Total pages in book: 266
Estimated words: 250787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1254(@200wpm)___ 1003(@250wpm)___ 836(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 250787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1254(@200wpm)___ 1003(@250wpm)___ 836(@300wpm)
Silence comes over the line.
“Listen, we don’t have time for this shit.” Saint goes on. “We need help finding Haidyn.”
“What do you mean finding him?” the familiar voice on the phone asks, confirming what I already knew.
“He’s left,” Kashton hisses. “Cut out his tracker and took off. About an hour ago.”
An hour? It feels like so much longer than that. But still, he can get far within an hour. Especially if he took the Spade brother’s private jet. Maybe they can track that if he’s on it.
“Fuck,” Adam shouts.
“We need your help.” Saint growls, already impatient. “We’re on our way to Carnage. How long until you can get there?”
He’s silent for a long second before he speaks again. “I can’t…”
“This is for Haidyn!” Saint snaps. “Come and help us. No questions asked. Once we find him, you leave like last time.” It’s more of a statement rather than a question.
Saint gives Kashton a quick look, who is staring out his passenger side window.
“Kashton?” Adam questions.
“Yeah,” he finally speaks, voice rough. “After we find him, you can leave. Again. No questions asked.”
“I can be there in twenty minutes.” The call ends.
I sink into the back seat, closing my eyes and trying not to lose my mind. He left me. I mean, I shouldn’t be all that surprised, right? I was just hoping that I could change his mind last night. I thought I could will him to want to be with me, to stay with me, but it wasn’t enough. He ended up leaving me after all.
Why marry me if he never intended on being with me? To humiliate me? He told me he loved me. Was that true? Or just another lie.
“Is there anything else you remember?” Saint asks me.
So much about the past two days are a blur that I’m sure there is something… “Gavin,” I say forgetting to tell them about that part.
“What about him?” Kash demands, turning in his seat to glare at me. I get it. I’m the enemy. I took their brother away from them. I’m the reason he left them…again.
“Haidyn told me that he had called him…Gavin brought him adrenaline to bring me back.”
“Call him. Tell him to get his ass to Carnage. Now. Maybe he can fill in the spots that Charlotte can’t remember,” Saint orders Kashton.
SEVENTY-SIX
CHARLOTTE
We pull up to the front of Carnage, and Kashton helps me out of the car. My legs are wobbly, and my body shakes. I’m not sure if it’s from the fuck-fest last night, the sobbing, or the lack of sleep. But my knees go to give out and Kashton picks me up with an arm behind my knees and the other around my back.
I bury my face into his chest and try to stop crying. “We’ll find him,” he assures me, but I have my doubts. He could be anywhere by now.
When he’s setting me down onto a couch, I open my eyes and see we’re in their office. My eyes go straight to Haidyn’s desk. My chest tightens at how vacant it looks. It’s a haunting sight.
The door swings open, and I look over at the guy who enters. His eyes immediately meet mine, and my heart races.
“What do you know?” he demands, looking at Kashton and Saint.
I lower my eyes to the floor and cover my face with my hands, having to remind myself to breathe.
“Not much,” Saint answers. “She filled us in that she was drugged. Seems she was given the same drug that you gave Haidyn when he pretended to die. And Gavin brought her back with adrenaline. She said he didn’t give her much information. He called Kash to go get her. We found her tied to her bed and him gone.”
Adam looks over at Haidyn’s desk and then back to me. “I know who has him, but I don’t know where they have him.”
“Who the fuck is it?” Kashton snaps.
Adam’s eyes meet mine as he says, “Bella Marie Costello.”
The room falls silent—Kashton and Saint both go stiff where they stand. I find myself getting to my shaking legs. “No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “That’s not possible.”
Saint is the one who whirls around and glares at me. “You know her?”
I swallow the knot that forms in my throat. “She’s my mother.” Costello is her maiden name.
“WHAT?” Kash shouts, making me flinch. Before I can blink, he’s in front of me, and he’s got my back on the couch, staring up at him with his hands around my throat, cutting off my air. “What the fuck do you mean she’s your mother?” He’s shouting in my face.
“Get off her!” His hands are removed from my neck, and I roll off the side of the couch onto the floor where I cough and curl into a ball.
The door opens. “Saint…” I close my eyes at the sound of Ashtyn’s voice. “What’s going on?” she asks, obviously not up to speed on the situation.