Page 240 of Soul So Dark
“It’s called consent,” I snarl up at him through the fire radiating across my scalp, “and you’ll never have it. Because Alex has always been the one,and you’ll never be a fraction of the man he is!”
Austin jumps up and kicks an empty metal drum across the floor with a crash. I squeeze my eyes shut, preparing for him to rain his next blow down on me, but it never comes. Instead, he stalks across the room and grabs an object off the dusty metal table.
To my horror, he starts back toward me, cocking a gun as he quickly closes the space. I let out a barrage of screams, realizing my entire life has boiled down to two possible outcomes; be executed by Austin or enslaved by Bowen.
Then, suddenly, a deep bang echoes somewhere to the left of me.
And I realize my time is up.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Alex
“Whose place is this?” I ask, casting a suspicious glance at the two-story house near the edge of the woods.
“It belongs to our family,” Wesley replies, “but no one’s lived here for a long time.”
Unsurprising. It looks like it’s been deserted for a while based on the decaying front porch and the cracked tire swing hanging from the massive oak out front.
Brantley is next to the two motorcycles, on his phone while Aiden digs around in his trunk and emerges with a set of body armor similar to mine. Then he produces the same Desert Eagle he almost used on Jay Rhinehardt before I talked him out of it.
I pull my vest on and start fastening the straps, having been in such a hurry that I just threw it in my truck and took off. But, now, from the looks of Wesley donning a tactical helmet with night vision goggles, we’re gearing up for war. I know I am, and I can feel it in my muscles as the phantom electricity works its way up my torso.
“Is she coming?” Wesley asks as Brantley rounds the Lexus and tucks his phone in his pocket.
“She’ll be here.”
Brantley reaches into Aiden’s trunk and pulls out his own helmet with the same attachments. They don’t bother with body armor, leaving their bike vests on and strapping one pistol to a thigh and tucking another at the back of their waist. Clearly, this is protocol.
“OK, where’s Dallas?” I’m done wasting time and if they aren’t ready, I’m leaving to find her myself.
Before Brantley can answer, a pair of headlights flashes in the distance and a large vehicle starts speeding through the tunnel of trees, engine roaring. I draw my weapon, prepared to fight my way out of whatever roadblock this is.
“Finally,” Wesley mutters, seemingly unconcerned.
“At ease, merc,” Brantley chuckles. “She’s with us.”
I lower my weapon and raise my hand to the blinding headlights. Soon, a shiny black Suburban comes barreling out of the trees. It comes to a halt in front of the house and just sits, idling in the yard. Nobody exits the vehicle, concealed inside by the extreme tint job.
“Who is it?” I ask him.
But Aiden suddenly appears at my shoulder. “The boss lady,” he smirks, chambering a round.
It’s weird, but I don’t have time to care, we need to go.
“A quarter of a mile northwest,” Brantley points through the trees, “that’s where she’ll be. There’ll be a barn and a shed in the middle of the woods, and maybe a hog pen if it hasn’t fallen down by now. The barn’s old, and he hardly ever comes out this far. They all have newer outbuildings closer to the houses. Follow this path straight in and keep going. We’ll seal off a radius—” he reaches up and pulls his goggles down, “and kill anything that moves.”
“Who’she?Whose property is this?” I ask.
Brantley pauses. “Garrison’s.”
I arch a brow. “Your property adjoins his?”
“We were here before him, and we’ll be here long after,” he adds with disdain.
Bowen’s gone but someone still took Dallas to his property?
Aiden and I start jogging toward the trees. But, in an instant, Brantley and Wesley leap past us and tear across the grass in opposite directions. I hesitate, struck by how quickly they move and how long their strides are. In the darkness, they don’t even look human. The way they move seems more…animalistic.
