Page 52 of Sinful Empire (Mount Trilogy 3)
Moonlight sneaks through cracks in the ceiling, revealing that I’m in a mausoleum.
No. No, this is not happening. I’m having a nightmare.
Bile rises in my throat as she raises the barrel of a gun in my direction.
“When you want something done right, you always have to do it yourself.”
She pulls the trigger just as I try to push up and scramble back. The bullet punches through my shoulder with a searing, burning stab of pain, its impact stealing my breath as I fall sideways onto something softer.
The flashlight beam bounces as she turns to leave, but before she shuts the door, the light lands on a face inches from mine.
Magnolia’s face.
Oh God. No.
“What the fuck did you do, you crazy bitch?” I scream.
“You’re the crazy bitch. He was mine first, and he’ll always be mine. That was your mistake. You won’t make it again. None of you get a second chance,” the woman says as the last sliver of light disappears, leaving me shot and bleeding next to my best friend.
“Help!” I scream until my voice grows weak and everything goes black again.
Mount
“Where the fuck are you?” I ask J. “The cops haven’t shown up. Who the fuck gave that tip? Because if that was bullshit, someone’s head will roll.”
“He’s a reliable source. I’m on my way. Be there in five, boss.”
V still can’t find Keira. Temperance’s car is gone. J is on the way, and I’m losing my fucking mind.
The necklace. Her GPS tracker. Keira still has it on.
I pull up the app and wait for it to load for what seems like a million years.
No signal. I forgot that here on the casino floor, we’ve blocked all wireless and internet access.
Fuck. Fuck.
I rush out of the casino and through the hallways to my office. Once there, I attempt to get the app to load on my phone and bring up my computer screens at the same time. When I finally get it to load on my desktop, J enters my office.
“This doesn’t make any fucking sense,” I whisper. The location is one I know, a place I visit at least twice a year. It has to be wrong.
“Did V find her, boss?”
“No. V didn’t fucking find her. I just did, and I need you to tell me what the fuck is going on.”
I look up at J’s face, her pale blond hair tumbling down around her shoulders rather than up in the tight bun she normally wears.
“Calm down, Mikey. It’s gonna be fine.”
“Don’t you fucking call me that. You know better, J.”
Seventeen years earlier
My pager vibrated with a number I recognized all too well, followed by the digits 911.
Fuck, what the hell kind of trouble had Hope gotten herself into now? I knew she struggled. We all fucking struggled because of the shit we’d been through.
The day Hope Jones had walked up the steps to the foster home from hell, I’d known nothing would ever be the same. It was a gut thing.
