Page 116 of Pretty Wicked Secrets

“Don’t you dare fucking die,” I hiss, leaning in. “Youoweme. Who did this? Was it West Point? Do they have Chloe? Where is she?”

Frank blinks so slowly I’m not sure he’s going to open his eyes again. His skin is almost colorless, his shirt soaked in red from chest to groin. He’s staring at me, but his eyes look unfocused, and evenIknow that no one can survive losing as much blood as I’m currently kneeling in.

“See what you can find,” Maddoc tells Dante and Logan, directing them to pull whatever clues they can from the wreckage around us before crouching down next to me. He puts his hands on top of mine, pressing down hard enough that Frank groans. “Like this, butterfly. Press hard.”

When he moves his hands away, I double down. “Keep him alive.”

“I’m trying,” he answers grimly, doing something in the bloody mess that has Frank’s body jerking. “Shit, he’s been bleeding out for at least an hour.”

“That text came in around then,” Dante says, referring to the one I showed him on my phone.

Frank must have sent it before they got to him. This happened while Dante and I were fucking.

“Did you tell them?” I demand, my voice feeling raw. “Whoever… whoever did this. Did you tell them about Chloe?”

His hand twitches next to my thigh, the barest flicker of movement, and blood bubbles out of his mouth.

“No! Don’t you dare. Talk to me first! Dammit, you need to tell me what happened! You owe me that, you motherfucker! Did they know Chloe was in touch with you? Was she here? Was it West Point?”

“It had to have been West Point,” I hear Dante say grimly from behind me. “This shit has them written all over it.”

Logan approaches on silent feet, then crouches down on Frank’s other side and picks up his hand, wiping the blood off Frank’s finger and pressing it against a phone. Frank’s phone.

Logan quickly flips through it as soon as it’s unlocked, then looks up at Maddoc and Dante with a frown. “There’s no recent communication with McKenna on here, but West Point must have found out that he’d been in touch with her. He doesn’t have his fingers in anything else that would give them a reason to come here.”

“So you think the timing is just a coincidence with this attack of conscience he had, reaching out to Riley like that?” Dante asks.

Maddoc looks up, his face like thunder. “I think McKenna has turned up the heat, just like we expected. Of course he’d have eyes on Sutton. The real question is, what did he find out?”

“You think he told him where to find Chloe,” Logan says flatly.

“No,” I whisper, panic rising up to choke me. “No, no, no, fucking no!” I dig my fingers into Frank’s clammy skin, then shake him. I don’t care if he was trying to fuck me over. I expect nothing less. But I can’t stand the thought that he’d do this to Chloe not once, buttwice.

He coughs up another bubble of blood, muttering something in a low whisper.

“What?” I lean down, adrenaline surging through me as a fresh wave of hot blood seeps up under my hands.

Frank’s lips move again. “I’m… sorry… hon… honey girl.”

My heart clenches, pain spiking through my chest. I’m not his fucking honey girl, and I don’t want a goddamn apology. I just want to know what he knows about my sister.

I need to know what he gave up about her when West Point attacked him.

My father is the epitome of a weak man. No way would he have held back when they were hurting him.

“Are you sorry about Chloe? About selling her out? Telling Austin McKenna where she is? Dammit, Frank,do you know where she is? Does West Point know now? Don’t waste your fucking breath on apologies, tell me something useful!”

His eyes roll back, a horrible rattle sounding on his next exhale.

“No! Tell me anything,” I beg in a broken whisper that’s nothing more than a desperate puff of air. My throat is raw and panic crushes my chest, closing around me like a vise until I can’t breathe. “Just… god… please. Frank, say something.Please.”

Another bubble of blood starts to form at his mouth with the next rattling breath, but then it just… stops.

Everything stops.

He’s gone.

33

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