Page 48 of Hell on Wheels

Flint rose to his feet. “Fuck him.” He joined me, brushing the side of my jaw with his fingertips. “I know he’s done terrible things to you. You don’t have to be afraid. I won’t leave your side.”

Good. Relieved, I nodded. “He used to put girls in a dirt cell underground in his house. You have to access it from the trapdoor in the floor, using a ladder because it’s such a far drop to the ground. There are bones in there.” I shivered.

“Bones?” Flint tilted my chin up. “From who?”

“Women he wanted to torment. The ones he bought from his trafficker friends. The same assholes who took Molly.”

“Christ,” Grim muttered.

“He’s a sadistic freak. Angel enjoys watching others writhe in pain and misery. He gets off on it.”

Grim smiled. “Not anymore.”

“He’s smart. Tricking him won’t be easy.”

“We’ll provide a distraction,” Grim announced.

“The kind that spills his blood,” Flint added. “Slowly.”

“I don’t mind watching him suffer.”

Did that make me a bad person? I didn’t think so. Not after all I had been through and endured.

“Give me an hour.” Grim pulled out a pack of smokes, lighting one up. “I’ve got some shit to handle first.”

“Okay.”

Flint reached for my hand, leading me toward the door. “We’ll meet you downstairs.”

As the door shut behind us, I hoped the long wait for information about my sister would finally be over.

“YOU ALRIGHT?” FLINTasked, studying me closely as we paused at the top of the stairs, seconds from descending into hell to meet with Angel.

“I think so.”

“Little bird,” he chided.

“Fine. I’m anxious and feel like I’m going to puke. Happy?”

A dark chuckle escaped his lips. “Honesty, babe. Always. Okay?”

My forehead pressed to his chest as I groaned. “Okay.”

He smoothed the hair from my face, his tender touch soothing me in a way that was new but welcome.

“You don’t have to do this. We can figure out another way.”

“There’s no other way. Trust me. I’ve been trying for a year.” I leaned back, staring into the clear blue eyes ringed in brown that had become so vital to my existence. “I haven’t been doing this alone.”

“I know,” he admitted, confirming my suspicions.

“You waited for me to tell you,” I guessed, surprised when he nodded.

“How did you figure it out?”

“It doesn’t matter, Lark. We’re going to learn what we need to know about Molly and find her. That’s it.”

Tears filled my eyes, and I blinked them back. “You gave me time to work through this on my own. No one else has ever done that for me. Well, only my stepbrother Torin but he’s a pain in the ass.”

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