Page 115 of Temptation
“You’ve been a very bad girl, Skylar.”
“Judah,” I breathed out and collapsed on top of the bed. “W-What—”
“Shhhh, don’t speak. I missed you very much, my darling girl. Tell me, did you miss me too?”
“Screw you.”
“Is that a way to talk to your father?”
“You’re not my father,” I seethed. “You’re a monster.”
“Maybe, but only a monster can create another monster, and that’s what you will become one day as well. Just look at Joanna. She wasn’t always like this.” He chuckled.
“Where’s Ash, Judah? Where’s Dylan? What have you done with them?”
“Silence!” he barked, and I froze on the spot, my blood turning into ice. It was the same voice he used whenever he fucked me. The same voice he controlled me with. The same fucking voice that haunted my dreams. “They’re not here, darling. Not anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Tears rolled down my cheeks. “What did you do, Judah?”
“I removed the obstacles. That’s what the two of them were, obstacles.”
“No. No, no, no—”
“Oh, yes.” I could almost see him. See his wicked grin, those eyes so similar to Dylan’s, but so empty, staring back at me. I could feel the violence he always carried with him even through the phone. “They’re gone, my darling girl.”
“You’re lying!” I screeched. “You wouldn’t—”
“But wouldn’t I?” he asked. “You didn’t think that just because Dylan shared the same blood as me, I wouldn’t try to remove him if he didn’t follow my every single order.”
“But, you—”
“I, what? I blessed your marriage?” I fisted the blanket on top of the bed as he spoke. “That marriage means nothing, Skylar. Dylan was just a pawn I had to use, so that the rest of the Order would be appeased. I told you once, Skylar. I am never letting you go. You belong to me.”
“No!” I cried out.
“Shhh, there’s no need to be so dramatic. He’s just a boy, darling. I’ll let you grieve, but then you better get ready, because I’m coming for you.”
The line went dead, but I still kept the phone to my ear. My vision blurred, the room around me spinning as the sharp pain pierced through my chest.
“No,” I murmured to myself. “No, no, no, no.” I shook my head, my hair flying around me. “It can’t be. They can’t be dead.”
I put my phone in my lap just as another message came in.
A video, sent from Ash’s phone.
My hands shook as I unlocked it again, opening the attachment. Like in slow motion, I watched as an unknown car slammed into Ash’s from the side, pushing it off the road leading to Winworth. Masked men rushed toward the driver’s door as well as the passenger side, carrying guns in their hands.
The shattering of the windows echoed around the room, and the stitches I tried putting around my soul broke free, letting everything I felt out.
With guns pointed at Ash and Dylan, the same sound that came from Danny’s gun banged through the night. Nobody came out of the car as those men stepped away. The car never moved, and I knew.
They were dead.
“No!” I wailed, clutching my phone. “God, no,” I cried.
I was supposed to die. I was never supposed to send them after Danny. If they had come with Kane and me, they would’ve been alive now. They would’ve been here with me.
Judah walked in front of the camera next, grinning from ear to ear, pouring gasoline over the car. Flames engulfed the car, burning in the night, illuminating the night. I couldn’t stop watching, but I knew I had to.
