Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 131455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Her lips draw into a thin line, but her skin grows pale, giving way to a slight trickle of fear. “I've been threatened before,” she whispers.
“Never by somebody so prepared to follow through.” I make a point of checking out her name tag. “Cecilia Miller. What a nice name. Nice wedding ring, too,” I add with a glance at her left hand. “Mr. Miller has good taste. Let me guess, 2.5 kids, a big house with a picket fence. It would be a real shame if something happened, now, wouldn't it? Do your kids have any close family? Do you think they could live without their mother or father?”
Her chin quivers before she makes a strangled choking sound while questioning whether I mean what I'm saying. Whatever she sees on my face convinces her. She gives me a short nod before clearing her throat. “Jane Doe it is,” she whispers while a bead of sweat rolls down her temple.
Romero finds me when I'm finished, barking orders into his phone before jamming his finger at the screen to end the call. “We're gonna find them,” he whispers, watching as Tatum is treated through an opening in the curtain. “We're going to find them, and when we do, they're all fucking dead.”
“Way ahead of you,” I murmur, already imagining the pain I'll inflict. “After we get Bianca back.”
“It might be a good idea to call him.”
I know who him is, and it's the last thing I want to do. Fuck me. It's a good idea since I need as many people as possible to search for her. Charlie has years of experience tracking people, but he's her father. He's going to kill me, or worse, lose his mind. Bianca is all he has left, and if he thinks she might be dead... Well, I can only imagine the fury that he'll unleash. There will be no stopping us, and the hell we will rain down on these people if anything happens to her.
“I'll call Charlie,” I tell Romero.
“I know you don't want to deal with him, but maybe he can help.”
I sigh, “Yeah, maybe, or he'll kill me. At this point, it doesn't matter.” If anything happens to Bianca, I won't be able to forgive myself.
Bianca's home number is already stored in my contacts. I never imagined her father being the person I'd be calling if I ever had to call that number. My hand trembles as I bring the cell to my ear after hitting the green call button.
“Hello,” Charlie's deep voice fills my ear.
“Charlie, it's Callum.” Closing my eyes, I whisper, “I need you to meet me at the hospital. We have a problem.”
BIANCA
My body trembles. My teeth chatter together, the only sound filling the small space. Is this what shock feels like? I can barely think of anything except what happened.
Is Tatum okay? What did they do to her? I couldn't see what happened, but I will never forget the weight of her limp body across my legs. It's where she fell after she slid down my body. And that terrible sound. The sound of bones crunching together. Shattering into tiny pieces.
The shivers worsen when I start to dive deeper into my thoughts. Focus. I can't continue to think like this, not if I'm going to get through this. I'm still alive, and that means something.
I have to do this, for the baby. If for nothing else, I have to survive for my baby's sake. And for my father, who's already lost enough, and Callum. Oh, my God, where is he? Does he know what happened? I'm sure by now he knows what's happened and that I'm missing.
I'm not sure how much time has passed, but it's dark outside. The small window cut into the cinder block wall tells me that. Hours must have passed since they took us from the garage.
Time doesn't matter. I know him. He'll come looking for me.
A sharp pain radiates through my stomach and I curl into a tighter ball on the cot somebody left me on when we arrived. It's filthy and smells like mildew, but it's the only piece of furniture in the small, dark room. Something is dripping somewhere, a leaky pipe maybe, but I can't see it. The rhythmic plink plink plink is almost soothing.
After a few deep breaths, I settle enough to focus on the pain. It's not cramping, thank God. I don't know much about pregnancy yet, but I doubt cramping would be a good sign. It's more like nausea; not surprisingly, fear and dread will do that to you. My stomach is knotted, and I barely contain the scream of rage threatening to tear its way out of my throat when my thoughts drift back to Callum again. I can only imagine how frantic he is right now. The thoughts he's having. I have no idea what they did with Tatum. What if they killed her and left her body there for him to find?