Love Me (WITSEC #3)(78)

I nodded. He and Creed took off toward Ethan’s backyard. Before Keelan and I could go, Ethan stopped me. “What’s going on?”

“There’s an emergency at the gym.” It was the best lie I could come up with and Ethan didn’t look like he believed it, either. Thankfully, he didn’t call me out.

I went to leave again, but Ethan started talking again. “Isabelle went upstairs. If you see her, tell her to hurry up because we’re about to play another game and she promised to be my partner.”

“I will,” I told him, and Keelan and I began weaving through the crowded party towards the stairs.

There were a few people hanging out at the top of the landing, but for the most part, the second floor was empty and somewhat quiet. You could still hear the music. The bass vibrated the carpeted floor beneath our feet as we made our way down a hall.

“Colt!” I called out for him as we poked our heads into rooms. We accidentally walked in on two people having sex in one of them. “Sorry!” I yelled at them and slammed the door closed. Keelan snorted and we continued to the next room.

As we got toward the end of the hall, where there was one last room to check, Keelan grabbed my arm. “Shi,” he said as he stared down.

I looked down, too. In front of the last room, seeped into the beige carpet, was a large spot of blood. It was still wet.

“Damnit,” I growled, and I pulled my gun from where I had it tucked into the back of my shorts. With it held out in front of me, we moved closer, and the closer we got, the more blood we could see. It was a trail leading into the room. The door was slightly ajar and there was blood on the handle.

With the barrel of my gun, I pushed open the door. It was a large, dark bedroom and there was light coming through the cracked door of what I assumed was the en suite bathroom. As I went inside, I prayed.

Please don’t let Colt be in this room.

Please let him be all right.

Once inside, we followed the bloody trail toward the en suite. I glanced ahead toward the cracked door and froze. There was a bloody handprint on the door.

“Call the police,” I said and pushed toward the bathroom.

Please not Colt.

Please not Colt.

I pushed the door open, careful not to touch the blood.

The first thing I saw on the floor was teal hair. Then I saw her face. There was blood on it. There was blood everywhere.

“No!” I screamed, dropping to the floor. “Isabelle!” I crawled to her. My knees slid in the blood that surrounded her. She had been stabbed and cut. I took in each area she was bleeding from and stopped counting after seven. There were too many—too many places where I needed to stop the bleeding. I cupped her face. “Isabelle! Isabelle, can you hear me?”

She jolted and sucked in a raspy, wet breath.

“Isabelle!” I cried, pushing her hair away from her face. “We’re getting you help. Just please, stay with me.”

She didn’t respond or move.

“Isabelle?” I shook her a little and got nothing. “No! Isabelle!”

I could hear Keelan talking to a 911 operator behind me, telling them about Isabelle. They weren’t going to make it in time. I needed to stop the bleeding. I looked around for a towel or something. Red writing on the mirror caught my attention. The red was blood, Isabelle’s blood, and what was written erased any bit of doubt that he had found me.

You are mine. X.



To be continued.





COLT





I tried to open my eyes, but they were covered.

I tried to speak, but there was something in my mouth.

I tried to move my body, but couldn’t. From what I could tell, I was sitting in a chair. Metal cut into my wrists behind my back and my feet were bound together.

How did I get like this?

How long have I been like this?

I could smell chlorine and the air felt humid.

I thought back to the last thing I could remember. I had been at Ethan’s, watching him play a game of beer pong, and I’d felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I’d had multiple missed calls from Knox and Creed. I had gone outside because it’d been quieter. As I had been about to call them back, my phone had started ringing. I’d seen that it was Creed again and had been about to answer it…everything was blank after that.

What sounded like a door opening caused a loud echo. That told me I was in a large room. Whoever had opened the door was making their way toward me. I could tell by the sound of their boots as they hit the ground. It was getting louder and louder the closer they got.

I pretended to still be asleep, hoping whoever it was would leave me alone and give me more time to figure out what to do.

The steps stopped. “You better call me back, you motherfucker. I know you have my daughter,” the person growled. Sheriff McAllister? “If you hurt her, I’ll kill your obsession. Don’t doubt that I will. Your precious Shiloh is on her way to me right now.”

Shiloh!





The final WITSEC book





Coming Soon!





Check out the Maura Quinn series





ABOUT THE AUTHOR





Ashley N. Rostek is a wife and mother by day and a writer by night. She survives on coffee, loves collecting offensive coffee mugs, and is an unashamed bibliophile.