Page 66 of Cold Foot Revenge
There was a knock on the door, and Nick opened it a crack, nodded at someone on the other side and stood. “Let’s go,” he told Roxy.
“I need my phone,” she whispered in desperation. “Please. Please Nick. I need it.” She wasn’t about to tell someone she didn’t trust about Dylan, but she could ask about her belongings.
“That’ll be difficult because it is in about a million pieces in the parking lot. Come on.”
And with that final blow, Nick stood and left her staring at the closing swinging door in horror.
Her phone was destroyed?
That had been her last hope.
Her lungs felt like they were collapsing inward, just like the walls in this damn room. Dylan had to be okay. He was good. He was steady. He was what was right with this world.
Grave couldn’t be allowed to poison that.
Not like he poisoned everything else.
Dylan had to exist for the world to make any sense, and right now, the minutes were ticking away.
It was past eight in the morning now, and in just four hours, that Alpha from the other Crew would be bringing Dylan—her Dylan—back to hell.
And she couldn’t stop it.
She couldn’t even slow it down.
The only thing that could fix this…the only thing…she had to take the power from Grave.
Chapter Seventeen
The lights were on.
Not just the mood lighting that was consistent in each of the private rooms, but Grave had turned on the brightest lights.
It was such a small detail when she opened the door to room two, but every single thing she saw in this moment would be burned into her mind forever.
Crystal was lying on the long couch beside Grave. Her eyes were staring blankly ahead, her hair cascading over the edge of the cushion. She wasn’t moving, other than the hitching rise and fall of her shoulders as she breathed.
Grave’s orange eyes were on Roxy, and an evil smile stretched his lips as he stroked Crystal’s hair. “Are you ready for your punishment?”
“Punishment,” she whispered, her attention drifting to the shot glass and the empty vile of step one of the Turn Dose that sat on the table in plain sight. There was step two right beside it—a single syringe filled with clear liquid. “What have you done?”
“You mean what have you done?” he countered. “Do you recognize that dose? It looks just like the one you stole. Little different though. I don’t gift bears to bitches. You had plans for the dose you stole from me, right? Well, now you can carry out those plans.” He leaned forward, arms resting on his knees. “You see, I think I have figured out your problem, Rox. You have it in your head that you are better than all of this,” he said, gesturing around the room. “You feel like this is some temporary downswing in your life, and that’s a very dangerous way of thinking. How can you ever settle with me if you are giving into that mindset that you are somehow better than me? I’m going toneed you to accept that you are just…like…me. You will be the one to Turn her.”
And this was the game, right? He was going to break her down until she ended it all herself. It became so clear at this moment as she rushed to Crystal’s side and shook her. The thought was instant.I’ll die before I become like him.
Grave wasn’t going to kill her at all. Where was the fun in that for him? Mental torture was his game. The puppeteering was his artwork. He found satisfaction in deteriorating a mind until there was nothing left but a docile shell of what his victim used to be. She thought it again as she rolled Crystal over and pressed her fingertips to the pulse on the side of her neck.I’ll die before I become like him. “Fix her! Take it back!” she demanded. “Undo this!”
“Come on, little coyote,” he scoffed. “You’re smarter than that. The only way through this is the syringe. You know this. You’ve been around for a long time, and I see you, always watching. Even when you dance, you are aware of the whole room, aren’t you? I wonder, do you have any memory of this room? It was where you were Turned. Do you remember? It felt fitting that you do your first Turn in the same room your animal was born in.”
She had to get Crystal help. Her eyes were getting a glazed over look that scared her. “Crystal, you’re going to be okay,” she whispered as she picked her up and rushed for the door.
Grave appeared out of nowhere, his huge hand splayed across the door, blocking her exit.
“Move,” she gritted out.
“You’re killing her,” he warned. “She has two minutes left, max. Her body is open for the animal, and it will be a quick Turn. She’s weak. Can’t let her get too weak though.”
She’d been struggling to get around him and open the door, but it was pointless. There was a camera in the top corner, andan intercom on the wall by his hand. She turned to the camera and screamed, “Help! Help me!”
