Page 51 of The Burdens We Share (Satan’s Angels #3)

Ivory

Aria and I make it to the sidewalk in front of the set. After leaving Dallas’ we walked a mile before we got a cab and from there, the set was only a ten-minute drive. Dallas lives relatively close to the set, hence why I didn’t leave too early.

“Remember the plan?” I ask, even though I know she does. I don’t think either of us could forget, our adrenaline is already racing through our blood.

She nods, “Yup. You?”

I dip my chin in a nod. An hour ago, I was fully prepared to accept my imminent death and follow his directions.

But after Aria confronted me, I changed my mind.

My best friend is right. If either she or Brody were in my shoes, they would immediately throw themselves into the line of fire to save my life.

That’s the kind of friends we are. But it isn’t worth saving one or two of us if all three of us can’t be together.

We’re in this thing together. Three go in, three come out.

I take a long breath. “Okay, let’s go.”

She grabs me and wraps me in a hug so tight I wouldn’t be surprised if a rib cracked. “Be careful,” her voice is muffled into my hair.

I grip her shoulders and pull myself back, “You too.”

She gives me a weak smile and nods, stepping back. “Two minutes,” I remind her.

She repeats, “Two minutes.”

I reach into my pocket and grab my key card that each of us has to get in and out of set for security purposes.

I scan the sensor on the side of the gate and hear the gears turning as it unlocks.

Once the green light flashes, I push it open before I can hesitate over my own fear.

This is for Brody. This is for Brody. This is for Brody. I remind myself.

I step inside and don’t close it all the way, making sure that Aria can access it and things can go according to our own little plan.

I walk through the empty set, lit up only by the moon’s light, an eerie chill running down my spine.

With each step I take, my heart sinks lower and lower in my stomach.

My mind hyper-focuses on every little sound, anticipating a threat.

As I walk I realize that my stalker never gave me an exact location.

He just said the set, he didn’t specify where on the set.

I think. If I were a deranged stalker with an evil plan, where would I be?

My trailer is the first thought that comes to mind.

After all, this is about me so it only makes sense he’d be somewhere that has to do with me.

I pick up my pace as I rush over to my trailer.

I stop before the door and take one last breath before I twist the handle and push it open, stepping inside.

Nothing.

Empty.

I look around, there’s no sign of anyone being here. Maybe I was wrong.

I exit the trailer and continue searching the set for any signs of life.

I see none. So I continue to brainstorm.

If he isn’t in my trailer, maybe he’s on a scene set.

It’s the only other place that makes sense.

Maybe my original theory was right, but my exact location was wrong.

With that in mind, I hurry into the main building which houses all of the many little sets we’ve filmed on.

There’s a light switch next to the door and I flick it on, but no lights turn on.

The building is still pitch black, encased in ominous shadow.

I let my eyes adjust to the dark and reassess, scanning the room for even a hint of light.

There. Faintly and down the very long hallway is a dim white light.

I follow it immediately, wasting no time.

I trip over what feels like wires and props along with my own feet as the light grows closer and closer.

It’s dim, but it’s there. I round the corner, tripping over a wire and falling face-first into the cement floor, my chin smashing against the surface.

I wince, “Fuck.” I feel a breeze on my chin along with some coolness and know right away it’s blood.

I swear to God I wanted to kill this bastard before, but if this scars, I really will kill him.

I use my arms to lift myself back up, dusting myself off as I focus back on the task at hand.

I round the corner again, more careful this time and get a clear, perfect view of the room encased in dim, white light.

There, tied to a chair and bound at her wrists and ankles is Brody.

Her cheeks are stained with mascara and tears and her eyes are so bloodshot from crying that I immediately want to run to her and hold her.

She has a gag in her mouth and she looks so unbelievably broken, so afraid.

“Brody,” I whisper before my body reacts and sprints over to her.

I kneel before her, “Hey, B. I’m here, okay? You’re okay. I promise it’s gonna be okay.” Tears are now forming in my eyes as she begins silently sobbing, her head lolling back in exhaustion. With shaking hands, I do my best to untie her wrists one at a time.

