Page 189 of Forged in the Fire

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Trepidation and fear.

She fumbled through a text.

Brinley

I’m here.

Nothing. No response.

She itched, her knee bouncing a million miles a minute while she waited. Trepidation dragged across her skin like sharp, jagged talons.

Brinley

Hello?

Her phone remained silent.

Her head swiveled back and forth as she peered through the night, irritation lighting her up as the stilled darkness echoed back.

She should leave. Put the car into drive and get the hell out of there.

Every molecule in her body knew it.

But those words spun through her mind.

I promise.

They were the last ones she’d ever spoken to her mother. She’d been gone when she got back from work that night.

Trembling as hard as an off-balance washer, she clicked open the door and climbed from the car, sucking down steadying breaths as she crept up the cracked, pitted walkway to the dilapidated house.

The wooden boards creaked as she edged up the two steps, and her heart hammered as she moved to the door.

Her knock was slow and unsure.

Somehow, she knew to run. Could feel the evil seeping through the thin walls.

But when she turned to do it, it was too late.

The door opened, and she was being hauled inside.

A hand over her mouth as she was dragged into the darkness.

Her eyes wide in the pitch of the room. But she guessed she didn’t need to see them to know there were three of them.

She could taste the vileness coming from two other men who invaded from the corners of the room.

The one behind her murmured filth at her ear, a severing of her broken heart, knowing a part of her was going to die there even if they spared her life. “Seems your brother thinks he’s going to get away with not paying what’s owed to me. I think it’s time we taught him a lesson.”

THIRTY-FIVE

BRINLEY

My mind spunthrough the horror of memories while I lay there in the sanctuary of Silas’s arms. I wanted to give it all to him, but I wasn’t sure that I could force the details from my tongue.

I wasn’t ready. I didn’t know if I’d ever be.

But I had to give him something.

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