Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Amon looks confused. “Who the hell is Clayton? Who the hell is Hattie?”
Collin shrugs. “Lies.”
“You wish.” I sneer back at Collin Creed. “You wish I was lying.” Then I turn my attention to Amon. I wasn’t close with him the way Collin is, but we had our moments that year I was on the crew. “He sold me out to Hattie Miller, who took me prisoner, dragged me back to the general, and I was became a traitor and spent the last six years digging tunnels in the pitch fucking dark. All because of him.”
Amon looks at Collin. “I’mma ask one more time, Col. What. The fuck. Is happening here?”
Collin leans back against the wall again, staring me straight in the eyes. “Whatever’s happening, it’s just a ploy. He’s buying time.” Now he looks at Amon. “What you need to focus on now is Clover. Now put him back down.”
“Clover!” I say her name, because somehow, she had slipped my mind. I look at Amon, ready to tell him about Clover because at least he’s halfway listening to me. But as I do this, Amon’s fist connects with my face.
My head jerks to the side, blood flies out of my mouth, and then everything starts to go blurry again.
“Yeah.” Amon’s behind me now. “Clover. Consider that a deposit on the payback for what you did to sweet little Clover.”
The last thing I hear is Collin saying, “Let’s go. We got a boneyard to see.”
There’s a yank on my IV and a burn running up my arm.
Then my brother is there.
The darkness takes my hand and leads me back into my own personal hell.
The next time I wake up, I’m rolling around in the back of something. A truck, probably. But I can’t be sure because my eyes are still too heavy to open. All I know is that we’re on the road.
We got a boneyard to see.
That’s the last thing Collin said. He’s really gonna do it. He’s really gonna kill me for kidnapping Clover.
Where is she?
Is she still down there? Did Hattie take her somewhere?
The truck makes a hard left and I roll, bumping into something. Then we come to an abrupt stop. I can hear Collin and Amon talking, but it’s outside the truck and muffled, so I can’t make out any actual words. But then the doors open.
“He’s awake,” Collin says.
“Good,” Amon answers. “Because I’m not carrying his ass up that fucking mountain.”
They pull me out by my feet. I brace myself for the fall the best I can, but my hands are tied behind my back so when I hit the ground, a sharp pain shoots through my shoulder.
“Get up,” Collin says. “We’re goin’ for a little walk now.”
I force my eyes open and glare up at him. “I should be killing you, Collin Creed. You’re the traitor, not me.”
He kicks me in the ribs. Not a warning kick, either. It’s hard. Not hard enough to break one, but close. “Shut your mouth and stand up.”
There’s no easy way to follow his command with my hands tied, but I don’t even bother asking them to release the zip ties. Collin and Amon watch me struggle, but after several attempts and a lot of wriggling, I manage to get to my feet.
Amon grabs my shoulder and spins me around. “Walk.”
I’m in a driveway, facing the woods. This is Collin’s childhood home. Lowyn owns it now. I’ve got cameras hidden in the trees here. That was part of the job I was doing. Or, more accurately, the job I thought I was doing.
So I look up, searching for them. I find one and stare into it, wondering who’s watching me. My father? Someone in Blackberry Hill security?
No one, is the more likely answer.
This is it for me. When Collin Creed decides you’re gonna die, well. That’s just all there is to it. You might as well consider yourself dead.
Collin pushes me, making me stumble. “Walk faster and quit lookin’ around.”
Amon leads the way and we enter the woods out behind Collin’s house. It’s a steep climb at first, so I struggle because my hands are tied, but Collin keeps pushing me so I do my best.
We walk in silence until we reach the top of the hill and I can catch my breath. Amon and Collin don’t say anything. Amon just heads into the moonlit meadow and Collin pushes me again to keep up with him.
There’s another set of woods on the other side, and when I look up, there’s nothing but hills.
We enter the woods again and I’m not sure how much further we’ll be going. This could be the woods with the boneyard for all I know. So I have to speak up. “You know I didn’t betray you, Collin.”
He snickers. “Doesn’t matter now, Riggs. All I need to know is that infiltrated my team, spent an entire year with us gathering information, and you’re a liar.”