She rushes over to her sneakers lying haphazardly at the foot of her bed. “She can’t possibly think this will work. Does she think I’m that fucking stupid to run into the same situation twice?”
“It’s not about how smart you are, it’s about how desperate you are. And if she gets ahold of your parents and uses them as collateral, you will be desperate enough to do anything.”
Addie huffs, stomping her foot to get the shoe past her heel.
“I’ll be damned if I become like Rio,” she mutters under her breath.
I’ll sooner make it into heaven before that happens.
“What the hell is she going to do anyway?” she asks aloud, though it sounds rhetorical. She turns to me, her light brown eyes sharp. “The stupid bitch is going to try to get me to trade my life for theirs, am I right?”
“Most likely,” I concede, following her out of her bedroom door. The moment we step out, it feels as if the walls open their eyes, watching us rush through the dark hallway. Addie cuts through the shadow figures creeping across the floor, paying them no mind.
“Should we wake Sibby?”
I open my mouth, but then as if conjured straight out of a Rob Zombie film, she steps out of her bedroom door near the staircase, covering her mouth as she yawns. Her pigtails are skewed, and her purple nightgown hangs off one shoulder.
She squints her eyes, staring at us with confusion. Addie stops short, gives Sibby one look, and then clips, “Get dressed quickly. You may get to have some fun tonight.”
Whatever fatigue was clinging onto her wisps away in a matter of seconds. Her eyes widen with excitement.
“Can my henchmen come, too?”
I sigh. “Only two can fit, and only if they don’t get in the way.” They’re imaginary, yet the assholes somehow still cause problems. She takes off back into the room, squealing.
“Give us two seconds!” she shouts from the depths, but Addie is already tapping her little feet down the stairs like a roadrunner on crack.
“Don’t forget your knives and guns, mouse,” I call after her. “And, Sibby… limit your knives and guns.”
I hear a dramatic sigh from the room, but I ignore her, sticking my Bluetooth in my ear.
Within two minutes, we’re piled into my car and taking off towards her parents’ house. It’s an hour away, but I’m determined to get there in half the time.
Ten minutes into the drive, the men were dragging Addie’s parents out of the house. Jay made a split-second decision and gunned down their truck. The drone he’s using is special grade, equipped with bullets, and highly illegal.
The men took her parents right back inside and will be waiting for our arrival. There’s a slight risk that they’ll kill her parents before we get there, but that would be entirely stupid.
If her parents are dead, there’s no leverage. And if they tried to escape, Jay would shoot them down. Either way, they lose.
“They know we’re here,” I remind Addie as I pull into the driveway.
Despite Serena’s disapproval of Parsons Manor, living in a secluded house is in her blood. She doesn’t live in the burbs like I’d imagine, but a beautiful home behind a thicket of trees, and far from the road. It isn’t removed from civilization like the manor is, but it’s not easy to find, either.
“You don’t think they killed them, do you?”
“No, baby,” I tell her truthfully. “If they did, they know that if I don’t kill them, Claire sure as hell would. She’d lose her leverage.”
Addie rolls her bottom lip between her teeth as I come to a stop. The house is dark, and the surrounding trees sway in the wind, the branches casting crooked shadows across the home, exuding an ominous feel. It’s a large white three-story house with a massive window on the top center, showcasing the silhouette of a chandelier.
I call Jay, and he answers immediately.
“Keep an eye on the house and make sure no one else comes in,” I order.
“Already on it, boss man,” he says, the tapping of his keyboard following his confirmation.
I turn to Addie and ask, “You ready?”
She spares me a single glance before opening the door and stepping out, silently answering my question. Sibby scrambles out after her while I shut the car off and follow after them.
Addie’s hips sway angrily as she half-runs toward the front door.
I eat up the distance in a few long strides, grabbing her arm and hauling her back. Her neck nearly cracks from how hard she whips her head to glare at me.
“Don’t go charging in mindlessly.”
Ripping her arm from my grip, she scoffs at me.
“I’m not an idiot,” she snaps. I smirk and raise my hands in surrender. If this weren’t her mother in danger, I’d bend her over and fuck her until she does go stupid.
“Sorry, baby. Proceed.”
Leaving me behind, she charges up to the entrance, then as if hitting slow motion on a movie, her movements become gradual and smooth as she reaches for the front door.
Turning the knob, she quietly opens the door, the darkness bleeding out from the depths of the foyer while her other hand grips the knife strapped to her thigh, readying for someone to jump out and attack. No one does, the silence deafening. Stepping farther inside, her eyes scan every direction. When it’s deemed clear, she nods Sibby and me in after her.
I bite my lip, fucking relishing the sight of her in charge. My girl is strong and capable, and I’ll gladly follow her lead.
The blackness swallows us whole as I soundlessly shut the door behind me. It’s so quiet, you could hear a mouse fart. Addie disappears into the darkness as she moves deeper into the house. I can’t see much, but I can feel everything.
The chill coercing the goosebumps across my flesh to rise, the heat moving throughout the pipes, and the eyes watching my every move. They come from all directions and nowhere at all. Yet, they’re as real as the ghostly fingers I feel brushing across my skin in Parsons Manor.
Thankfully, Sibby understands the situation perfectly and contains her giddiness. She’s used to creeping through houses, but she always had the protection of the walls. In Satan’s Affair, she was the creeping eyes.
Maybe now she’ll understand that gut feeling of knowing someone is watching you that wants to cause you harm but never knowing where they are until they’re right in your face.
We travel down a long hallway, passing portraits of Addie gradually aging until she was a teenager. Normally, I’d stop and stare at her childhood pictures, fantasizing about the kid versions of myself falling in love with her had I seen her then. Something tells me that I’d be enraptured by her no matter how young we were.
Now, it’s so eerie in here that those smiling eyes in the pictures appear sinister. As if the different versions of Addie are laughing at us because they know the danger awaiting us. I want to laugh right back because
I was the danger awaiting her.
We emerge into a kitchen, finding the expansive area clear. She starts to head to the left, but a slight shuffling sound arises from our right. She freezes and glances back at me. I nod towards the noise. As much as she wants to find her mom, we can’t leave dangerous men behind.
Nodding, she turns and veers toward the noise.
“Watch your step,” Addie whispers a moment later. Keeping an eye on Sibby’s feet, I see her step down, her boots sinking into the soft carpet.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.