Page 96 of Silent Betrayal

“Yes.”

“Baby, promise me you will fight to stay alive for me.”

“I promise. I love you, Atlas!” The car stops, and the engine switches off.

“Atlas, we’ve stopped. She’s coming!” I whisper, fear consuming me.

“Okay, don’t let her see your watch, pull your sleeve to cover it, quickly now!” he tells me, and I do as he says, just in time before the trunk opens, and Helen is there, pointing the gun at me again.

“Get out.”

I climb out, trying to keep my distance from her as much as possible.

“That way,” she says, motioning to the side, and I finally look around. We’re parked at the side of the woods, with nothing around, and she motions towards the trees. I don’t even see a trail. She backhands me across the face, making me whimper, then pushes me towards the trees. I stumble, but catch my footing and head that way. I need to stall as much as possible, so I try to moveslowly.

If she wanted to kill me, she would have done so already, so I don’t know what she has planned for me. She presses the gun into my back as we walk through the trees. I stumble a little, and she keeps telling me to move faster.

As we trudge along, the sun starts to set, and I take a deep breath, trying to remain calm. Atlas’s words ringing in my head.

No matter what happens, I will always come for you.

He’s coming. They’re all coming. I just have to survive.

After what feels like thirty minutes, we come to a small clearing in the woods, and I gasp at thesight.

Chapter forty-three

Ican’t believe we’ve spotted Simon after all this time. The only photo we had to go off of was one from our security camera outside of Mina’s old house. That combined with Mina’s description, and we recognized him straight away. He wasn’t even trying to change his appearance, apparently. And why would he? It’s not like the police were looking for him. Right now, only we are.

We’ve only been here for a few hours, and it’s late afternoon. I thought it would be well into the night before we saw any sign of him, if we ever did. It takes everything I have not to follow him and beat the shit out of him before killing the bastard. When he goes inside the motel, we call the others to let them know.

I’m so excited for this to finally be over and for Mina to be safe. Dom calls to let us know the police are on their way, to bring him in for questioning, and hopefully, his DNA matches what was left at the scenes. And if we’re really lucky, this could all be over by the time we get home.

We hear the police sirens, and Tucker swears. “What are they thinking?!” he says, banging his fist on the dash. Sirens will alert Simon to their arrival, giving him a chance to run.

“Shit, he could take off round back!” I say angrily.

“I’m on it!” Tucker gets out of the car and runs around the building.

I watch from across the street, where I’m parked, as three police cars pull up right in front, and six officers get out. Four of them go inside.

It’s about twenty minutes before Tucker comes back around looking angry. “They lost him,” he says angrily. “I think he must have taken off before I got there. They managed to check the whole building. They’re stationing their men at all exits now and checking all the other rooms for Simon and Helen, but I have a feeling he’s gone.”

My phone rings, and I answer, seeing Ben’s name on the screen.

“Dom,” I answer with a sigh, knowing they’ll all be on the call.

“Jasp—Do not let your eyes off of Simon. Go inside and cuff him if you have to.”

“I can’t, Dom. He got away,” I say, whacking the steering wheel.

“FUCK!” he swears, and I hear the sound of something smashing.

“Get your asses back here right now. Mina is gone.” My heart stops at that moment, and I freeze. My eyes dart to Tucker, who looks as scared as I feel.

I pass my phone to Tucker and start the car, peeling out and heading home as fast as I can while Tucker speaks to Dom.

“What the fuck do you mean—GONE?!”

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