Page 55 of Inside the Wicked

“He’s always like that. I was the only one who could do this. Alistair has a particular interest in young ones. Sick bastard likes to think he’scraftingus. He believes I’m sixteen.”

I don’t know what he looks like yet, but my gut twists with the thought of how many other young people end up in the wronghands. Thelost... Had they just wandered a different path, perhaps Xoid could have found them first.

“Where are we?” I dread his answer.

“Some stupidly pretentious country club. You’re great to hug, by the way.”

I’m trying to calculate with that information.

“Have you seen Rix or Adam?”

“Sullevan? Why the hell would they be together? Rix hates that guy after hearing all about his possible involvement in chopping your hair, the ass he was to you regardless. I think we’d need to keep a chaperone with them.”

“You thought Adam was responsible for my attack?”

“Rhett did. There was pretty strong evidence in our investigations. Anyway, besides the point.”

“Rix and Adam traced your location to a country club Adam’s dad frequents. Last I saw them a few weeks ago, they were trying to get Rolf to take them along to see why you’d be here.”

“Well, shit,” Jeremy mutters. “No, haven’t seen ’em. Though I’m mostly down here or watching what ... goes on. This is basically a pick-up point.”

My stomach plummets at the sinister meaning.

“Is Rhett here?”

“No. Sorry, Red. But I got the confirmation he’s somewhere, because they’ve been boasting about him up topside. They call him the White Knight. Like, what is this—some lame-ass budget DC comic in the making? Anyway, they say he’s deadly. That he’ll kill anyone, no questions, no limits.”

I’m going to be sick.

“Rhett would never.”

“Of course not. It has to be against his will, and there are only two things he’d cave to save: Xoid or you. And we’d know if there was a threat to us.”

“Oh my god,” I say. All this time ... has Alistair been threatening him with killing me?

“Don’t panic—please. That scared the shit out of me. I thought you might die in my arms.”

A deeper, more vicious new voice rattles me.

“What the fuck is taking so long? Let the bitch suffer.”

Jeremy’s arms tighten a fraction. Then he releases me.

“We were told to make sure she lives, and that wouldn’t have been the damned case if we’d left her for a moment longer,” Jeremy snaps back.

I tense, turning to find a man twice his size in every way. Certainly far older, and as ugly as he sounds. Then I look up at Jeremy as he stands, and I’m close to falling apart. He shouldn’t be here. He’s too young and joyous, with curly brown hair and boyish brown eyes. He easily passes for a more mature-looking sixteen-year-old.

“Looks fine to me,” the man grunts.

I cower back on the bed, too tired to even glower at that asshole. He isn’t worth the effort. I can’t even shift my expression from Jeremy with the man and the camera watching. I have to pretend I’m just as cold to his company as the rest of them.

So I look away, lying down and giving them my back. The more I sleep, the less I’ll have to endure the coming days, or weeks, in this solitude of hell.

CHAPTER 24

Rhett

Riding in the back of a car across from Silas Balenheizer is something I hoped to never do in my life. I have so many questions, but I don’t trust this guy for the answers.

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