Kody leaned forward from the backseat, trying to see what I was pointing at. "I don't see it," he replied.
I frowned, no longer seeing it myself. Maybe it'd been a trick of my imagination or something. But then it flickered again.
"There!" I said, pointing. When neither Kody nor Archer seemed to follow my line of sight, I let out a frustrated sound and pushed my door open, climbing out to get a better look. They both followed me, and Steele gave us a curious look as we headed in his direction.
"What's going on?" he asked, meeting us halfway across the parking lot after discarding of the plastic responsibly.
I frowned in the direction of the light... which was now gone again. Was I going crazy?
"MK saw something that worried her," Kody answered. "We couldn't see what it was, so we're taking a closer look... right, babe?" He tilted his head as he looked to me for confirmation.
I nodded slowly.
"Okay, well—" Steele paused what he was about to say, pulling his phone from his pocket to check a message. Then his brow furrowed in a deep frown. "This can't be good," he muttered, then held the phone out for us to see.
It was a text message from a private number with just three words and a video link.
I swallowed heavily, staring down at the screen.
For Madison Kate.
Someone knew I didn't have my phone on me... so they'd messaged Steele instead. Archer reached out and hit play on the video link, and instantly my skin prickled. Cold sweat broke out all over my body and my heart raced so hard I thought it might stop beating.
The video was shaky and a bit blurred, seemingly taken on someone’s phone through the window at our front door. But the content was clear enough. It showed me shooting Scott in the head, then standing over his body totally expressionless and cold. Then I just... walked away with the gun in my hand.
My stomach churned with icy terror, but the message wasn't over.
Once I was gone from the camera, the video faded into blackness and words appeared on the screen, letter by letter in a blood-red font.
Whoops, wrong person. You missed.
My chest tightened and my pulse thundered in my ears as that message faded and a new one appeared.
I never miss.
Understanding flashed across my mind in a split second as the red light appeared again, but this time in the middle of Steele's chest. It was a dot. A red dot... like a laser sight might make.
A panicked scream tore out of me at the same time as the shot echoed through the silent night air.
Something hard and heavy slammed into me, and my face scraped against the gravel of the parking lot. Pain ricocheted through my chest and I cried out, but it was no use.
Blood coated the ground in front of my face and an anguished scream tore out of me. I stared into a beautiful, heartbreakingly familiar pair of gray eyes and watched as the light ebbed from them.
That last message repeated over and over in my mind.
I never miss.
To Be Concluded in
KATE
Coming 31st October
books2read.com/madisonkate4
Letter from the Author
I don’t even know if this is totally safe to chat with you right now. Maybe I should give my authors note a skip this time?
Naaaaaaaaaahhhh, you’re tough! You knew this was gonna be a doozy from the moment you read the first chapter. YOU GOT THIS! But just in case you’re currently plotting MY death, I’m gonna give you a quick sec.
…
We good? All forgiven? Sweet! Well then let’s move on to the important shit for this part of the writing process. Acknowledgements for the people and things that majorly helped me get through and create a book that, quietly, I’m super proud to be sending out into the great, wide world.
As always, I couldn’t make my books what they are without the help of my awesome editors, Heather and Jax. They seriously held my hand on this one. And by “held my hand” I do mean they kicked my ass relentlessly. I’m a sucker for the paaaain.
Thank you, this time around, to the handful of seriously awesome, strong, hard working women in the author community who recognized when I was struggling and did everything they could to build me up and support me. They’re legit crown fixers, and true friends. You bad ass bitches rock, you know that?
This book, this whole series, has been such a surreal experience. These characters have sucked me into their world like none other and for the first time in forever I’m wondering if I should really learn to type properly, just so I can get the words down faster! For those who’ve seen me type on zoom lives, you’ll know I use three fingers and look like a drunk T-rex.
Anyway, I’ll keep this sucker short and sweet because I’m already neck deep in KATE and am just dying to see what happens next. How about you? Are you ready to see how MK’s story concludes?
If the answer to that is a bittersweet kind of “I dunno man, I really like this damaged fuckers” then you’re in luck. I already have a new series in the works which is also set in Shadow Grove. Book one is called 7th Circle and if you jump all over my ass in my readers group on Facebook (link provided at the end of this blah blah) then I might be persuaded to share a bonus POV from one of the leads… Hades.
Thank you for reading! Thank you for reviewing (wink wink) and thank you for not pinning my picture to your wall and throwing darts in retaliation for this ending. Heh. Yeaaaaaah.
Join my readers group here: The Fox Hole
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