Page 297 of Redeemed

He shoves me onto the mattress. “I stayed faithful to you. Almost four years, Heaven, and I never touched another woman. You really expect me to wait?”

I scramble away, but he pounces onto the bed and flips me onto my back. When I try to curl up in on myself, he slaps me across the face.

“Just pretend I’m one of your clients,” he spits out. “You managed just fine for them, didn’t you?”

My heart crumbles as Isaiah yanks my dress’s zipper down. And as he tears the dress off my body, I sink into a cold, dark state of numbness and pray for death to find me.

Xander

Idon’tmakeitback home until after midnight.

Turns out, when I got onto the interstate, I went the wrong way. When Colton got the address to Cornerstone from Julie, he refused to give it to me, instead telling Wes and Kellan. They’re casing the place now and should have a full report to Colton by morning tomorrow.

I’m pissed enough that I want to barge into his room and demand he gives me the address, but if he’s sleeping, then he needs to rest. Tomorrow will be a big day for the Glass Rooks.

That, and the bastard is right. I wouldn’t be able to make the ride down safely, let alone the ride back up with Haven.

The house is quiet as I step inside. Colton probably put everyone up in some of his spare rooms, and I hope they’ve all managed to fall asleep. I head upstairs silently, only to find light shining from underneath mine and Luc’s door.

Inside, Lucas is standing in the middle of the room. He’s staring numbly at the wall. I’m not even sure he noticed me come in.

“Luc,” I say softly.

Nothing.

“Lucas.”

Slowly, he blinks, and then he turns his attention on me. His eyes are bloodshot, his expression blank.

“Can’t sleep?” I ask.

“Not tired.”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “Same.”

Lucas resumes staring at the wall. “Have you seen the latest report from Wes?”

“No. Haven’t checked my phone. I just wanted to get inside.”

“The place is practically impenetrable,” he says bitterly. “They have a huge gate that vehicles can go in and out of. That’s the only entry point, and as far as Wes and Kellan can tell, it’s always guarded by at least two armed men.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

Lucas shakes his head. “How? They have fucking guard towers around the perimeter. Even if we can get in, how the hell are we supposed to get out without getting shot? WithoutHavengetting shot?”

“After tomorrow, we’ll have all of the Rooks’ resources on our side. We’re getting her out of there.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that Isaiah got his hands on her. He could be hurting her right now for all we know. She could… Xan, she could be dead.”

My chest feels hollow at the thought. I already had that realization hours ago, but now that I’m back home and doing absolutelynothing,it feels worse.

Lucas starts pacing back and forth. His shoulders are tight, and he grabs at his hair, pulling at it with frustration. “We already failed her once—already hurt her enough. What if we can’t get to her in time?”

I watch him silently, unsure of how to respond. Up close, I can see it now. Our childhoods affected us in different ways, but one thing we both escaped with was our need to have as much as possible under our control.

Our safety.

Our future.

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