Page 112 of Unmask
I didn’t give a shit about Kenny. It was Kaylor I was out-of-my-ever-loving-mind concerned about. I froze, my pacing coming to an abrupt halt as I already knew where this call was going. “Where the fuck is Kaylor?” I prompted.
“She didn’t come back. I begged her not to go. She told Kenny to run. Said something about this being the only way to save them both… She didn’t come back. I tried to wait. I didn’t know what to do.”
His sentences jumbled, not altogether making sense, but I got the gist of what happened, and my throat muscles constricted until I could barely breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away from Raine. “She made a trade,” I said softly. “She traded herself.”
For her best friend.
And I let her.
Because I’d been too fucking comfortable, too trusting, too distracted to see what was right in front of me. I’d known damn well she was acting out of the ordinary yesterday. Was that why we’d slept together? Had that been some kind of goodbye?
Fuck that.
We weren’t saying goodbye. I refused to let her go. She was mine, and I had every intention of getting her back.
I fought the urge to hurl the burner in my other hand against the wall just to hear something break that wasn’t my heart. “Where the fuck are you, Carson?”
“I just left the old train yard off Route 19.”
In the background, I heard soft whimpers. Sniffling.
Kenny.
I had nothing against her. Not really. But knowing she was safe, cradled in Carson’s arms, breathing, alive, while my girl was gone, suffering, locked in some goddamn nightmare that only got darker by the hour? I snapped.
My fist went clean through the drywall beside me, a crack of violence louder than Carson’s voice. Dust showered down my forearm as white fragments scattered across the floor.
“You better fucking hope I find her. And soon.” I threatened. “Because if I don’t, I won’t just kill you, Carson. I’ll make you feel every second of what she felt.”
A pregnant pause. “I wouldn’t stop you.”
Not what I expected. Not even close.
Something pinched in my chest, not sympathy but a question I didn’t have time to ask. What the hell did he mean by that? What exactly had he done? Was it guilt over letting Kaylor go? Or was it something more?
I hung up without another word. Let him stew in his own self-loathing until I was ready to deal with him. Right now, Kaylor was all that mattered.
Mason, Maddox, and Raine stood nearby, all silent. Watching me. Reading the war in my expression. None of them asked what was wrong. They already knew. It was clearly written in every line of my face.
I was unraveling, rage boiling in my gut, scraping up my throat, clawing for release. Every breath I took burned. Every second that passed without her was a scream I couldn’t voice. I was on the verge of crashing out, losing my shit, but I couldn’t afford to give in to the emotions, not when Kaylor needed me.
Not yet. Not when she still needed me to stay sharp.
Before I could speak, the burner phone on the table buzzed.
Once.
Twice.
Mason was closest. He snatched it up. “Shit.” The curse breezed through his lips as he handed it over, eyes unreadable. “You’re going to want to see this.”
New Message.
One video.
No number. No ID. Just a timestamp—ten minutes ago. I clicked on it with shaking fingers. And there she was.
Kaylor.
