Boxed Set: Traitorous Heart Volumes 1-6 (The Traitorous Heart Series) (32 page)

I started to scream. Loud. Long. The old lady, Mrs. Lipinsky, lived across the hall. She was a little deaf but she was also nosy. If she heard she would definitely call the police.

“Shut up,” she shouted, hitting me on the side of the head with the butt of the gun. My vision clouded. I felt myself fall to the ground, but I didn’t black out. My eyes were open. I could hear her, but it was as though she were far away.  “That’s better,” she said, dragging me through the living room by my arms to the one wooden chairs we had. It was old and we’d painted it a dark purple. “This is the perfect chair,” she said, lifting me under the arms and sitting me on it.

My dress wasn’t covering any of the important parts. I could tell, but I figured modesty was the least of my worries. I tried to scream, but nothing came out.

Chloe knelt beside me. “Yeah, you’re scary,” she whispered. Her eyes left my face and roamed down. She put the gun in her left hand and reached out to caress my breasts. “They’re perky. Pretty. Small, but lovely just the same.” She touched a nipple, rubbing back and forth. I could feel the pressure but not the sensation. “It’s too bad you have to die. I didn’t want to kill you, but…” She stopped. “Time to get to work.”

I felt some of bodily functions coming back. I tried to speak, but my head just lolled to the side.

“I know,” she said patting my cheek. “Getting hit like that takes your body on a weird ride.” She pulled my hands behind my back, then came around and tied my ankles. From off the couch she grabbed a roll of duct tape and put it across my mouth. “Now for the grody part.” She unsheathed a large knife and held it out in the light. “I’d totally shoot you first, but I don’t want the neighbors to hear. There’s no elevator in this old brownstone and I can’t take any chances.” She stepped around to the back.

I felt tears falling down my face. I didn’t want to die. Mother fuck. I wasn’t ready.

She put one hand on my forehead and tilted my head up. The edge of the blade touched my neck. She pressed.

The John Legend song, All Of Me, started playing. She paused. Moved away. “Ah dang. Hang on.”

“Hi.” Her voice sounded perky, like she was having the time of her life. “Yes. It’s about to go down.” She paused. I could hear a male voice shouting on the other end. “You interrupted me. Otherwise she would be dead. I’m doing what you want.”

My faculties were returning. I could tell my hands were tied. I tried moving them. They seemed really tight. She may act like a total ditzy blonde, but she obviously knew how to tie a knot.

Fuck! This isn’t happening.

“I’ll call you when it’s done.” She hung up. “Sorry about that.” She pulled my head up. “Where was I?” 

I tried to plead with her through the tape and with my eyes. She didn’t have to do this. Her eyes were open but it was like she wasn’t there.

She started talking, but it didn’t feel like it was to me. “Mom, Dad, and I were on our yacht on the Puget Sound. They’d been drinking all day. I was seven, so Dad told me I could only have sips. The beer tasted nasty anyway. I drank punch and ate cookies while Mom and Dad drank. They also fought all day and into the night. My mom took a knife a lot like this one and tried to use it on my dad, but he took it from her. I cried, but they ignored me as usual.

They disappeared in their bedroom below deck. After a while my dad came out. Mom didn’t. I asked him if I could see mommy. He said no, that she didn’t love us and had left us. Then he told me to go to my room. I ran down the hall and slammed my door. But then I heard bumping and I peeked out. My dad was dragging my mom’s body up the stairs. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but I was too scared. Daddy could be really scary. I followed them up. It was dark out so it was easy for me to hide. My daddy took my mom and dumped her body in the water. Then she really was gone. Dad drove the boat back, docked us, and then took us home. We never went back to the Puget Sound. I think it’s a good thing. My mommy haunts the water there.

Dad and I never spoke of mom again. He went back to his life. And so did I. If anyone asked Dad or me what happened to Mom we both said she left us because she didn’t love us. Of course when I got older I got fat and ugly. I demanded my dad fix it. He never told me that I was beautiful and that I didn’t need surgery. He just had our driver take me to the appointments. He was a good Dad.” She started laughing hysterically. 

