Limit (Rebel Book 3)

by Molly McAdams

  “She’s probably with Lexi in their room,” Jess said, clearing her throat and shifting away from Kieran.

  “That’s good,” Diggs mumbled. “Keep Baby Mini away from this mess.”

  Maverick huffed. “Man, she’s already been in to talk to you like the bravest little rebel there ever was.”

  A startled laugh left Diggs and swiftly turned into a hiss.

  I exhaled slowly when Kieran came to stand next to me. “This what you wanted?”

  “For you? Fuck, you think I wanted you to be in pain?” He settled against the wall next to me, arms folded over his chest. “For the case? Yeah. It’s what I wanted.”

  Despite the pain and anger and betrayal, a shock of fear went through me, and it was only made worse by the fact that he’d been the last one through the door.

  I stayed unmoving, staring at the twins and Einstein talking, when I asked, “What did you do?”

  “Nothing.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “After everything this morning, would you still try to stop me?”

  “With my last breath.” My response was immediate and sure. I would do anything to protect Sutton. Always.

  “Nothing,” Kieran answered after a while. “I know what she was hiding now. She admitted this morning there were things she hadn’t told us—said she hadn’t because it wouldn’t have changed anything. She was right. By the time she found out the truth about her husband, it wouldn’t have changed anything. Doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have told us.”

  “Not that I know why the hell the two of you were talking in the first place, but you said that as if all the shit in those emails didn’t matter. Like the emails shouldn’t be your one reason not to trust her.”

  “Never said they don’t matter. I said she told me what I needed to know.”

  “And you believe her . . . now. After everything.”

  “She told me at her breaking point.” He pushed from the wall and sent me a slow, cold look when I slammed a hand onto his chest, keeping him in place.

  “You said you didn’t do anything.”

  “I didn’t.” He shoved my hand away and turned so he was facing me. “You are her breaking point. Seeing you in pain. Seeing the way she hurt you. That was what it took for her to start talking.”

  I shoved down the hope that sparked in my chest before it could build.

  It didn’t make a difference.

  It didn’t change that I’d found her trying to leave an hour after I’d told her I loved her. It didn’t change that she’d been in on this with Zachary, screwing us over and putting us at risk.

  Kieran nodded toward the doorway and started that way. “We have a body to get rid of.”

  I dragged my hands through my hair as I pushed from the wall. “Let’s do this fast, I need sleep. I only got about twenty minutes earlier.”

  I grabbed the pile of sheets leftover from the night before and followed Kieran into the kitchen.

  The man on the floor had set off Einstein’s facial recognition, which could have been explained or possibly dismissed had he worked at the hotel.

  He didn’t.

  It was careless compared to everything else we’d seen from the Tennessee Gentlemen, but maybe that was part of their game.

  Give us something easy to make us feel like we had a win, only to hit again once we started to let our guard down.

  I set all but one of the sheets onto the table and glanced at the resort’s camera feed on Einstein’s laptop, not that I knew what I was looking for. “This isn’t going to be easy in the middle of the morning at a resort,” I said as I turned back to the body, my eyes catching on the uneaten food.

  Sutton was the one who ordered it all.

  Breakfast was Lexi’s favorite. She wouldn’t have missed it—especially after promising Diggs to eat for him.

  “We’ll just get the body prepped and put away and then get rid of it tonight.”

  “Where are Sutton and Lexi?”

  “Sutton sent Lexi to their room to hide.” He snatched the sheet from me and started unfolding it. “Sutton was upset, said it felt like someone was coming.”

  I looked in the direction of girls’ room.

  My heart kicked up in pace.

  “Sounded like bullshit to keep us around her after what had just happened,” he continued. “Wanted me to tell you that Lexi could feel it.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Kieran stopped what he was doing to glance at me, eyebrows lifted in confusion. When he registered my growing alarm, his brow lowered and drew together.

  I took a step forward and looked around for anything out of place, trying to decide if the pressure on my chest was from the day and what Kieran had just told me or a threat I couldn’t see.

  “Been around enough people who have fucked up,” Kieran murmured, already slipping blades out of his pockets. “Sounded like she was reaching because she knew she had.” His head tilted, listening for something I couldn’t hear.

  His eyes met mine for a brief second as he passed me, his head moving in brief dismissal. Even still, the blades stayed in his hands as he rounded the corner out of the kitchen without making a sound.

  I didn’t wait for him to confirm there was nothing.

  Once was enough.

  I charged across the suite, looking for any sign of the girls who’d stolen my heart.

  “The door’s shut,” Kieran called out when I was halfway there.

  I slowed, barely giving him a glance, but I stopped completely when I found him in front of the main door to the suite.

  “Did you close this?” he asked, his tone slow and careful and not at all Kieran.

  “No.”

  “It was left propped open when the food was being delivered. I meant to have Jessica close it.”

  Meant to.

  Before everything had gone to hell with a stack of printed-out emails.

  Shit.

  I ran for the girls’ room, yelling for Sutton as I did. My stomach dropped when I threw open their door and found the bedroom empty.

