Page 68 of Shattered

Turner finds the basement quickly and heads down there, leaving me with the main floor. I rip open every door I find until I hear a loud bang from up the stairs. By the time I reach the bottom, with Turner hot on my heels, I find Bane dragging Raven down the stairs by her hair, screaming bloody murder. When she reaches the bottom, Bane shoves her to her knees, and I grab her by the throat, cutting off her air and slamming her head against the wall.

“Where is the cabin?” I demand.

When I release her neck, she coughs, her eyes wide with panic. “What cabin?”

I shake my head, my fury growing. “Raven, I’m not fucking around. Rocco and Rooney took my friend, they’re gonna kill her!”

When she doesn’t speak, Turner disappears behind me, returning a moment later with a knife. He points the tip of the knife at her eye, making her struggle in fear.

“You have two minutes to tell us where the cabin is,” he says firmly.

She shakes her head, growing angry. “You’re bluffing.”

“I’m not,” I say, snatching the knife from Turner’s hand. Raven squirms but can’t get away. “Tell us where the fucking cabin is!”

Finally, she bends. “They’ll kill me!”

“Either they do or we do,” I say coldly.

I take the knife and drag it across her cheek, leaving a shallow cut that oozes blood, and she winces at the pain; as if it’s a fraction of what Lila’s going through right now.

“You’re coming with us,” I finally snap.

I hate to take a woman hostage, even a bitch like Raven. But we don’t have a choice. We find some tape and use it to secure her anklesand arms. Bane sits in the back seat, dealing with her as she struggles. Reluctantly, she directs us. When we get there, we’ll lock her in the car; she’ll be out of the way.

I missed part of the video when we stormed the house, and now something’s happening, though I’m briefly stunned when I lay eyes on Lila’s chest.

Her tiger tattoo is gone, and she’s completely depleted, her breathing heavy and her eyes shut.

“If we bleed her any more, she’s gonna die,” Rooney says. “We shouldn’t have cut her so much. We could’ve dragged this out for a few days, but she’s lost too much blood.”

“We’ll keep her corpse. She can entertain us til she rots.”

Bile rises in my throat at the thought as my head spins.

“Should we just finish her off with a bang? What do the donors want?” Rocco asks.

“The highest bid is Hans, four hundred thousand for a close-up of drowning her.”

No. No no no.

“We could take her to the bathroom, do it in the tub. Nice lighting. What a boring way to go, though.”

“Yeah, I wanted to mutilate her more for Asher, but money talks.”

“We got two hundred thousand to flay off all her skin. Maybe we’ll get fifty for doing that when she’s dead.”

“Any other takers?” Rocco asks loudly to the camera. “We’ll drown her first, but we can always do more to her corpse.”

“How fucking close are we?” I ask with terror in my voice.

I whip my head around to the back seat to see Bane clock Raven in the head when she doesn’t answer quickly enough. She groans as she straightens herself back up.

“She’ll be dead before we get there,” she says coldly.

“Asher…”

He’s looking over my shoulder at the video, and I see why. They’re moving her.

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