She makes a moaning sound and I reassure her, “I’m gonna get you home. Harvey has been so worried about you. He hasn’t once stopped looking. He hasn’t even taken a bathroom break,” I ramble because if I don’t stop I’m going to freak the fuck out. I am so unbelievably scared.

She moans again, the sound louder and I look up from her wrists to meet her eyes which are wide with fear and locked on something over my shoulder. I tense and freeze. “Hello, my love. You’re right on time.”

Dallas

I’M ON MY COMPUTER, working my ass off as fast as possible to track the IP address of Ivory’s stalker from her texts.

He’s good in a way that terrifies me because it takes practice and skill.

If he’s worked this hard to remain hidden and splice footage like an expert, it’s because he knows of my relationship with Ivory.

If I weren’t a tech genius, he wouldn’t have had to go to these lengths, which means he’s done his research on me.

He’s thorough, good, precise. But so am I.

“Anything?” Slater asks at my back.

I ignore his question and keep typing code.

The room goes silent for a minute aside from the sound of my furious typing.

When I find this motherfucker, I am going to inflict the most excruciating pain on him.

He’ll wish that he let Connor Mulligan take the fall and that he stayed hidden.

When I’m through with him, then I’ll let Harvey have his turn and then Slater.

He’s fucked with all three of our girls and that’s asking for a death sentence.

A phone ringing breaks the silence. I don’t look up, I continue coding.

The call disconnects after two beats and Sly gasps, “Aria called me, but she hung up,” his words are breathless.

I stop typing, “What?” I look at him over my shoulder.

He extends the phone to me. “Look, she called and hung up two seconds later.”

I grab the phone from his hands and see the timestamp. She called and hung up just like he said. I feel Harvey’s gaze burning into the side of my face as he voices, “What are the odds that she did that on purpose?”

Slater confidently replies, “Likely odds.”

I give up on finding the stalker’s IP address and switch over to Aria’s IP address. Only seconds later I smirk, this is much easier. “I found them. They’re at the movie set.”

Ivory

ICE SPREADS THROUGH MY veins and all the way to my heart.

Brody’s frantic blue eyes find mine. I rest my hand on top of hers and whip my head around to face him.

As my eyes land on my stalker for the first time, I suck in a sharp breath.

I recognize this man. He’s the man I saw in the photo with Connor.

The one who made my skin crawl with his pasty skin and intensive blue eyes of ice.

Now, as he stares at me with a mischievous grin on his face, his platinum blond hair tousled and unkempt, his name comes back to mind.

“Calvin,” I whisper. I remember seeing his name when I was online stalking Connor.

So he knows Connor. Is Connor in on this whole thing?

Was it part of their plan for him to be arrested?

His head cocks to the side, “You know my name? My my. Has my darling girl been doing her homework on me the way I have her?”

Is he insinuating that I stalked him? I scoff, “No actually. Connor Mulligan. You just so happened to show up in a picture with him. How do you know him? Is he in on all this?”

Calvin smiles but I don’t fail to notice how it never meets his dead eyes. “He’s my cousin and no my love, he is not ‘in on this.’”

Calvin and Connor are cousins. “So you framed him?” I question, my eyes narrowing at him.

He takes a step closer to me and I take an instinctive one back, but the back of my knees hit Brody and my ass is practically in her face, but I don’t move.

I refuse to not act as a shield between her and him.

Calvin shakes his head as he begins to pace the area he stands in, “I guess if you would like to call it that.”

“You’re sick. Framing your own family,” I raise my chin in defiance, my voice laced with bitterness.

Good job, Ivory. Buy time.

He chuckles, “I had to do what I had to do for you. For us.”

I spit, “I would never be with you.”

Brody groans behind me as if to tell me to shut up and not rile him up.

His smile falls and his soulless eyes light up with rage, “That’s because that piece of shit Carter has gotten in your head and poisoned your mind.

” He closes the distance between us before I can retreat, but even if I could, I wouldn’t.

I refuse to expose Brody to him. He’s only inches from me, his hot breath on my cheeks as he raises his hands and gently grazes them over my cheeks.

My heart races with fear and the breath barely escapes my lungs.