Page 58 of Unmask (Crew of Elmwood Public #2)

“She didn’t come back. I begged her not to go. She told Kenny to run. Said something about this being the only way to save them both… She didn’t come back. I tried to wait. I didn’t know what to do.”

His sentences jumbled, not altogether making sense, but I got the gist of what happened, and my throat muscles constricted until I could barely breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away from Raine. “She made a trade,” I said softly. “She traded herself.”

For her best friend.

And I let her.

Because I’d been too fucking comfortable, too trusting, too distracted to see what was right in front of me. I’d known damn well she was acting out of the ordinary yesterday. Was that why we’d slept together? Had that been some kind of goodbye?

Fuck that.

We weren’t saying goodbye. I refused to let her go. She was mine, and I had every intention of getting her back.

I fought the urge to hurl the burner in my other hand against the wall just to hear something break that wasn’t my heart. “Where the fuck are you, Carson?”

“I just left the old train yard off Route 19.”

In the background, I heard soft whimpers. Sniffling.

Kenny.

I had nothing against her. Not really. But knowing she was safe, cradled in Carson’s arms, breathing, alive, while my girl was gone, suffering, locked in some goddamn nightmare that only got darker by the hour? I snapped.

My fist went clean through the drywall beside me, a crack of violence louder than Carson’s voice. Dust showered down my forearm as white fragments scattered across the floor.

“You better fucking hope I find her. And soon.” I threatened. “Because if I don’t, I won’t just kill you, Carson. I’ll make you feel every second of what she felt.”

A pregnant pause. “I wouldn’t stop you.”

Not what I expected. Not even close.

Something pinched in my chest, not sympathy but a question I didn’t have time to ask. What the hell did he mean by that? What exactly had he done? Was it guilt over letting Kaylor go? Or was it something more?

I hung up without another word. Let him stew in his own self-loathing until I was ready to deal with him. Right now, Kaylor was all that mattered.

Mason, Maddox, and Raine stood nearby, all silent. Watching me. Reading the war in my expression. None of them asked what was wrong. They already knew. It was clearly written in every line of my face.

I was unraveling, rage boiling in my gut, scraping up my throat, clawing for release.

Every breath I took burned. Every second that passed without her was a scream I couldn’t voice.

I was on the verge of crashing out, losing my shit, but I couldn’t afford to give in to the emotions, not when Kaylor needed me.

Not yet. Not when she still needed me to stay sharp.

Before I could speak, the burner phone on the table buzzed.

Once.

Twice.

Mason was closest. He snatched it up. “Shit.” The curse breezed through his lips as he handed it over, eyes unreadable. “You’re going to want to see this.”

New Message.

One video.

No number. No ID. Just a timestamp—ten minutes ago. I clicked on it with shaking fingers. And there she was.

Kaylor.

Her face filled the screen, shadowed and pale. Her silvery hair was down, a little tangled. She looked…calm. Too calm. Like she was pretending. Like she was barely holding herself together under whatever monster had forced her in front of that camera.

“Kreed…” Her voice was quiet, steady, her light-blue eyes wide. “If you’re watching this… Don’t come looking for me. That’s what they want me to say, but fuck their speech.”

My pulse stopped.

“I don’t have much time,” she continued.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You were right.

I should have trusted you sooner, but I need you to make good on your promise.

Do what you’re exceptionally good at.” She rushed the words, trying to get everything in as those emotionally filled eyes of hers silently pleaded with me.

A door flung open off camera, and from the shift in her gaze and their set determination in her features, I knew she was almost out of time. “I forgive you. And I lo?—”

The screen went black. Silence stretched in the room like a noose. No one moved. No one breathed. “No,” I muttered. “No, no, no.” My chest heaved. My brain scrambled.

What promise?

I hated promises. I didn’t hand them out. Not unless I meant them. They were too damn heavy to fake. But then it hit me, hard enough to stagger. I’ll always find you, little raven. That’s a promise.

My eyes burned. My jaw locked.

This wasn’t a goodbye. It was a dare. A challenge in a whisper.

She knew I didn’t back down. Kaylor knew me better than anyone, knew that I never listened when people told me no, and I sure as fuck wasn’t about to start now.

She wanted me to hear between the lines.

She wasn’t telling me to let her go. She was counting on me to do the opposite. She was still fighting.

And so was I.

I was about to become the Vipers’ worst nightmare. I was about to show Rusty the true monster he thought I was, and anyone who stepped into my path would be nothing but collateral damage.

My hand snapped back, hurling the burner across the room, but it didn’t hit the wall with a satisfying crash.

The device landed straight into Raine’s hand as he caught it like the wide receiver he was known to be in high school.

“As much as I sympathize with your need to smash shit, this might come in handy in finding her. Assuming you want her back.”

I looked up, breathing hard, a storm in my eyes. My brothers knew me well. “I’m gonna tear them apart,” I said. “Rusty. The Vipers. Anyone who had a hand in this.”

“They just declared war,” Maddox said under his breath.

I nodded once. “Good. Because I’m going to fucking destroy them.”

“Kreed?” Raine’s voice was steady but urgent. “What’s the move?”

They stole what’s mine. And I didn’t take kindly to thieves. “We’re getting our girl back.”

My girl.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thank you for reading!

Kaylor and the Crew’s story will conclude in

ENDGAME

xoxo,

Jennifer