Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
I watch him out the window when my alarm for my meds goes off, and I swipe my thumb across my screen, dismissing the notification before getting up and going to the kitchen. Reaching up, I take the small bottle of pills, and as I open it up and pour one out into the palm of my hand, I stare down at it.
It’s almost sick, really. If anyone knew how to take out a psychopath, it’d be the original. Only this medication is blocking him from coming back and telling me what I need to do. It’s the fucking grenade on top of the shit-storm cake.
My hand curls around the little pill, squeezing it within my palm as a wave of guilt flounders through me. Maybe this is what I need to do. Maybe I don’t have any other option. My original masked stalker would know what to do. If I could just get him to return even once, he could tell me how to take Elias out. He could guide me through it.
Fuck.
A tear rolls down my cheek, and as I glance up through the kitchen window, I find Knight staring back at me, a small, encouraging smile resting on his lips, despite the overwhelming grief in his eyes. And as I watch him, I realize that I have to do this, not just for me, but for him too. I’m not the only person losing loved ones here, and the way we’re going, more people are going to lose their lives.
Knight is working tirelessly to put an end to this, and I need to do my part to help him. And with that resolve, I drop the small pill into the sink before turning on the tap and watching it sail down the drain, my heart breaking for the hell I know is bound to rain down over me.
26
KNIGHT
The door swings open as I make my way into Elias’s home. Sure, it might be an unlawful search, but where Harper is involved, I can’t seem to give a shit. There’s no line I wouldn’t cross, no mountain I wouldn’t climb to protect her. Even if it means losing everything I have worked for. None of it matters to me without her.
It’s coming up on midnight, and from what I can tell, Mae isn’t home, which raises the question, where the fuck is she in the middle of the night? It’s a Tuesday. What the fuck could she be doing? Is she shacking up with the real father of that baby? Taking advantage of the fact that Elias hasn’t returned, or is she out there searching for the next fool who’ll take her in?
The house is silent, and as I make my way from room to room, thoroughly searching and collecting any intel I can find, I can’t help but think of Harper.
This is destroying her. The guilt that rests on her shoulders is like nothing I’ve ever seen. She feels everything so deeply. To her, she might as well have been the monster holding the blade that took Dr. McKullan’s life, and I know she blames herself for Anders being in that morgue when he was. No amount of comfort has been able to help her, and as I watched her through the kitchen window this afternoon, I saw something shift inside her.
I’m losing her. All the progress she’s made since starting therapy dissipated before my eyes.
I need to be better for her. I need to finish this. And right now, I’m failing her. Every fucking step I take seems to be wrong, every direction I turn, I become more lost, and eventually, there’s not going to be anything left of her to save.
Making my way back down the stairs, I stop by Elias’s office, slipping inside the silent room to search every corner. I go through the papers on the desk, rifle through the drawers, and even go over the knickknacks left on the shelf.
Finding Elias’s filing system, I pull it open drawer by drawer, going through all the paperwork there for anything out of place, anything that could tell me if he bought any properties under the radar, but when you’re a billionaire with your fingers in every cookie jar, it’s almost impossible to decipher what holds meaning. There are deeds for hundreds of businesses. Restaurants. Two different malls. A furniture company. A logistics and shipping business. A bakery. A hotel chain. Everything under the sun is here when I come across the blueprints for this house.
I go to shove them aside, not seeing how they could be relevant for what I’m looking for, but something has me doubling back. I grab the roll of paper and spread it out on Elias’s desk to look over it, checking every portion of the property, not even sure what I’m looking for. A hidden panic room. A walk-in safe. Anything.