Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Footsteps approach outside, heavy and deliberate. Melanie stiffens against me, a quiet sob escaping her. I grip her tighter as my pulse thunders in my ears. The lock clicks sharply, and the door creaks open, letting in a flood of cold, blinding artificial light.
Diego stands silhouetted in the doorway, his figure tall, broad, utterly menacing. His handsome face, the one Melanie had described so lovingly, is twisted into a detached smirk, eyes coldly indifferent. My stomach churns violently.
“Comfortable?” he drawls mockingly, stepping into the container, his dark gaze moving slowly from Melanie to me, lingering cruelly.
I straighten my spine as best I can, trying to muster any strength I have left. "Why, Diego? Why are you doing this?"
He chuckles darkly, stepping closer. “You really have to ask? For money, Charlotte. It's always about money.”
The casual way he says it, the indifference, sends a shiver down my spine. Melanie stares up at him, betrayal and disbelief etched painfully across her tear-stained face.
"You used me," Melanie whispers, voice shaking. "Everything you said—it was all a lie."
Diego shrugs carelessly. "You made it easy, Melanie. Love-starved girls like you always do."
Melanie recoils as if struck, turning her face away. Anger flares in me, hot and fierce despite my fear. "You're a monster."
His lips twitch into a humorless smile. "I'm a businessman. Sentiment gets in the way."
He moves closer, crouching down until we're eye-level, the proximity suffocating. I recoil instinctively, the ropes biting painfully into my wrists.
"You won't get away with this," I say, but my voice trembles, betraying the confidence I desperately wish I could summon.
Diego leans forward, his tone low and deliberate. "Charlotte, your family's money can buy you many things. Unfortunately, freedom won't be one of them this time. Your little bodyguard can't help you now."
My heart freezes in my chest at his casual dismissal of Asher. He's wrong—I have to believe he's wrong. Asher would move heaven and earth to find me. He promised.
But staring into Diego's merciless eyes, my certainty wavers.
"You're making a mistake," I whisper, my voice weak, raw. "My family won't let this go."
His grin widens cruelly. "They won't have a choice. By the time anyone figures out you're missing, you and Melanie will be long gone."
Melanie sobs quietly beside me, her small frame shaking uncontrollably. The despair on her face mirrors my own sinking sense of hopelessness.
Diego rises smoothly, adjusting the cuff of his jacket with a casual, chilling precision. "Don't worry. You'll both have plenty of time to think about your mistakes."
He turns abruptly, stepping back out into the stark light beyond. The door slams shut, plunging us into suffocating darkness again. The heavy lock clicks into place, each metallic clink echoing with finality.
Melanie dissolves into quiet, broken sobs, her shoulders heaving. I hold her tighter, feeling utterly helpless. Each tear she sheds cracks something deeper inside me. I try to stay strong for her, but I'm drowning too.
"I can't believe this is happening," Melanie whispers weakly. "Charlotte, what if—what if no one comes for us?"
My throat tightens painfully. It's the question I've been fighting off, the one thought I refuse to fully consider.
"Asher will come," I manage to say, though my voice is barely audible even to my own ears. "He won't give up."
Melanie doesn't reply, burying her face against my shoulder, crying softly. My heart breaks for her. It breaks for both of us.
But despite my attempts at reassurance, my confidence crumbles with every passing minute, each one driving us closer to an unthinkable future. What if this truly is the end?
I close my eyes tightly, forcing back tears. Memories flash painfully—Asher's gentle smile, the warmth of his hand holding mine, the security of his strong arms wrapped around me. He'd promised he'd always protect me, but now I wonder if fate has other plans.
Every ounce of hope I desperately tried to cling to slips further away, leaving me hollow and defeated. The cold metal walls seem to close tighter around us, darkness pressing in from all sides, crushing every fragment of faith I’d held onto.
As Melanie’s cries fade into quiet, exhausted breathing, I sit in the suffocating silence and face a terrifying truth… I don't know if Asher will find us in time. Maybe Diego is right. Maybe this is our reality now, and no one is coming.
I close my eyes, the cold seeping deeper into my bones, heart heavy with despair, and silently plead to whoever might listen that somehow, someway, someone will save us. But in the dark silence, no answer comes.
36
Asher
Blue-white strobes ricochet off corrugated steel as tactical lights sweep the cold-storage bay. My bootfalls echo in the vast emptiness while deputies fan across the cavern, weapons drawn, breath fogging under overhead sodium lamps.
Container C7 looms ahead—the one Wade swore held “the collateral.” We breach in textbook formation: bolt cutters, pry bar, door kicks open. My pulse jackhammers. I expect her voice, a cry, anything.