Page 79 of Crave Me

“Where’s Skylar?” I called loudly to Bastian so he could hear me over the blaring alarms.

“That’s the thing, I—”

Skylar’s panicked yells as I rounded the corner into the foyer pulled him up short. “Let them through! Let them the hell through!” she was telling my security staff by the manor gates.

There was a commotion taking place with a middle-aged woman sporting deep-red collar-length hair standing in front of a black heavily-tinted Mercedes arguing whatever her case was, while Luke stood holding a wand shaking his head, apparently informing her that she wasn’t clear to pass, that he’d found tech on her that wasn’t permitted inside the manor. It was bad enough that she still had two Sigs nestled in a holster at either hip of her camo pants. Blood was staining the entire bottom half of her white V-neck tee beneath a black denim jacket. Judging by her easy and unencumbered movements, the blood wasn’t her own.

Skylar reached the gates and Luke swung his head toward her, frowning as she spoke, her voice quieter so we couldn’t make it out, yet her urgency not lessened, made clear from her wild gestures.

Just as I made it out there with Bastian coming up on my side, and Dante hanging back with Asher and both of them looking on warily and on high alert, the front passenger door of the Mercedes opened slowly.

My security team reacted lightning-fast and took aim.

“Stop!” Skylar screamed, just as the figure came into view.

That familiar overgrown crew cut filled my vision.

That powerhouse muscle.

And those haunted eyes that somehow still flickered with hope despite all he’d endured, so much like his daughter’s stunning emerald pools of intensity.

Frank Bennett.

Sweat was dripping down his bloodied and bruised face, his bare shoulders, and over his white tank. A black shirt was balled up and being held with a trembling hand to his left side, the thing soaked with blood just like that side of his tank beneath.

He could barely make it out of the car, straining and struggling and hunched over.

Then he stumbled and went to slap his hand to the door in a desperate bid for support.

But he missed and crashed painfully onto the asphalt.

“Dad!” Skylar cried, yanking on the gates.

Luke looked to me and I signaled back. In the next moment, he was having security open them for her.

As she rushed on through to her dad, I followed.

Her arms and that of his companion were around him a moment later, trying to help him up.

Weary and pained, he looked out at Skylar and croaked, “Heard you were looking for me, baby girl.”

“Oh my God, Dad. How… how did this… who did this to you?”

He smiled weakly, then looked out at me, struggling to keep his gaze focused as he rasped, “You’re all in danger.”

Before any of us could get a word out or react further, his eyes glazed over and he collapsed, losing consciousness.

18

~Sebastian~

She’d done it.

Sky had come through in a major way.

What she’d put in place had come to fruition. She’d brought one of our biggest potential leads back here right to us.

God fucking dammit, she was something else for sure.

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