Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69610 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Fear pumps through my veins, and I wrap my arms around myself. “I don’t know how you’re so strong, I feel like I’m going to shrink inside myself from fear alone.”
She holds my eyes, her beautiful green ones filled with a determination I admire. “Think of everything you love, Amalie. Every single thing you have. Are you honestly going to sit back and just let them take all of that from you? Without even trying to fight for it? Fear is nothing more than an emotion. Put it away.”
I stare at her in awe. Then I think of Malakai and Scarlett, and the club, and my father, hell, even my mother. And I know what she’s saying. If I’m going to die, I’m going to do it fighting. At least then I’ll know I did everything I could to get back to them. Everything.
“No, I’m not going to let them just take that from me.”
She smiles, weakly. “Then we need to find a way to get the hell out of here.”
“Any idea how we might do that?”
She shakes her head but looks around the room. “He bashed me so badly I can barely lift my arms, but he made the mistake of not hurting you too badly, yet. Which means you still have strength. There are a few things in this room that could work, like that beam over there on the wall. It’s nailed on, but I think we can bust the nails off and pull it down. You could hit someone really hard with that.”
I glance around the mostly empty room. Outside of a worn-out old mattress on the floor and a few pans that I imagine are for going to the toilet, there is nothing that could be used as a weapon, but Charlie is right, there are some old beams hanging off the wall. They look like they might have been used as a flimsy repair to the broken wall, but with a good deal of force, hitting someone with one of them would knock them out.
I push to my feet and walk over to them, some are nailed securely to the wall, but there are two that the nails have gone slightly rusty and they’ve pulled away from the wall just a little. I tug at one. It’s hard, it’ll take a lot of effort to pull it off. I look around the room, trying to find anything that might help me loosen it. My eyes meet Charlie’s on my search, and she nods at me. “They’re going to be hard to get off. Have you got anything on you, anything at all, that might help?”
They took my phone, and anything else I had on me, they also ripped off all the wires, but what they didn’t consider, was my hair. I reach up and pull out the long, thick pins holding it together. They’re not much, but I might be able to chip away at the wood around the nails, and loosen them enough to get them free.
I walk over and start scraping at the old, splintery wood. It takes me over twenty minutes to loosen just one of the nails. Frustrated, I rattle and shake the wood. I look back at Charlie and she waves quickly, instructing me to sit down. She can hear someone coming. I rush over and sit down beside her, tucking the hair pin in a crack in the cement floor. Then I wait with a sick feeling for the door to open.
“Hello, ladies,” Treyton says the moment he steps in.
He’s holding a crowbar.
My stomach twists, and I feel sick.
What in the hell is he going to do with that?
I glance at Charlie, and her face is pale.
Has he already used that on her?
He steps in, two men following him, and then he closes the door.
And I brace myself for the hell he’s about to inflict on us.
-17-
MALAKAI
“Here to see Caiden,” I say to the sour-faced woman standing at the door of the massive fucking mansion.
She stares at me, mouth slightly agape, and then quickly shakes her head. “You need to leave. He’s retracted his statement. He doesn’t want any trouble. I’ll call the police.”
“First of all, lady, you can call the fuckin’ cops, see if I give a flyin’ fuck, and second of all, I couldn’t care less about his filthy fuckin’ lies. I’m here because Amalie is missin’. Now, you either let me in, or I’ll come back with thirty men, and we’ll find a way in. Cops, or not.”
Her mouth drops open, and she just stares at me for a few moments, and then she steps aside and lets me in. Smart woman; clearly her son didn’t get his stupid fucking brain from her. “Show me where he is,” I demand, and she murmurs a low, “Follow me.”