Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 106797 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106797 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Something broke the edges of my vision, but still, no sound came. There was commotion, muffled voices and screams pierced through the barrier. I blinked. Dale was off me. I blinked again. Still the chandelier. I blinked once more.
Rhodes.
All of my senses came rushing back at once.
I gasped, bolting upright as the breath hit my lungs. Eyes wide, I clawed at Rhodes as he lifted me into him. He wrapped his arms around me. He was kissing my hair. He was saying something. What was he saying? Nothing made sense. My head. I reached up, fingering a tender spot on the back of my skull. My hand was wet. Blood.
Dale was on the ground. A woman stood over him. She had a gun. Who was she?
Dale’s laugh was the first sound to truly register. It broke through the fog, and it was as if I were hearing for the first time.
“You,” he seethed. “Well, well. Look who’s risen from the dead!” His mouth was bleeding, staining his teeth as he smiled up at us. The woman still had the gun trained on him. All I could see was the back of her head. She had short brown hair and a dove tattoo on the back of her neck.
“You would love me to be dead, wouldn’t you?” Her voice was sweet, but firm. Her hands shook just slightly as she adjusted her grip on the gun.
Dale laughed again. “You going to shoot me, sweetheart? Go ahead. I’d just love to see your pretty little ass thrown in jail.”
“Lana, don’t,” Rhodes warned as the woman’s finger wavered on the trigger. I gasped.
“Lana?”
Her eyes flicked to mine, but all I saw was Rhodes. She looked just like him. Same green eyes, same strong jaw, same bent brow. Eying Rhodes’ arms around me for just a moment, she snapped her attention back to Dale.
“As much as I’d love to be the one to kill you, I’d rather see you rot in prison.”
Dale laughed harder and Rhodes lurched forward. Lana held out one arm to stop him. I knew more than anyone that he could have easily plowed through her, but he didn’t.
“I don’t know what you don’t get about this situation, sweetheart. I’m Dale Poxton. This is Poxton Beach. I own this fucking town.”
“I’ve been gathering witnesses. I have fourteen girls willing to testify against you.”
“And I’ve got three highly-respected doctors who will diagnose every single one of them with some form of mental instability,” he argued, not even fazed in the slightest. He lifted himself from the ground, still sitting but leaning back against the wall. “It’s my word against yours. And theirs. Sexual assault is one of the hardest crimes to prove, baby, and let me assure you, I am the only one who comes out a winner in the end.”
I watched as Lana’s face crumbled. Rhodes lurched forward again.
“You mother fucking son of a bitch!” Lana didn’t stop him this time and I watched as his fist connected with Dale’s jaw. His face flew to the left with a loud crack, blood spurting from his mouth and painting the wall behind him.
“It’s okay,” Lana tried to soothe Rhodes, but she didn’t seem sure herself. “Phil will know what to do. We have the witnesses. We can do this.”
“Who the fuck is Phil?” Dale asked.
“Not every cop on your squad is crooked,” Rhodes spat at him. His eyes connected with mine and recognition hit. Officer Martino.
Dale shook his head, thumbing the fresh wound on his lower lip and chuckling at the blood. “Again. No evidence.” He shook his head, still smiling. “I knew you were still out there. One by one, girls I had an eye on for so long started disappearing. Moving away. None of them went to the cops but I knew something was going on. And I just had a feeling it was you.” His eyes were so dark, so venomous. “You drove me to drink pretty hard this summer, little girl. But let me just remind you, you’ve got one cop and fifteen mentally unstable girls against a man whose family has owned this town since it was founded. Who do you think comes out on top, baby cakes?”
I cringed at his pet name for Lana. She fired off something else, but I didn’t hear it, because an idea of my own set my heart racing again. Thumbing through the settings on my watch, I ended the voice recording and used my finger to slide the playback option. When I hit play, the yelling in the room ceased.
“It’s just amazing. You were always pretty, but he made you…” A rustling noise. “Let’s just say I can see why he was so quick to claim you as his own.”
I shivered at the replay and slid the playback further. Rhodes’ eyes were wild as recognition hit. He heard what Dale had said to me and he layed into him again, his fist rearing back before connecting again and again, but I screamed at him to stop.