  “Sutton.” I hurried through the room, only pausing long enough to see she wasn’t in the bathroom before running out.

  Kieran was coming down the stairs as I did.

  Another faint shake of his head, and I stumbled.

  I shot a hand out to the railing to catch myself and dragged in short, thin breaths.

  “You left them alone,” I sneered. “You left her alone when she’d already tried to leave today. When she fucking told you someone was coming. You should’ve known they were going to run.”

  “It hasn’t been long. She couldn’t have gotten far . . .”

  I looked at him when his words slowed and trailed off and then turned to follow his line of sight into the girls’ bedroom.

  He stepped forward and pointed toward the bed, knife still pressed flat to his palm, ready to use. “That’s the bag she had when they were leaving.”

  Sutton’s name scraped up my throat in a whisper of denial at the same moment Kieran slipped past me and darted across the suite, yelling for Einstein.

  I walked slowly into the room, searching everything.

  Every bag.

  Every piece of clothing.

  The way the bed looked.

  It was all so normal, nothing looked out of place or missing.

  Except for them.

  I shoved Kieran’s arm away when he grabbed my shoulder.

  “Einstein’s reviewing the camera feed. We’ll know what happened soon.”

  “You shouldn’t have left her alone,” I ground out, my voice an agonized growl. “They shouldn’t have been alone.” My head snapped up, and I turned in a tight circle. “Lexi.”

  “We’ll find—”

  I shot a hand out toward him, silently telling him to stop talking, and continued turning in a circle, stare falling on every part of the room.

  “You said she sent Lexi to hide. Hide, right?”

  He gave a con
firming grunt.

  “Then she’s hiding,” I said softly. “Lexi, can you come out?”

  No response.

  But I felt it in my soul that she was somewhere in there, hiding because her mom told her to.

  “Lex, it’s really important that you come out. Kieran’s with me, but he’ll leave if you want him to.”

  Nothing.

  “Leave.”

  Kieran blew out a slow breath before backing out of the room.

  “Lexi, please.”

  Please be here.

  Please come out.

  Please be okay.

  A few seconds later, shuffling sounded in the bathroom, and then she appeared in the doorway.

  A strangled breath punched from my lungs.

  Relief filled me, intense and profound.

  I dropped to my knees when she ran at me, tears streaking her cheeks, and caught her in my arms.

  “Momma was supposed to hide. She was supposed to get you and hide. And I don’t think she’s hiding,” she cried. “It was like in my dreams. My bad dreams. Someone was coming, and I could feel it, and it was scary. And I don’t feel it anymore.”

  Shit.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  I’d known.

  As soon as Kieran had pointed out the bag, I’d known.

  Lexi saw things other people didn’t. Felt things others couldn’t. And everything she was saying only confirmed the horrifying reality I was already living in.

  “You trust me, Lex?”

  She nodded against my shoulder, another sob escaping her.

  “I will bring your mom back to you. I will not stop until you’re together, understand?”

  She leaned away, her face scrunched in an attempt to keep from crying. “Promise, promise?”

  “Promise, promise.”

  She wiped hastily at her face before throwing her arms around my neck again. “I’m trying to be brave for Momma, but I still cried.”

  “Bravest girl I know,” I whispered and squeezed her tighter, holding her for a few moments. When I released her, I waited until she was looking at me before I spoke. “I’m probably going to leave you here with some of my friends when I go get your mom—Einstein at least. You gonna be okay with that?”

  Lexi’s stare fell to the floor, unease bled from her. “Will my Diggs be here?”

  “Hell yeah, and he’ll need you to keep him company because he’s awake.”

  She tried to fight a smile, but it still crept across her lips. With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, she said, “I guess I can do that.”

  I flicked her forehead. “Don’t roll your eyes.”

  Her eyes watered all over again and then she was launching herself at me. “Mr. Conor . . . you’re my favorite.”

  Fuck.

  I tightened my hold on her.

  We needed to go.

  We needed to act fast.

  But this moment with Lexi meant the goddamn world to me. I would’ve stopped time for this hug and to hear those words. “You’re my favorite too, Lex.”

  I looked up when Kieran entered the doorway, a fierce and determined look in his eyes that I knew well.

  “Maverick and I are ready,” he murmured. “We need to move now.”

  I nodded and set Lexi back on her feet. “Remember what I said, okay? I need you to go see Diggs, but you can’t forget he’s hurt. Be gentle. I’ll be back soon.”

  As soon as she was running from the room, I stood and hurried for my bag. “What happened?”

  “Einstein’s in the traffic system, checking the cameras to see where they went.”

  They not she.

  My jaw clenched, and my hands curled into fists before I continued arming myself. “What. Happened?”

  “Zachary,” he said after a moment. “Walked in and right back out with her.”

  My body was trembling, and my breathing was rough. “That son of a bitch came to us. He was in here, and none of us even noticed. None of us were protecting her.”

  “He had to have known,” Kieran said, his tone taking on that lethal warning I’d known most of my life. “We’ll get her back, and he will pay for everything.”

