Deviant (Boys of Winter #3) - Sheridan Anne Page 0,76
she’s not. I can’t hear her. I can’t feel her.
We get to the top of the stairs just as King steps out of the private study. “Clear so far,” he tells us. “It’s just the bedrooms to go.”
Carver nods as we all turn down the hallway that leads to our bedrooms. We pass Carver’s on the left first while Cruz’s door is a few steps down to the right, and at once, Carver and King storm through his bedroom while Grayson and Cruz search his, leaving me out in the hallway, staring down toward my door that’s been left open just a sliver.
I know I should wait for the guys, but I can’t stop myself from moving forward. One foot in front of the other and I have absolutely no control.
My eyes are wide as my heart thunders in my chest, and with every step, it just gets louder.
I creep closer, fearing what I might see, and as I reach my bedroom and raise my hand to nudge it open, I hear the boys in the hallway. “Winter,” Cruz rushes out just as all four of them start storming toward me, but I can’t wait.
I push the door open and step through to my room, and as the boys barrel in behind me, my whole world shatters.
Lady Dante lays lifelessly over my bed, her blood smeared across my destroyed room and seeping into my sheets. There’s a slice right through her little body, starting at her throat and going straight down through her belly.
“Fuck,” King spits as a loud, horrific scream tears out of me. I collapse to the ground, Cruz only just catching me before I make matters worse. My stare locks onto Lady Dante’s glossy, dead eyes as tears quickly well in mine and run down my face. Who the hell would do this? She was just an innocent puppy who only just got her second chance in life. She was happy here with me. She was supposed to be safe.
Anger boils within me, but the rage is too much, too overwhelming that my usual need to go and beat the living shit out of someone is long gone. I’m left with nothing but pure devastation, grief, and exhaustion.
How could they take her away from me like this? Who could be so cruel?
The boys walk deeper into my room, more than aware that they still haven’t cleared the room yet, but judging by the darkness of the blood seeping into my sheets, I’d say this happened yesterday or maybe even the day before, maybe right after I left her with nothing but a full bowl and a little scratch on her head.
She deserved so much better.
I cry in Cruz’s arms as he desperately tries to soothe me, needing to take away my pain, but it’s too much. It hurts too bad.
Big, painful sobs tear from my body as Cruz’s arms tighten around me, but they relax as the boys turn to look back at us and stare at the wall opposite my bed. Their jaws drop, horror filtering through their eyes, and as I turn around to look up at the wall, that same horror pulses through me.
Smeared across the wall in Lady Dante’s blood, making fear rattle my bones are the words ‘YOU’RE NEXT.’
My eyes widen, terror racing through me, but I don’t let it cripple me. Not anymore.
I got it before. It was about Dynasty. It was about keeping their bullshit corrupt world and refusing to let me rule over it. Attacks came at me, they hurt me, and they pushed me to my limits, but now it’s personal.
They killed my dog, my best friend, and for that, I am going to tear every last one of them to shreds.
CHAPTER 20
The vase shatters against the wall as I desperately try to release the anger that pulses through my veins. The boys sit around me, watching as I pace back and forth through Carver’s living room—one of the only rooms in the house that’s not completely destroyed.
I grab another vase—one of his mother’s favorites—and launch it across the room with a loud, roaring yell. It shatters against the fireplace, and for just a second, I feel a little bit better. But then I remember the innocent dog lying upstairs on my bed and the rage comes pulsing back.
I continue pacing, my hands balling in and out of fists as I struggle to wrap my head around the fact that she’s gone.