Page 74 of Ruthless Reign

I didn’t want to know what horror he saw when he looked at me, but I knew I would never get the look on his face out of my head. Then he noticed Séamas and I felt a hard sob grow in my chest, silencing me.

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing in our apartment?”

“Toby,” I bawled through the tears. “Go! Go! Get out of here.”

But through the saltwater in my eyes, I could see him make the decision and I couldn’t do anything to stop him as his face twisted and he lifted the baseball bat from beside the door to race into the room.

“No!”

The silenced gunshot snapped in the air like a muffled crack of lightning.

Toby toppled over, his slack form hitting the hardwood so hard he slid another two feet, coming to a stop next to my chair.

Wide, vacant eyes stared at nothing as the bullet hole in the exact center of his forehead began to leak, a delicate curl of smoke evaporating from the wound.

My stomach heaved and I almost wasn’t fast enough to turn my head before burning bile passed my lips, my body wringing itself dry as I fought for breath through the sobs and convulsions.

Toby.

The air turned to sludge and I struggled to breathe, drowning in it, being sucked down.

He didn’t do anything wrong.

Not him.

“Ope, looks like you’re expecting more company shortly. I suppose I best be on my way.”

Toby wasn’t a part of this.

No.

No. no. no.

“I appreciate your time, little Saint. It’s been…most enlightening,” Séamas said, the words warping and distorting as the darkness finally took me.

Kaleb’s blood still stained the backseat of Dad’s car.

I didn’t want to leave the hospital, but when Ava Jade called I had Dad’s keys and was in the parking lot before anyone knew I was gone.

She stole their fucking car?

Rook said that the camera placed her leaving their place not five fucking minutes after our call in the middle of the night. If she were headed this way, she’d have arrived back in Santa Clarita hours ago.

But she wasn’t at the hospital.

And now I knew she wasn’t at our place, either. I’d damn near torn the doors off the hinges checking every room.

What the fuck was she thinking?

Was she trying to get herself killed? Or worse, taken?

The things that twisted motherfucker might do to her…

Hawk’s face, pale, with unseeing eyes and a moth over her lips flashed in my mind. A reminder of what could happen if we weren’t careful.

Where are you?

Where are you?

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