Page 289 of Unexpected Hero

Girls huddle in corners, some of them naked. All of them bruised and battered. All of them traumatized.

But not one of them is the woman I love. The woman I vowed to protect.

That fissure that began ripping my heart in two deepens until two separate pieces hang together by mere threads.

I won’t survive if this is how I lose her. I can’t. I can’t.

I’m not strong enough.

But I can’t give up on her. I won’t stop until I find her.

Until she’s safe.

With my hands coiled into tight fists, I stand in the middle of the living room and wail at the top of my lungs. “Violet!”

Chapter 55

Someone saved my life tonight

LETTIE

Alone in the darkness of Tasha’s hidey-hole, I wrap my arms around my bent knees and rock while humming our song. My eyes refill with tears as fast as they fall.

The sounds from the house are so foreign to what I’ve grown used to these last few days. The men yelling in fear, instead of the women.

I’m tempted to take that as a good sign. Maybe we’re being saved.

But I fear it’s a trap. A twisted game of my mind’s own making. Some type of nightmare, tempting me with promises of rescue, only to dash the prize away at the last moment, leaving me a heaving pile of misery on the floor.

From the other side of the wall, I detect hushed female voices and a deep male voice. I strain to decipher the words over the blood racing behind my ears.

He’s gathering them up.

Another male voice shouts louder than the rest.“Lettie!”

Oh no. Fuck. They’re trying to find me. They know I’m hiding.

“Lettie, are you in here?” he yells again.

This time, the voice sounds familiar.

James?

No. It can’t be him.

I shake my head and cover my ears. Fear of being lured into the nightmare’s trap pulses through me. He’s not shouting my name. It’s a cruel trick.

And it’s not him.

The voice grows fainter, still yelling out for me. Banging sounds follow. Doors slamming, maybe?

When the voice bellows my first and last name, my arm hairs stand on end. Is it Viktor again? Has he come back for me like he said he would?

My hand hovers over the panel, and I listen carefully, pressing my ear right up to the wall.

And then I hear him.

“Lettie! It’s me, sugar. Answer me!”

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