Page 101 of The Demons We Hide

“She doesn’t have a key,” Nolan states.

“Cars?” I ask.

Lex turns away, jogging across the field towards the benches. No phones are allowed on the field, but he’s never far from his. Less than five minutes later, he’s back and scowling down at the screen. “She’s not here.”

“Where is she?”

Lex’s brow furrows. “She’s… on the move. Probably in a car.”

“She wouldn’t take one of ours,” I say.

Nolan snorts. “She’d steal our cars in a heartbeat,” he says. “Let's go see which one she grabbed.”

“Our cars are still in the lot,” Lex says. “Their trackers are still in place.”

“Then how…”

“Fuck.” Lex’s curse cuts off my words and before I realize it, he’s hauling himself up the bleacher rungs and taking off towards the parking lot. Nolan and I exchange a look.

“Tell Coach we had a family emergency,” Nolan orders Madison as he and I both leap up the bleachers and start running.

Something is not right.

* * *

LEX

She’s gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.The word spirals in my head like a twisted venomous little creature, snapping out and sinking sharp fangs into me every time it cuts into my mind. Is she running or has someone taken her?

As I run towards the parking lot, I type out a quick code to one of my self-made apps. Fucking Silverwood Public never has good CCTV, which is why I’d put up my own cameras several months back. The day that I found out Juliet Donovan was switching to our school, in fact.

Now, those cameras rewind and replay a horrific scene I never thought I’d see.

I stop dead in the center of one of the aisles—the clear emptiness of the lot not matching up with the video on my cell phone.

Two masked men. A single black van with tinted windows. A driver. Three people and Juliet. She never had a chance.

“Lex!” Nolan’s call restarts my body, and I turn to face him. He slows to a stop with Gio bringing up the rear and looks at me. “What is it? What’s happened? Did you find out where she went?”

I turn my phone around to show them the video. My heart hammers against the inside of my ribcage, threatening to break free even if it kills me. I’m going to find them—the men who took her—and I’m going to rip them apart. Piece by fucking piece. I’m going to slit their throats and bathe in their blood. I’ll string them up by their own intestines. Or… no, worse, I’m going to cut them.

I’ll start small, a little piece of skin here. A finger there. A toe. Then work my way inward, amputating each of their limbs until they’re nothing but a torso and a stump of a head. Then … I’ll flay their skin from their bones and go inward.

“Keys, keys, keys!” Gio is patting himself, looking but coming up empty. His eyes are wild, but nothing can compare to the riot of fear and fury that rages within me.

I dig into my pocket. They’d left their keys in the locker room, but just like my phone, I’d brought both onto the field and left them in a bag on the sidelines. I’m just glad I grabbed them along with my cell.

Gio holds his hands out as I toss them in his direction. “Drive fast,” I growl as we head for my SUV.

“We need guns.” Nolan’s voice pauses the two of us, and I turn back with a scowl. He stops me before I can speak. “Don’t you dare say there’s no time.”

“We have a few in the?—”

“Not enough.” His eyes are cold, almost glassy. He nods to the SUV. “Go. Text me the address. I’ll get what we need.”

Relief slips through me. He’s not stopping us. Then another thought crosses my mind and I glance to Gio. “If Darrio is behind this…”

Gio shakes his head. “There’s no love between my old man and me,” he replies to my unspoken warning. It’s not a question, but a promise. Whoever has taken what belongs to us will die tonight. And if they touch her… they’ll die slowly, painfully.

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