for ransom still hurt.
I glanced at Wilder’s sister, watching her pace the floor and chain-smoke cigarettes. She’d been talking on the phone first, but when she’d stuttered to a stop and turned white, my dad had yanked it out of her hands.
“One million, you pricks!” he yelled into the phone. “We’ll call you back in one hour to tell you where to—”
I blinked, his face turning red as he pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it. “Fucking assholes hung up on me!”
He whirled, snarling as he glared at me.
“Looks like your little boy-toy sugar-daddies gave up on you, huh? I mention money, and they hang up?” He shook his head, glaring at me. “Looks like I raised you to find some real prizes, huh.”
I glared at him, muttering through the gag before he marched over and took it out.
“What?”
“I said you didn’t raise me at all,” I hissed. “I did.”
He rolled his eyes as he looked way. “Well, either way, they ain’t fuckin’ coming, so we need a new plan.”
He and Stephanie stormed away, lighting cigarettes and pacing around muttering and trying to come up with a plan. But I wasn’t worried. I knew Wilder and Lincoln would come for me.
…I knew it, in my heart. The man holding me hostage like this — tied to a chair in this old mill building — was not my family.
They were.
Lincoln and Wilder had become the family I’d looked for my entire life. And I don’t just mean they were my “daddies,” as hot as that dynamic was. But they protected me, and took care of me, and listened to me. And loved me. With them, I became a part of something bigger than just me, and that’s what a family was supposed to be, right?
“Well call them back!” my dad shouted at Stephanie, shoving the phone back into her hands.
“You fucking call them! You’re the one who just blew the deal, asshole!” She screeched back. “Dammit, we need that money! Rico said he’d have a whole package for us in a few days. We need that money to get it! C’mon, think about it! We could do as much of it as we wanted and sell the rest and be set!”
For one second, my dad glanced at me, and there in his eyes, I could see the hesitation.
“C’mon,” Stephanie whined. “I wanna get high!”
And just like that, his attention snapped away from me, and he grinned as he grabbed the phone. Just like that, my own father chose drugs over me.
Again.
And just like that, I knew there wasn’t any single doubt about who my real family was now.
…I just need them to hurry up and save me.
My dad snatched the phone up, punching the buttons and bringing it to his ear before he swore.