Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
I shudder in place as I touch the blood, and my stomach immediately wants to flip over again.
He was here.
This is where Lex … shot him.
I swallow back down the bile.
Where is he?
I get up and check the office, but no one is there either. Just a bunch of boxes and papers spilled all over the floor.
“Beast?” I mutter, knowing full well that making any sound is dangerous, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is around to hear.
I head into the bathroom in the back, but that’s empty too, as are the storage units scattered all over the warehouse.
“Beast?!” I say, this time louder than before.
Still no response.
This place … It’s empty.
Completely devoid of any human presence.
Like no one was ever here.
And it makes it hard to breathe.
“Beast …” I say as I sink to the floor, feeling like the world is slowly caving in on me.
I thought I’d find him here. That he’d be lying here in a puddle of his own blood. Dead.
Instead, it’s almost like he never existed at all.
All that remains of him is a bloodstain, spreading like poison across the concrete floor.
Where did they take him?
Tears form in my eyes.
I came here because I needed to know the truth. If he was even alive at all.
But now I’ll never know.
And I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.
I have to physically drag myself toward our room in the shoddy hotel. But the second I open the door and step one foot inside, my father is immediately up in my face.
“Where were you? Did anyone follow you?”
“What? No, of course not,” I reply, passing by him.
“How do you know? Did you even check before you came back?” He pushes me away and glares into the hallway like a hawk before shutting the door behind me. “What did you even do out there?”
“What’s with all the questions?” I reply.
He grabs my shoulders and shakes me around like a doll. “Answer me, Aurora!”
I’m flabbergasted. It’s been a long time since he put his hands on me like this.
I used to cower in fear and cry when he would … but I’m not that same girl I used to be.
I shove him away. “I went back to the warehouse.”
His eyes slowly widen, like he realizes I made his worst fear a reality.
Suddenly, he bursts into a rage, clutching my collar. “Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
“Let go of me.” I slap his hand off my clothes, and I turn around and walk toward the window to gaze outside. I don’t even know what I’m looking at, but anywhere is better than having to look at my father. “I did what I had to do.”
“Do what? Throw yourself at the enemy?” he says through gritted teeth. “After all that effort to escape?”
“I needed to know if he was alive!” I yell. Turning to face him, I show him all the rage coiled up inside me.
For a moment, he simply stares at me. “He’s literally a killer who tried to murder both of us, and you care whether he’s even alive?”
“He’s the only reason we still breathe,” I spit back, taking ample time to articulate my words because I want my father to take them seriously. “He deserved far more than what he got.”
Suddenly, the door handle is jiggled, and we both fall silent. Instantly.
My eyes are drawn to the door. So are my father’s.
The fumbling doesn’t stop.
Someone’s here.
CHAPTER 3
Aurora
Anxiety floods my body.
I take a step back, bumping into the window.
“They found us!” my father whisper-yells at me.
He quietly crosses the floor and picks up a lamp from the desk, holding it up like some sort of weapon.
And when the lock is finally pushed off, the door swings open, and a man storms inside, eyes like the devil. I shriek as my father chucks the lamp at him and misses.
The man charges at my father with a knife, but my father catches his wrist and holds him back. But his wounds are grave, and his body still too frail to handle the attack. He’s losing ground.
In a panic, I search for anything I can use, but all I find is a flower vase. Without thinking, I pick it up and approach the man from the back. They’re fighting for power near the bed, and all the pieces of furniture are shoved aside. My father tumbles over the bed, a knife almost in his face.
I slam the vase into the back of the man’s head as hard as I can.
It shatters into a million tiny pieces, and the man falls right on top of my father. The knife tumbles to the floor.
But the man swiftly turns around to face me, the fury on his face terrifying.
He throws a punch, and I duck for cover, picking up a shard on the way.