Page 97 of Nest Of Lies

“Sorry, princess, but I’ve been paid a lot of money to take you for a ride.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I say it without really thinking, it’s just something you say.

“Fine.” Malone smiles. He smiles, that filthy fucker, and then he pulls the trigger.

I scream.

I scream, and I keep screaming.

I can’t look away.

Nick is dead on the ground. There is a hole in the back of his head, and I can’t look away. There’s so much blood.

I can’t stop screaming. Oh, my god, he killed him. I scream louder, tears streaming from my eyes.

Malone backhands me across the face. The crack of pain silences me more effectively than anything could. I hit the cupboards and huddle there. I can see blood on the floor.

“You’re going to come with me quietly.”

I follow his outstretched arm and find Kyle sitting there. His face is milk white, and he’s breathing hard. Malone’s eyes are on Kyle, but he flicks them to me, and I don’t see an ounce of humanity in him.

“If you let him live, I will come quietly and do everything you want. You have my word,” I manage to whisper.

Malone looks at Kyle with a dark smile. He drops the gun and shoots Kyle three times in the stomach.

I let out another shriek, a scream of pure agony and denial. Malone doesn’t waste a second. He grabs me and drags me by my hair to the back door. I look back and spot Kyle on the ground beside Nick, and then I’m dragged out of the house, and I can’t see any more.

Nicky is dead.

Kyle is dead.

Oh, god, Malone is insane.

My pack are going to be so scared.

He drags me out to the driveway and pushes me into a car. It’s an old sedan, but when I get in the back, there’s no door handles, and there’s a perspex divider like what is in old taxis.

I sit back, terrified. There’s no point even talking to him. He’s not going to change his mind. Poor Kyle and Nick. The poor club. Their families. Zaden. I close my eyes, wishing I could spare him.

I gag and vomit in the back of his car. He shouts and curses at me, but I don’t even care. I keep seeing Nick fall. Kyle’s body jerking violently against the cupboards. The smell of blood still fills my nose.

Kyle’s horror-filled face as the bullets hit.

Their prone bodies on the kitchen floor.

I don’t realise I’m crying until I realise I can’t see anything. I swipe at my tears and huddle to the side of the car. He’s driving us to the other side of the city. He’s not even trying to hide.

I watch for bikes, but more than that, I watch the route he takes. He pulls up into a warehouse and stops the car. I don’t know where we are.

“Put this on.”

I shake my head. He yanks open the door, pins me to the car, and ties a blindfold on me. I don’t make a sound, even when he yanks out my hair.

Then he grabs my wrist and twists it up behind my back and forces me to walk forward.

“You’re fucked now, princess.”

I shudder. I had no idea this much loathing lived inside this man.

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