Page 101 of Voracious

Archie lowers himself beside me as I try to drag air into my punctured lungs. “I did some digging and was able to lift some messages between you both – and her nickname.Freckles?” He laughs, and blood drops from my mouth as I attempt to move, to get up and snap his neck. “I’ll carve each freckle out of her skin.”

“I’ll k-kill y-you.”

“Enough, Archie,” Bernadette snaps, pulling him to his feet by the collar.

Someone else is by my side, tending to my head wound.

“I’ll find out where she is, Kade. Your precious little girlfriend has no idea what’s coming her way.”

No. Fucking no.

Embarrassingly, my tears are still falling, and it feels like a knife is buried in my chest. This is a nightmare within a nightmare. I have no idea how to get out of it.

Archie looks down at me. “If you thought we had fun before, you’re in for a ride from now on.”

Archie chuckles as my eyes keep falling shut. “Your friend tried to intervene – did you know that? It backfired. We have Sebastian Prince.”

What?

He smiles, and my vision blurs as darkness threatens to pull me under once more. I fight against it, but I’m too weak – I’m losing too much blood.

A medic shines a torch in my face and pulls back my eyelids, then gets to work on my side – which is still gushing blood. They place an oxygen mask over my face. I think they inject me with morphine, because the pain subsides ever so slightly.

“Clear up the wreckage,” Bernie says to Archie, pointing to my mangled car. “And send the message to his parents. As far as anyone is concerned, Kade is doing work abroad. Do the same with Sebastian. They’re both coming to Russia with us.”

Panic seizes me – blood spurts from my mouth and into the oxygen mask as I try to speak and fail. I gasp in air as a wave of hot pain snaps through me.

Bernadette notices and leans down to me, a whisper against my ear that accompanies my vision blurring again.

Archie yells at someone to make sure the glass is cleaned up and any reports are deleted. All I can think about is Stacey, and how much I need to survive to get her out of this. Wherever she’s gone, she needs to stay hidden.

And I need my dad.

Bernie strokes my cheek with the back of her fingers. “You’ll beg for death, but you aren’t allowed to die, my sweet boy. I’m not done with you yet.”

29

KADE

THE FINAL FLASHBACK

Life kind of gave me a second chance.

Mum kept me close for days after finding me on the boat and forcing her fingers down my throat while she called for emergency help. In fact, she refused to let me leave the house.

My therapist visited me while I lay in bed on day one, staring at the wall in silence.

I wouldn’t speak to anyone. Not even my dad.

My friends don’t know what happened, butDezknows I’m a mess.

He came over a few days ago and said I should get out of bed and at least wash, then forced me into a shower and refused to leave until I got ready and ate lunch with him. I told him Stacey fucked me over and I was done with her, but that’s all.

Jason hasn’t said a word, and Mum keeps begging me to speak to him, to see if there’s been a misunderstanding. I refuse to even look at him. He was downstairs the other day, and all I wanted to do was fucking strangle him.

Ewanwent ballistic at him. I overheard him asking what the fuck he was playing at and how long he’d been sleeping with a teenager.

Stacey has given up trying to call, so she’s probably settled right in with him. Fucking bitch.

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