Page 76 of Wicked Games

In shock, my body quaking, the plastic digging into my wrists, I lie on the bottom of the boat. Even if my hands weren’t tied behind my back, there’s no way I could swim anywhere. My entire body hurts too badly and I’d drown.

They stop talking, the paddles slicing through the water the only sound. Through the pain throbbing inside my head, I try to make sense of what they were talking about. Whoever they’re working for didn’t know about the sister. They’re talking about Hattie. Someone found out we’re sisters, and now they’re after me. Hattie knew something, but what? She was the city’s gossip. She knew a lot about everything, but whatever it is they think Hattie knew, they think she told me. Hattie and Theo were killed with the same gun, linking their deaths. These men could be Theo’s kidnappers. They could’ve killed Brooke too. Who are they working for? They’re too smart, or scared, to even hint at who that could be.

I have no idea how far they paddle, the fog still heavy and dense.

“This is good,” one of them finally says, tossing the paddle down, the noise jarring in the silence.

“Shh! What the fuck?” his partner whispers.

“There’s no one out here. Dump her so we can go. I need a drink and I have to take a leak.”

“Do it over the side.”

“Get rid of her first. If we fuck this up, he’ll be pissed.”

The guy who grabbed me on Seth’s patio yanks me to my feet and pushes me over the side with no goodbyes or last-minute reveals. Not that it matters if I know who they are because I’m fucked.

Seth’s sleeping, and in this fog, there’s no way he could find me.

I don’t have a chance to suck in a breath, and it’s only a second later my lungs are on fire from shock and lack of air.

The water’s icy cold, and I sink, my arms trapped behind my back.

Two gunshots blast above me and I wait to feel a burst of pain, but it doesn’t come. If they were aiming at me, they missed.

Hattie’s voice echoes through my brain. “Fight, you cunt!” But there’s no humor in her tone now. I won’t see the assholes who killed her be brought to justice or find out why they killed Theo and Brooke. Hattie was caught up in it, and it was only a sick twist of Fate that Seth and I met and fell in love.

I let my body go lax, hoping I can at least drift to the surface, their one mistake not zip-tying my ankles too.

But no matter how much I try to relax, water plugs my nose and my last thought before my world goes black is that I hope Violet can save Seth one last time.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Seth

Winnie wakes me up, her paws gouging into my chest. She’s not a light dog. I try to bat her away so I can go back to sleep, but realizing what’s wrong with this picture, I sit up.

She shouldn’t be in my house.

Avery’s side of the bed is empty, and I vaguely remember her saying she was going to see what Winnie was barking at. I shouldn’t have let her do it by herself, but I’ve been so tired, and the only way I can get any sleep is if she’s with me. I didn’t even feel her get out of bed.

She must be downstairs, maybe checking her phone if she thought she’d have a hard time falling back to sleep, or maybe she’s writing. I’m not familiar with her habits—don’t know if she gets up in the middle of the night to jot down an idea or a phrase so she doesn’t forget it.

It’s five after two.

I put the clothes on that I wore yesterday after we got back from the beach, jeans and a t-shirt.

Winnie follows me down the stairs.

“Avery, sweetheart?” I call into the kitchen, but she’s not standing at the island scrolling on her phone. She’s not in the room where we watched that movie, either, and she isn’t sitting in the other living room this house has, writing in her notebook.

Winnie paws at the French doors, and my stomach starts to twist.

Avery’s not in the house, and I know without looking she’s not at hers. Theo, then Hattie, then Brooke. Now Avery.

I push back a burn in my throat, and a fury that could be even stronger than what I felt after Theo’s death rips through me. I won’t let them kill her.

She’s my next fifty years.