Page 3

He’d brought her here for a reason.
I had a sinking suspicion it was so we’d see whatever he’d done to her.
I steeled myself as I pumped my legs, pushing them to get around the side of the house to where the scream had come from. She needed me.
The thought almost stopped me in my tracks. She needed us. I wasn’t her man. That was Fang’s role.
So I switched my brain off. There wasn’t space for that sort of thinking. Not here, not now, not tonight.
But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw around that final corner.
If I lived to be a hundred, I was sure nothing would fill me with as much terror as Rebel tied to a chair, at the bottom of the swimming pool.
2
REBEL
I wasn’t sure how I’d lost my breath.
It might have been the cold punch of water. Or the sharp pressure of it smacking against my spine after Caleb shoved me backward into the pool.
Maybe it was the panic that set in, even through the copious amounts of drugs he’d injected me with.
It could even be thanks to a probable concussion, courtesy of the blow to the back of the head when he’d found me hiding in his basement, along with another woman he’d been keeping prisoner.
She was still down there.
If I drowned in this pool, there’d be no one to rescue her. That gnawed away at me like a rat. I’d promised her Kian, Vaughn, and Fang were coming and that they’d get us out.
Both of us.
Caleb had beat them to it, and now it was too late.
Water rushed around me, filling my ears and nose and mouth. It was a pretty aqua color thanks to the pool lights, but deadly nonetheless.
I fought against the restraints, yanking my arms, scraping my wrists and ankles, but it did little good. I was too weak to loosen the ropes. Attached to the heavy outdoor chair, I hit the bottom of the pool quickly, the metal back scraping along the tiles. The surface was probably ten feet above my head.
Super great. Just fine and freaking dandy.
They’d come.
Fang and Kian and Vaughn.
But it would be too late.
I hated that for them, that they’d get here and see me like this. Halloween costume cut up so Caleb could get off on my exposed body. Tied up and drowned.
What a great way to go out. At least my mom wasn’t alive to see it.
Vaughn had already seen more murder than any regular person should. He’d lost his dad at the same time I’d lost my mom, the two of them poisoned on their wedding day. I knew he’d blame himself for my untimely end too. I wished I could tell him not to. I was the stubborn asshole who’d insisted on him taking me to Caleb’s party. He hadn’t wanted to, but I’d been hell-bent on finding the men who’d attacked me.
I couldn’t even bring myself to regret it. Splitting up from Fang and the others at the party? Yeah, that wasn’t my finest hour. I regretted that. But even now, with my lungs screaming for air, I didn’t regret the desire to make Caleb and his friends pay for what they’d done to me.
Someone had to.
My need for revenge apparently outweighed even my need for air.
I’d thought drowning would feel worse than it did though. It was oddly peaceful beneath the water. Darkness flickered at the corners of my vision, unconsciousness beckoning.