“I learned a great lesson that day. If you don’t like someone, kill them.” She put the knife to my neck and pressed down. A searing pain shot through me. It seemed to travel across my neck at a lightning speed. Wetness rained down my chest, like my tears.

The door suddenly burst open. Two policemen, their guns out and pointed it our direction, rushed into the room. “Drop the knife and put your hands on your head,” the one with dark, curly black hair shouted.

“Oh, this is going to get good.” Chloe stood up straight. I heard the knife clang to the wood floor. She was behind me though so I couldn’t see what she was doing. “It’s okay, officers. Everything is going to be fine.” Her voice was calm, too composed to be real.

The men seemed to tense instead of relax. “Step away from the girl and put your mother fucking hands on your mother fucking head,” the other officer said. He was slightly overweight with white-blond hair.

I tried to pull my hands from the ropes and rock the chair so that it would tip over, but the dark edges around my vision were filling in. I tried to breathe through my nose, but that made me nauseated.

“Shouting will get you nowhere, boys.” It almost sounded like she smiled as she spoke.

The overweight officer seemed twitchy. He kept looking at his partner and then back at us as though he were unsure about what to do. He licked his lips.

The office with black hair was just the opposite. He was cool and seemingly unbothered by anything. His focus was one hundred percent on Chloe. 

“Chloe, don’t do this. Please.” Griffin appeared in the doorway behind the men. I felt his eyes roam over my body, a look of horror on his face.

“You’re here for her, aren’t you? Even though you can smell another man on her,” Chloe shouted.

The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion. Griffin threw up his hands and shook them, running forward. The overweight cop reached for him, grabbing the back of his shirt.

The cop with the black hair yelled, “Drop it or I’ll be forced to shoot.”

Behind me, I heard the click, click, click of the gun cocking.

There were three shots. The noise was louder than anything I’d ever heard. After that, all sound diminished and everything got really quiet. The pungent scent of gunpowder filled my nose. 

But I was alive, wasn’t I?

The calm police officer was on his radio. I watched his lips move. He seemed to be shouting, but I didn’t hear what he said.

Griffin’s face came into view, so close I could feel the heat of his skin. He said something. It looked like my name. Worry radiated off him. I wanted to tell him it was okay, that I was fine, but the darkness I’d been fighting came on with a vengeance. I was so tired. My eyes felt so heavy they wouldn’t stay open. I fought them. They closed. I blinked them open. And then there was nothing.  

End of Traitorous Heart 6…

PreOrder
Traitorous Heart, #7
. Available Jan 22
nd
, 2015.

AFTERWORD

Thank you so much for reading the first six volumes in the Traitorous Heart series. I’m so in love with Griffin, Katie, and Cage. Their stories are interesting separate as well as together. At the end of volume six, the reader finds out who filled Reid. It’s sure to make volume seven even more interesting. The characters, this story, they’re some of my favorites.

I can’t wait for you to read more.

It’s going to be fun!

If you enjoyed the first six volumes, please go back to Amazon and leave an honest review. It would mean so much to me.

Sincerely,

Breena Wilde

Breena's Book
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Erotic Romance

Blurred Lines

Distorted Lines

Crossed Lines

Dirty Lines

Blurred Lines Volumes 1-4 Boxed Set

Irresistible Lines

Twisted Lines

False Lines

Gratifying Lines

Blurred Lines Volumes 5-8 Boxed Set

The Blue Room

Christmas Secrets

Blurred Lines: The Omnibus Collection

Includes all 8 volumes plus the short stories, The Blue Room and Christmas Pleasures

Contemporary Romance

Her Secrets

Paranormal Romance

Lifeblood and Stone

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Breena Wilde calls the West home, but she's lived all over the United States. She loves snuggling with her husband on cold nights, car dancing while she sings at the top of her lungs (not well, The Voice won't be calling anytime soon), and she especially loves writing romance that's sexy, steamy, and gives her characters the happily ever after they deserve.

Breena is the author of the international bestselling BLURRED LINES series as well as the TRAITOROUS HEART series.

She's also written a novella entitled HER SECRETS as well as the short story LIFEBLOOD AND STONE. This story is an introduction to a brand new erotic paranormal series that will begin early 2015.

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