  I was already stalking toward the door as I finished loading my last gun. “Slowly. I want him to pay slowly.”

  Sutton

  Thud.

  My heavy eyelids blinked open.

  The room spun around me and my stomach clenched uneasily.

  Thud.

  A weak groan slid up my throat. It was an effort to press my hands to the bed and an even bigger one to try to push my heavy body up, a feat that was almost too much for my muscles.

  Oh God, what is that smell?

  Something was poking at my brain.

  Trying to force me to remember.

  To see.

  To run.

  Telling me that something wasn’t right.

  Thud.

  What the hell was that sound? Why did my entire body react to it?

  My chest pitched.

  My lungs ached from holding my breath.

  A chill raced down my spine.

  I know that sound. I know that sound. I know that sound . . .

  I managed to drag my legs off the bed and bend to rest my arms on my thighs, already exhausted from the little movements I’d made. I tugged absentmindedly at the expensive material resting on my thighs.

  What am I wearing?

  I tried to look down, to look at myself, but found my attention being pulled to the bedside table instead.

  Fear crashed over me like a tidal wave, dragging me under its weight and rolling me in its current and paralyzing my ability to draw a deep breath.

  It was a picture of Lexi and me from last fall. I’d taken her to a pumpkin patch to get away from Zachary. I’d been in such a rush to get us out of the house that she had looked unkempt and mismatched and so completely imperfect that she’d been so utterly perfect.

  It was my favorite.

  Zachary hated it.

  My heart raced harder and harder with each new thing my eyes landed upon.

  The lamp Zachary thought was too big.

  The painting he always said didn’t match the room.

  The nightstand he didn’t like the stain of.

  They were mine—they were all mine.

  I’d spent time picking them out when we’d built our house.

  I nearly fell when I pushed to my feet, my legs still not working how I needed them to.

  My bed, my room, my cocktail dress covering my body—mine, mine, mine.

  Thud.

  I jolted away from the sound and the wall, crashing against the bed.

  Zachary.

  There.

  Directly on the opposite side of the wall.

  I gripped my head, trying to force the spinning to stop, and flinched when another thud sounded in the same place.

  He wasn’t moving.

  He was playing with me.

  God, that smell.

  It was making my stomach clench and churn and had bile rising in my throat.

  I turned, trying to think of where to go and what to do, and my scream tore through the room.

  On the opposite side of the bed, the word “whore” was written in dirty rust-colored letters that ran in a vertical line from the pillow to the footboard.

  On the wall opposite me, lined up and piled three high, were nine bodies.

  The men were all pale in an unnatural way.

  Glazed, clouded eyes were open wide and staring at the ceiling or in my direction.

  Dark, dried blood spilled from wounds and was smeared against notes pinned to the wall they were up against.

  Let’s play a game.

  Let’s play a game.

  Let’s play a game.

  Different sized papers and fonts, over and over until the last.

  The paper on the bottommost corner had one word: Sutton.

  Written in that same dirty rust color that stained the bed.

  Blood.

/>   It was written in blood.

  I dropped to my knees, my empty stomach heaving, vainly trying to reject anything.

  Thud.

  I wasn’t sure if I whimpered or cried out . . . if I was more disturbed or afraid.

  It was as if that single sound—one, lone strike of knuckles against drywall—drove away everything I thought I knew and only left one truth: this wasn’t like our other games.

  “Sutton.”

  My body convulsed at that evil, sadistic tone.

  I tried to push to my feet, but my body refused to cooperate, betraying me when I needed it most.

  Thud.

  I crawled to the bed and pulled myself up, trying to breathe through my mouth and look anywhere but at the bodies and eyes and blood as I thought of where to go. Thought of a weapon.

  Run.

  Hide.

  Make him come to me.

  I made my way to the bathroom, my progress slow . . . so pathetically slow that I wanted to scream but swallowed it back. Finally, my toes touched the cold tiles, and I all but lunged for the vanity, searching wildly through my drawers for something, anything I could use as a weapon. There was nothing.

  The closet . . .

  I twisted, almost tripped over my own feet, and scrambled to the double doors.

  When I yanked the doors open, I did fall.

  A horrified scream did rip from my lungs.

  Time seemed to move in slow motion as I crawled backward, trying to get away from what was in front of me.

  Denial filled me as quickly as my grief washed it away.

  I didn’t realize I was screaming Garret’s name until the world seemed to catch up with alarming clarity.

  “Garret!”

  I cried out in pain and hatred and sorrow when I was yanked from the floor by my hair.

  “Nice touch, if you ask me,” Zachary said with a soft, dark laugh.

  I twisted in his hold and swung for him as something pierced my neck. I staggered away, only to be pulled back into his arms.

  “I always loved you in this dress.” His words ended on a roar when I reached for his face and dragged my nails down it with all the remaining strength I had.

  “You fucking bitch!”

  His hold disappeared.

  My body felt like dead weight.

  My veins filled with fire and ice.

  I couldn’t figure out when I’d fallen to the floor or how to get up.