Series: Sean Moriarty
Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 113805 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113805 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Going to the front of the building, I open the door for Thaddeus to step out first.
I take one step after him then an explosion of blood and bits of skull hit my face.
Thaddeus collapses to the floor, his head missing.
I step back into building and pull Thaddeus’s lifeless body with me as a flood of bullets slam into the metal door.
The feeling that’s been haunting since I left the church has finally manifested.
We’ve been made.
Shouts from behind me start to break into my brain as I take cover away from the door. The door itself now starting to look like a paper target at a shooting range.
Somewhere behind me there’s another scream of pain, and whoever it came from isn’t gagged.
Fuck.
My phone starts buzzing with an incoming call, but I’m pulling Thaddeus’s body with me behind an old steel secretary’s desk.
“Fuck!” I scream and flip the desk over to its side. “Thaddeus is down!”
Dragging Thaddeus behind the desk, I pull my Glock from the holster on my hip and train it on the door.
More shouting comes from the back.
Johnathan screams in rage as he sprints through the room to slide behind another desk.
Pushing the desk over to its side like I’ve done, he looks at me and his eyes are wide with fury and worry.
It’s a look I’ve never seen before on any of my brother’s faces.
“They’ve hit the houses, too,” Johnathan rages. “They’re attacking our fucking wives!”
20
Eden
My heart lighter after making the decision to stay another day, I spend the rest of the afternoon getting comfortable in the house.
No longer feeling as overwhelmed now that I have something to do.
Poking through every drawer, closet, and cabinet again, I take note of what there is and what I’ll need to focus on when I go shopping tomorrow.
Abel finishes his stroller nap while I mess around. After he wakes up and has a snack, I carry him up to the nursery.
We start going through his new toys.
“What do you think of this one?” I ask, holding out a rubbery giraffe to him.
Abel grabs the giraffe and immediately bites down on the neck.
I laugh as he gnaws happily. “I suppose that’s a keeper.”
Turning back to the toy box to dig another toy out, I freeze when the doorbell rings.
“Huh, that’s weird,” I say to Abel.
It must be a mistake. Whoever it is probably has the wrong house…
The doorbell rings twice again in quick succession, like whoever is ringing it is impatient.
I frown. “Maybe it’s Meredith and Beth.”
Getting to my feet, I scoop Abel up and head downstairs.
The doorbell rings three more times before I pull the front door open.
“What on earth?!” I snap angrily before I lay eyes on who is standing on my front stoop. “Oh my god, Sonya?! What are you doing here?”
“Eden!” Sonya cries out and throws herself at me. Wrapping her free arm around me, she hugs me hard. “They told me you were safe but I didn’t believe them!”
Stunned speechless, it’s all I can do to hug her back as she goes on, babbling her feelings out. “After you disappeared, I was terrified something bad happened to you! All these men showed up at your place and there was a biohazard cleaning crew. There was this rolled up carpet covered in blood! And I swear I saw them moving a body out!”
I pull back a little to look at her tearstained face, my own going pale. “They pulled a body out?”
Kyle’s body?
“Well, I thought it was a body… I thought it was you! And I was scared to fucking death that man, Jude, killed you. He looked like total a serial killer. He had serial killer eyes... But you’re okay…” Sonya sniffles.
“Yes, like I told you a million times, she’s fine! See!” a man snaps angrily.
I look over Sonya’s shoulder to see James, one of the men Jude knows, glaring daggers at us.
“What is going on?” I ask, beyond confused.
James laughs in disgusted anger. “What is going on? Your friend here has the entire neighborhood up in arms. More than half my tenants are threatening to not pay rent!”
He rakes his fingers angrily through his hair then points his finger accusingly at Sonya. “She’s been calling my management office all day, every day about you. Threatening to report us to the police, news, and housing authority over your disappearance.”
I look back to Sonya, shocked. “You did?”
Sonya nods slowly, her tears drying. “I did.”
I choke up, my chest tightening with emotion, and squeeze her harder.
I thought no one cared about Abel and me besides Jude…
But of course she does.
She’s cared since the day we first moved in. She’s always been there for me when I needed her and never asked anything in return.
And I left her without a word.
Some friend I am.
I’ve been so caught up with Jude and my own problems, I didn’t even think of trying to contact her…