Page 82 of Haven

HADES

Is it about Cinder?

ME

Yes and no. We have a body, but it isn’t Cinder’s

Instead of texting me back, she FaceTimed me and I quickly accepted it. This would be explained better like this without the back-and-forth of texting. Hades’s face came into view, and I could see she was in her scrubs and white coat.

“Do you know who she was?”

I sighed. “No. We think she’s a runaway, but Melisa is trying to find anything on her.”

“Are you planning on telling Rory?”

“Widow and I decided it was best to wait. Rory doesn’t need this added to everything else. You have a tech friend right?” She nodded. “Can you have him try and find anything? I hate digging into her past without her knowing, but we need to do something.”

“I’ll see him when I leave here. Rory told me that her stalker is messaging her. He’s taunting her with the idea that Cinder is alive. I think she is going to do something crazy and meet him.”

“I need you to see if you can find anything on Jude Booker. That was her foster father. I don’t know what she told you, but we think there was someone else involved, a boy, so we need all the information. We also have footage from the pier if you want to have him look at it and try to clear it up. Cinder was the obsessive tech person. I could have Parker do it, but they suck at keeping things quiet.” Trusting Hades was taking a big step and betraying Cinder, but I needed to do something.

“Send it to me, and I’ll see what I can find out.”

Seventy

Cinder

“If we kill her we can’t use her anymore!” the woman hissed, her voice echoing in the basement-like room.

I still didn’t know where I was. It was too big to be a basement, but it wasn’t a normal bedroom in a house, either. Maybe a bomb shelter or an underground cellar? There was nothing to tell me what time it was or if it was day or night. It echoed like catacombs or an abandoned prison.

They were far enough to keep their faces hidden from me, but I could hear them yelling and arguing. I could hear the sick bastard talking about my sister, and then I heard the woman. She was an enigma. I didn’t know if there was another person with them who didn’t show her face or if the woman was insane and talking to herself. She did argue a lot, but the man wasn’t here all the time.

“I don’t give a fuck. I want her dead,” he barked back.

For the last ten minutes, they had gone back and forth on whether they should finish the job or not. I needed them to make up their fucking minds because this pain was misery. If they weren’t going to kill me, I would continue to fight. Rory needed me to fight.

How did I never think of an accomplice? I was only looking into him. No one else because his obsession with her was infinite. Why was she a part of this? And then there was the other girl who was scared of a mouse. I thought I was ahead of him, close to getting him, but I wasn’t. Rory was in more danger because of my secrets.

The meek girl would bring me water and pain meds when he wasn’t here and the woman was…gone? It felt pointless when my injuries were dire and if I didn’t get help soon, I knew I would die here. She was trying her best to help me, but I didn’t understand why she didn’t just tell someone where I was.

She was scared of them. Fear was a powerful weapon, and if she was trapped, maybe I could find a way to help her, too. She helped me, so I could repay the favor and help her.

“If you kill her, then how are we going to get Aurora?” the woman yelled. “I have worked too hard to get us here!”

“Wasn’t that the fucking plan?” he hissed.

The woman grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “I want her to pay for what she did to us!” Us? “She survived, and we were destroyed. All you care about is sex. I want her to bleed, just like we did. Aurora needs to repent for being his favorite princess.”

My face contorted in confusion.

I knew the possibility of another girl, but I had no proof. There was nothing linking him to another victim.

His favorite princess.

“Your issues aren’t my problem. She should be dead, and Rory should be ours. I’m tired of playing games with her. She is letting another woman defile her perfect body. She is mine! Not any of the Vipers or fucking Haven’s! She is supposed to be mine!”

Haven…