Page 91 of Bound By Secrets

The car swerves as Connor speeds up, Callum shouting directions at him.

Johnny managed to trace the IP address from the video feed, and it led him to a house under Paul’s name only two towns over. So that’s where we’re headed, hoping that Callie is there.

Colin is still about an hour away, but he’s sent police to the location. He’s also informed us that they now have Derek's exact location, which will be good news for Callie.

If we ever get to share it with her.

My hands are clenched into tight fists as tears fill my eyes when I think about everything that I’ve watched over the past few hours. The most heartbreaking part was seeing her face as she watched that video.

We could hear it, but we couldn’t see it. Instead, we were able to see Callie’s face as she slowly broke apart whilst she watched herself being taken advantage of.

Callum and Ryker both threw up around the same time as Callie did. Connor almost smashed the laptop at the time and then decided to smash items of his father's instead.

I sniffle and swipe my hand across my nose.

“She’ll be okay. She has to be.” Ryker’s voice holds conviction as his eyes flicker to Callie’s body on the screen.

“Left, left, left!” Callum shouts, moving over to pull on the steering wheel. Connor pushes his hand away and yanks on the wheel, skidding around a corner.

“Colin’s said the police and ambulance are about ten minutes out.”

My gaze pings to Ryker, panic flooding my body.

“She’s bleeding out, and she’s unconscious! We need the fucking ambulance!” I shout, squeezing my hands around Connor’s headrest and clinging onto it whilst he swerves around another corner.

“I know, Brad, I can’t make them go any faster!”

“All I see is fields. Where is this bloody house?” Connor roars, speeding down a dark road and twisting his head from side to side.

I turn to face the window, squinting my eyes to search through the darkness. When I spot flashes of light through the trees, I shout for Connor to turn right. He swings the wheel, not caring that there isn’t a road, and he speeds his way across the field toward the dim lights flickering through the trees.

“There’s an opening over there!”

Connor turns, and Ryker falls into me from the momentum.

As soon as we breach the trees and a small dilapidated house comes into view, Connor slams his foot on the brakes and my head crashes into his headrest.

Each of us rushes out of the car, not bothering to close the doors as we charge towards the house, frantically calling Callie’s name.

Connor throws his body into the door, splintering the wood as he falls through and lands on the rotting floor. Ryker jumps over him, bolting towards the first room in search of Callie.

When we hear Ryker scream her name, Connor jumps up from the floor, and we hurry into the room he went into.

My feet freeze as I take in the sight before me.

The plastic sheeting that covers the floor is smothered with blood. Cameron’s lifeless body is sprawled beside Ryker, and when I see the knife protruding from his chest, my stomach churns.

I avert my eyes from his body and watch as Ryker kneels beside Callie, his bloodied hands lifting her head into his lap as tears cascade down his cheeks. He leans over her, quietly begging her to hold on.

Her skin is sickly pale, and her chest doesn’t seem to be moving.

Callum and Connor rush towards them, barking orders at each other to put pressure on her wounds to stop the bleeding and to start compressions.

Tears blur my vision, and I stumble towards them as Connor strips off his top, ripping it apart and tying it around her legs whilst Callum straddles her stomach and starts performing chest compressions.

Connor looks towards me, his expression distraught.

“Go outside and flag down the ambulance,” he says, his voice quivering as he speaks. “S-she needs the ambulance.”

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