Page 68 of Depraved

The last thing I see is Logan’s motionless form before the world disappears.

17

BRANDON

I’m wiping Costa’s blood from my knife when my phone vibrates. I retrieve it from my pocket, and my heart skips a beat when I see the security alert.

Someone’s at the manor. The gates haven’t been breached, but they’re in the house.

I take off for my car at a sprint, not noticing the bodies of the dead men I cut through to get to Costa.

I should’ve taken my time with him to get more information, but I succumbed to my terror over losing Karolina. I ended him too quickly.

He might’ve warned me about an attack at the estate if I’d made him beg for death.

Ghost isn’t answering his phone.

“Fuck!”

I check the location of Karolina’s tracker. She’s still at the house, at least.

A sense of powerlessness I’ve never known before hollows out my chest as I race down country lanes to get back home.

I call Ghost over and over again, but he doesn’t pick up.

Panic claws at my insides, shredding rational thought. I’m little more than a feral beast by the time I skid to a stop at the end of the long driveway.

The front door is hanging off its hinges. Ghost shouldn’t have tempted fate by joking about someone blasting their way in.

The safe room. She has to be in the safe room.

I race down the labyrinthine halls. They go on forever, and even my rapidly beating heart seems to slow as time dilates.

I can’t get to her fast enough.

The house is too quiet.

Deadly quiet.

I round the corner to the corridor that leads to the safe room and find a nightmare waiting for me.

Ghost is sprawled on the floor, unmoving. His white shirt is stained crimson.

Something crunches beneath my boot.

The tracker.

It’s coated in her blood.

A purely primal roar rips from my chest.

I rush to Ghost. His pulse is faint, but my friend isn’t dead.

I shake him. “Where is she?”

He chokes on a wet cough. “I’m sorry, Ragnar. I couldn’t stop them. They took her…”

He trails off. He’s barely breathing.