DARLENE“Is this a bloody joke?” I screamed, feeling my hands shoot into the yellow candescence of the wide, tubular-looking room as the blood pounded hotly in my ears. “Dar please, I can explain all this,” My husband’s baritone was even as usual, but I could sense the undercurrents of panic in the way his voice wavered at the end as I whipped my hair this way and that, trying to register everything I was seeing.There were long winding chains dragging from the low stone ceiling of the cellar, the workbench and gurney at the end of the room with the flickering white of a fluorescent dangling above it made my blood run cold.What had they been doing here? The room was empty, save for the ominous-looking barrels that were piled high in the corner, their deep brown backs throwing off the yellow light.“My God,” I whispered before realizing that I had gasped out loud when the ugly-faced man in the ring chuckled dryly.“Ain't no God here Lassie, count yourself lucky, not everyone who gets
ALEXANDERLaura Diego was gone. Gone like a pack of crackers in a chicken coop. It was all I could do not to choke out a scream when I had run in only seconds behind my wife to find the cellar empty, the bloodied chains we had used to hold her scattered uselessly on the floor.“I think we should all go home,” My last words hung heavily in the air as Darlene’s face contorted with an emotion that made white hot pain spike through my chest.I exchanged uneasy looks with the purple-eyed man then, watching the dots of perspiration on his upper lip before he jerked his head so violently to the side it was a wonder everyone else didn't notice.I took a cursory glance around, seeing that Dennis and Darlene were talking in low tones and that the gray-eyed ghost and his Rottweiler side chick Erwin were nowhere to be found.“What the hell happened back there? How the fuck did Diego get out?” Prince Charles hissed, looking more worked up than I had ever seen him so that I had to wonder if there w
FREDERICKI had stolen into the manor the way I came, my heart ripping me the reaper’s jagged drum beats in my chest.“Fucking hell,” I groaned, spreading my arms to brace myself on the tough mahogany wood of the dresser to stare at the blue-eyed man in the mirror.My strawberry-blonde hair had fallen limply over my face so that some of the short strands brushed against my eyelashes, making my eyes water animatedly.“Where the hell are you Laura?” I hissed through clenched teeth, glancing around the ornately designed rustic room once more, my eyes lingering on the brick-red wallpaper as though the dark-haired woman would be hiding between the creases.“Fucking hell, what a day,” I wheezed, raking my fingers through my hair and trying not to remember the state I had been in when I watched Darlene chase after my brother back at the hotel.How her eyes lit up when she told me Laura was not to be trusted. There was a lot of shit that wasn't adding up, shit that made gas bubbles grow in my
LAURA DIEGO“Jesus fucking Christ,” I groaned, kicking out the thick wood of the barrel cover to crawl out of the sloppy mess of rich wine that had soaked through my clothes and wounds.I drew in a large gasp, feeling every bit like that one girl from The Revenant movie as I crawled out of the barrel, the red juice sloshing noisily onto the floor as I squinted through the sharp sizzling pain that clawed at my sides and back.I had lost the gun in the mess of neatly arranged barrels after I had contemplated going up the damned stairs and shooting that bitch Darlene in between the eyes once and for all, imagine MY surprise when the sound of footsteps pounding above me and rushing down the stairs reached my ears.“Fucking hell Laura,” I chuckled dryly, knowing it was a good thing I had been fast on my feet, limping to one of the barrels and searching for an empty one, before throwing myself headfirst into one of the tubular coffins just as the door snapped open behind me.I’d listened to
DARLENEThe car ride back to the McKenzie manor had been quiet and stiff. I stared out the window, my eyes raking over the blurred spine of trees as they whizzed past in my vision.Alexander’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he sped through the highway, making me pause on a long, drawn-out inhale as I resisted the urge to tell him to slow down.I didn't trust myself to speak past the burning in my throat, and I couldn't bare the way his eyes seemed to burn a hole into my head as he stared at me through the rearview mirror.”How’s your brother doing these days Xade? Same old?” Dennis cut in suddenly, breaking the awkward silence so that I cringed, shaking my head at him when his copper-red shock of hair turned to look back at me.Alexander ignored him, his eyes narrowed at the road that seemed to be stretching on for hours.I let my eyes wander over the chiseled line of his side profile, feeling something stir between my legs as I took in the wash of his obsidian hair, the
ALEXANDERI watched Darlene’s slender back as she shuffled into our room and I closed the door with a quiet click behind me, the conversation from downstairs still leaving a bad taste in my mouth.There was something off about Frederick r, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Darlene seemed happy about it though, would it make me any more of a douchebag if I ruined it with my suspicions?I watched her whirl to face me, mirroring the small gentle smile on her pink lips and raking my hands through my hair exhaustedly.“You okay?” She whispered, her gold-speckled green eyes glistening as I watched her shrug out of her dress, the sight of her bare rounded shoulders making I swallow the moisture that had gathered in my mouth.Was I okay? I wasn't certain I could boast of the fantasy.“Are we okay?” I tried instead, craning my head to watch with my heart hammering against my ribs as she claimed up, rearing back like I had slapped her in the face.“I don't want to talk about that rig
FREDRICKI could see the Umbrella man’s Jerry curl of jet-black hair and the bright red umbrella he had laid carefully on the small dark wood of the coffee table long before he turned to run watery brown eyes over my rigid frame.“Christ,” I swore, grinding my teeth uselessly before I marched through the revolving glass doors, pulling the hood of my sweatshirt lower over my face when the ding of the overhead bell signaled the waiter to step up to me, his pale face that had been stretched in a polite smile falling slack when I shoved past him.The high leather stool seemed to dig painfully into my asscrack as I settled into the stool, bracing my elbows on the table and meeting Stefan McCoy’s caramel-brown eyes.The man regarded me for a moment too long before a sensual smile deepened the grooves around his mouth, one large hand gripping a small wine glass poised dramatically under his black flaps.“Fredrick McKenzie, we meet, finally,” He boomed, his voice deep and rich, like velvet.
GHOSTI unclipped the red-striped tie that had been pressed firmly against my Adam's apple, allowing me to breathe deeper.“It wouldn't do to make a habit of strangling myself like this,” I whispered to my blurry reflection in the dirty mirror of the bar’s private restroom, turning my head this way and that to catch familiar hints of the rugged-looking man in the mirror.I had gotten my hair slicked back, the long forest of obsidian silk locs brushing unnervingly against the nape of my neck before I raised my fingers to scratch through the stubble that had covered the sharp line of my jaw.My heart rate had gone back to normal, thudding fully in my chest the way it had been just before the Umbrella man waltzed through the doors of the bar where I had been sitting with the purple-eyed man.I felt my brows furrow with concentration as i thought back, had that been me inhaling sharply? Had the ring chief heard? It has been one of the rare moments where I was caught off guard, I had blan