Page 158 of Scars Run Deep

Asher: Compromised. Move in. Brutal. No mercy.

Caleb: Roger that.

Locking my phone and pocketing it, I shored up my focus.

It wouldn’t be long now.

I stood at the back of the space, several feet back from the rows of chairs set in a semi-circle with the monsters in suits watching the show, some already bidding as the dolls were being led out from a corridor to the right. They were lined up, each wearing a golden negligee and caked in several layers of makeup to hide the bruises and abrasions beneath. A leash encircled their necks, a robed Infidel clutching it tightly. As they reached the large stone circle, they were paraded around, the hostages forced to crawl on all fours as they were presented to the audience.

Normally, that alone would’ve been enough to make me sick.

But now there was so much more.

Hexwood House was down.

It had been compromised.

I had no idea where Aurora was, what had happened, and my vivid imagination was running wild with all the awful possibilities. The most likely of which was that Carson had ordered her to be taken.

With me away, it had been an opening.

Thinking he’d be solely focused on the spiraling situation of the Infidels on the verge of their downfall should have held up. The only thing that could have warranted this, him reacting this way was if he’d found out about my involvement in it.

Fuck, he had.

And this was retribution.

The start of it, anyway.

To make matters worse, Killian and Jonah were now MIA and unreachable.

Lance had lived up to my growing distrust in him and ignored all my attempts to reach him.

The only one who’d remained steady was Caleb.

As one of the dolls was sold and cheers erupted, I looked away with a grimace and caught sight of my father emerging from the right corridor.

He scanned the area until his eyes landed on me.

They flashed and a sadistic smile spread over his face.

He knew.

He absolutely knew.

He crooked his finger at me.

The message was clear.

My muscles locked.

Adrenaline skyrocketed.

And then I started forward.

He looked a little surprised that I didn’t even try to make a break for it.

Of course he was.

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