Avenger(40)

My eyes widened in shock and my movements ceased as I heard those words—and they didn’t come from Chris.

My heart galloped in my chest and I broke out in a sweat.

“Hello, Travis,” I gasped.

Fear snaked down my spine as I felt his body press into mine. Where the heck had Chris gone?

“If you’re looking for your…friend,” he sneered the word like it was dirty, “you’ll find that she’s indisposed at the moment.”

I swallowed thickly, my eyes scanning for her blonde hair. I gasped when I saw her lying on the mall floor, blood trickling out of her skull.

“She’s not dead,” his fingers brushed over my forehead. “I have no interest in killing her.”

“But you want to kill me,” I stated.

“Now, now, my dear Sophie, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that,” his cold fingers tangled in my hair. I opened my mouth to scream and he promptly slammed a hand against my mouth to silence me. My eyes flickered around, praying someone saw what was happening, but there was no one in sight. “If you scream, I can promise you’ll regret it very much.” He punctuated his threat by pressing a knife into my side.

I closed my eyes, breathing heavily. I was stuck in a very sticky situation here and I didn’t see what else I could do besides comply with his wishes. I couldn’t shift, and I was too weak to fight him. I had to do what was best for my baby, and unfortunately, at this moment, that meant listening to Travis.

When he felt my body relax, he lowered his hand from my mouth, but the knife pressed harder into my side, piercing the fabric of my jacket. “What do you want?”

“You.”





Fourteen.

Sophie

You.

You.

You.

The word kept echoing around my skull like a bouncing Ping-Pong ball.

You.

You.

You.

There was a throbbing in my head and I was surrounded by darkness.

Or maybe my eyes were just closed.

Yeah, that was it.

It felt like they were glued shut.

I tried to lift my arms to rub them, but found myself unable to move.

My heart thundered in my chest and my breath echoed around me.

You.

You.

You.

Travis.

Oh my God, Travis had me.

After he said, ‘you,’ everything went black. Nothing. Nada.

And I still couldn’t get my eyes to open!

Panic was crawling through my body, leaving iciness in its wake.

It had all been leading to this.

Every single moment had been building to my death.

From the very beginning Travis was supposed to kill me.

It didn’t happen before, so it was happening now.

* * *

Caeden

“They’ve been gone for four hours!” I paced the length of the kitchen while Nolan watched me.

“They probably got distracted by makeup…or purses. Isn’t that what chicks like?” He tried to be the voice of reason, but I was beyond reason.

“Sophie knows she shouldn’t be gone that long, and she’d call me if they decided to stay longer,” I pulled at my hair. I knew I was acting like a crazy person, but my gut was telling me something bad had happened. I hoped I was being paranoid, but I didn’t believe that was the case. I left the kitchen to look out the front windows, praying I’d see Christian’s car pull up to the gate—which I could just barely see. But there was nothing.

“Why don’t you call her?” Nolan stepped up behind me.

“You know I tried that,” I growled, my fists clenching at my sides. I was about three seconds away from punching him in the face. “I even called Christian and neither one of them answers. It’s not normal. Maybe Bentley’s heard from them,” I rambled, reaching for my phone in my pocket.

“Wait,” Nolan grabbed my arm, halting my movements.

“Let. Me. Go.” I was so gonna snap his neck.

“I’m serious, Caeden. You and Sophie are mates, which means you should be able to track her.”

I sighed. “I haven’t been able to feel her since she got pregnant. It’s like our connection is disrupted because of the baby’s strength.”

Nolan stepped back, shaking his head. “Call Bentley then.”

I fumbled with my phone—my fingers unusually clumsy—but I finally managed to get the call to go through.

“Hey, what’s up?” Bentley answered.

“Have you heard from Christian?”

“Uh…no. I figured she was at your house, hanging out with Sophie after shopping.”

“Well, they’re not here,” I growled, pacing again. I was going to wear a hole right through the floor if I kept this up.

“And they haven’t called?” I heard panic begin to lace Bentley’s words.

“No,” I stopped in front of the window beside the door once more. “Wait, I see Chris’ car right now,” I sighed in relief. They were okay. Sophie was okay.