Page 155 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)

My captor pushing me forward, whispering in my ear to run.

“Skylar!” Masters screams. Any second he’s going to crash through the door and catch me. And then he’ll kill me.

I burst into a sprint, following tire tracks down the hill. Away from the building. The snow penetrates my socks, but I ignore the cold. I shove everything away and focus on my escape—and the phone in my hand.

I dial 9-1-1 and tuck the phone into my bra. I choke out my name, that I’ve been kidnapped. I don’t know where I am, but I’m running through the woods.

“Stay on the line,” comes the tinny voice. “Help is coming.”

In the distance, a car engine turns over.

Masters, maybe, coming for me.

Around me, the forest looms. It presses close in on the path, and my options become clear. I can stay here, and he’ll find me in minutes. I’d be a deer in the headlights. And my other choice…

It’s my only shot, really.

I take a deep breath and slide off the road, and the woods swallow me whole.

42

Liam

There’s no rationality to my movements, but here I stand.

At the edge of the reservoir where Sky and Taryn found Natalie’s body.

It doesn’t feel right, but it doesn’t feel wrong, exactly. The whole place is shrouded in a blue glow. It’s a full moon tonight, and it’s out in full force. Trees sway, casting their moon shadows on the fresh snow.

I step onto the trail and follow it toward the water.

There are chunks of ice floating close to the edges, but the center is still liquid. And the reservoir trail is completely silent.

With a sigh, I dial McAdams.

“Anything?” I ask after she answers. My frantic energy has faded, leaving me restless and exhausted. Eli helped for a while, haunting my every move, but I finally had to send him off to search another corner of Boston.

Instead, Caleb is with me.

He doesn’t say shit, though, and he knows better than to hover. I’ve already threatened to deck all of them—that was after Theo’s emergency was dropped and they met back at my apartment. I would’ve killed all of them just for looking at me wrong, but Caleb put an end to that.

And I have a nice new bruise on my cheek to thank for the lesson.

McAdams sighs. “No. We’ve had noth…”

“Detective?” I ask.

“Hang on.” Muffled, she says, “Patch that through right now.”

I wait, turning toward Caleb. He raises his eyebrows, but he doesn’t suggest we leave. We drove almost thirty minutes out here on a fucking whim, and it was only because…. Well, I don’t know. The fact that Natalie was discovered too soon.

Amber had been planted on a street corner, made to seem like her boyfriend killed her. It was staged by someone with an intimate knowledge of crime scenes.

Jasmine still hasn’t been found.

Natalie’s didn’t make sense. Half buried in a shallow grave?

It was like Masters got interrupted… by Sky and Taryn.