“Take the next right!” Wade instructed Noah, who was driving like a bat out of hell.
The vehicle swerved as Noah made the sharp turn. Olly braced himself, his mind racing with prayers and his heart beating so hard he thought the damn thing would pop out of his chest.
Scarlett had to be alive. She had to be. If she wasn’t?—
No!
He shut that shit down hard and fast. He hadn’t given up on Rose, and he was damn sure not giving up on Scarlett. The woman was as tough and smart as they came.
If anyone could make it out of this, it was her.
Please hold on, baby. We’re almost there. Just need you to hold on a little longer.
And as Noah rolled the SUV to a stop at the side of a gravel road several yards from a cabin he could barely make out from where he sat, Olly prayed with all he had that they weren’t too late.
Scarlett’s jawthrobbed and her wrists burned from her efforts to try to break free. She’d woken up to find herself tied to a chair in the middle of a small cabin. And Victor Manning’s menacing face staring straight at her
She couldn’t believe this was happening. After everything that had happened, she’d thought the worst of it was over. She was wrong. They all were. And now she was here, and Izzy…
Please let her be okay.
Scarlett had asked Vic about her, but the man refused to answer. Which could mean she was fine, but he was just holding back that information to torture her or…
Izzy’s not fine, and he’s still holding back to torture me.
It was working. She felt tortured. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally tortured. And she still had no idea what the man’s end game was.
The only thing Scarlett did know was that she was trapped here, wherever here was, with a maniac who loved to hurt and sell innocent woman…and no one had a clue where she was.
“If you’re going to kill me, just do it,” she told Vic bluntly.
She meant that statement to the depths of her bones. She didn’t want to die. Not now. Not when she was so young with so much life ahead of her.
Scarlett especially didn’t want to die so soon after having found Rose. Though the two had spent the majority of their time getting to know each other over the phone—thanks to Rose being in protective custody and all—but that didn’t matter.
Rose was still hurting, and there was a lot the other woman had to deal with in her own time. But their connection was unmistakable. As was the one she shared with Olly.
Olly.
She knew what would happen if she died in this cabin as Vic had promised. Olly would blame himself, just as he had when his sister was attacked. And then again, when Rose went missing.
Neither of those incidents were his fault. Nor was the situation she found herself in now. But she knew the way Olly put everything on those strong, broad shoulders of his, and there was no doubt in her mind, he would take her death as a personal failure.
And if that happened, Scarlett feared the man she loved may never, ever recover.
I’m so sorry, Olly. I love you so much. Please find a way to see that this isn’t on you. Please find a way to see that you made me happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life.
It was true. He’d shown her what true love really felt like. And he’d brought her more joy and passion than she’d experienced in all her twenty-eight years. Even if it was for only for a brief moment in time, to Scarlett…that was everything.
But it still didn’t mean she was ready to die.
“Who said anything about killing you?” Vic muttered as he stared out the window.
He’d been doing that a lot in the last few minutes, which made her wonder if he was expecting company.
“If you didn’t bring me here to kill me then why?—”
“You and that bitch sister of yours cost me millions,” he seethed.