Page 125 of All Your Hate

I can’t take her to be sold off and raped. Death would be a better outcome, but that’s not what Dmitri wants. And it's not what I want.

I’ve never cared much about who I’ve killed. Chances are if someone’s got a hit on their head then they deserve it. Children are different. They make mistakes, but they've got the rest of their lives to figure shit out.

I leave the house the way I came in. Its occupants all still breathing in their beds.

This has to end and I need to get ahead of it before Dmitri finds out I’ve not followed through again.

When I get in my car I call Kai and he answers straight away.

“Kai, I’ve got another request for you.”

“Bones,” he sighs. “You know I don’t like being in debt to anyone. I’ve not finished compiling everything for your first request. It’s taking way longer than I’d like to get access to some of the restricted files.”

Putting him on speaker I pull away from the house and head home. “You don’t need to worry about that. I know who it was.”

“Oh, you’re sure? Pretty crazy right? Like a soap opera,” he laughs.

“Yeah, I guess. Look, I need you to go into my company’s files and wipe some things.”

I hear Kai tapping on his keyboard. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s still on his computer this time of night. He probably sleeps with it glaring in his face. “Like what?” he asks.

“There are some records with my father’s name on that I need gone. Can you make it look like an actual error in the system and not a cover-up?”

“That’s easy enough if it’s all digital. Send me over the details of exactly what you want wiped and I’ll sort it. Does this count as two favors now?”

“No one actually keeps track, you know that right? Just call me if you ever need anything.” I hang up and scroll through my contacts. A plan is starting to form in my mind. As much as I want to leave Wynter out of it, I know she needs closure. I’ll let her be a part of it as much as she wants. To be honest I don’t think she’ll give me much of a choice.

I’m exhausted by the time I get home. So exhausted that my brain only registers that the front door’s already open when I’m standing right in front of it.

“Wynter?” I don’t wait for a reply before I get my phone out and bring up the tracker app.

She’s in the woods.

Why the fuck is she even out of the house?

When I reach her location I keep one eye on my phone and another on my surroundings. It’s hard to pinpoint where she is exactly, but she’s here. She has to be.

“Wynter?”

There’s a rustle of leaves to my right and when I look I see her facedown in the dirt.

“Fuck.” Dropping to my knees I scoop her into my lap. She's frigid from the cold in only her pajama shorts and a thin t-shirt. How long has she ben out here? “Open your eyes for me, my love.”

“Noah?” She mumbles sleepily. "You're here. How are you here? The basement's always locked." Reaching out for me she touches my face. Her hand is wet. I grab her wrist and see a cut on her palm.

“What happened?” I try to stay calm for her sake, but it’s almost impossible knowing that someone’s fucking hurt her.

There’s no one else here. The gate was locked when I came in and I could have sworn I locked the front door. But I’ve been running on fumes lately and could have forgotten to lock it.

“Is someone here? Did they hurt you?” I ask as I look around us.

Surely Dmitri couldn’t have heard about tonight already?

Wynter blinks and tries to look at me, but her eyes won’t focus. It’s like she’s been drugged. I check her body for marks. For any indication someone’s touched her. “Wynter, is someone here?” I ask again, more impatient this time as I struggle to keep my anger at bay. If there’s someone still on the grounds or in the house I need to find them, but I can’t leave her like this.

“Yes. She was me and then she wasn’t. I got her though. Cut her hand and she ran away.” She’s rambling like she’s drunk. Sniffing her breath, I smell sweetness.Wine. I pull her eyelidsback to check her pupils. They’re dilated. This is more than just being drunk though.

“Did you drink something? Take something?”

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