He cuts me off with a growl. “Fucking listen for a minute. Reign was wearing these clothes. Smell them.” I reach for him so I can snap his neck, but he grabs the tank top from Priest’s hands and shoves it under my nose.
“The car was on fire, but these clothes don’t smell of smoke.”
“So they got out before it caught alight,” Priest reasons.
“There’s also no blood. If she was in the back of that car when it went careening over the edge, why is her white tank top blood-free? Even without all that, if Reign shot her abductor, she wouldn’t walk out of here naked when her undamaged clothes are right there,” Saint yells.
I hold the top tight to my nose, breathing her scent in, letting it settle me. He’s right. But that can only mean one thing.
“Someone else has her.” I say what we’ve all concluded.
Saint opens his mouth to answer but stops when Priest’s cell phone rings. Priest whips out the phone and listens to whatever the caller has to say.
I stare at Saint as a thought occurs to me. “Whoever has her must be familiar with the area. I’ve lived here my whole life and never knew about this place. I thought it might have been stumbled upon, but this feels like it was planned.”
“On our way,” Priest says into the phone before hanging up.
“Tate and Owen are at the station,” he reveals, looking around the room for any more clues before we leave.
“What about everyone else?”
“Kayden is guarding Travis at the hospital. Her dad and Alex have located this Derek guy and are bringing him in for questioning.”
“Well, if they have him, we can strike him off our list of suspects,” Saint adds.
“Yeah, but here’s the thing. Travis called Garrett to get him to bring in Derek so Reign’s dad and brother could come help down here. He told them he’s out of town on family business and hung up on him.”
“Fuck. He was ruled out for a reason, but I’d bet my bike that asshole’s in Vegas.” Shit, we need to find her.
“Let’s get down there and find out what the fuck is going on,” Priest growls.
He steps to push past me, his leg catching on the side of the blanket and moving it slightly so I can see the space on the floor it previously hid. My eyes catch on the small, dark red mark on the floor, the unmistakable stain of blood.
“Priest, wait.”
He turns to look at me, so I point to the spot on the floor.
“Splatter?” he questions, but it’s too far away from Jake and the pool of blood he’s lying in.
I walk over to the bed, unease making my movements sluggish. Grabbing the edge of the comforter, I look up at Saint and Priest, who watch me warily. Keeping my eyes on them, I slowly pull the comforter back.
Saint goes white and Priest storms out, letting me know it’s bad, so I steel myself before turning around.
It doesn’t matter how much I tried to prepare myself. It’s impossible to make yourself ready for something like this because underneath the unassuming floral blanket is a previously white sheet soaked in blood.
Blood I know in my soul is Reign’s.
Chapter Forty-Four
Reign
A drip, drip, drip noise rings loudly in my ears as the fog starts to lift. The veil of sleep slips from my mind as the pain pulls me from my oblivion with a gasp.
The bedroom from before is gone and in its place is the stuff of nightmares.
My brain refuses to process what it’s seeing. None of this is real, I have to be dreaming. I shut my eyes again quickly as the world spins, but when I open them again everything remains the same. Whatever drug he gave me is beginning to wear off and the pain in my hands and chest is becoming unbearable. In fact, it’s my hands that hurt more than anything.
I roll my head, unable to lift it as it’s still too heavy. I’m lying on the floor with my arms stretched out on either side of me at two o’clock and ten o’clock positions. I can’t turn my head far enough to see what my wrists are being restrained with, but when I try to pull them free, the pain is so horrendous, I almost black out again.
The only relief I feel is that I’m no longer naked but dressed in that hideous old-fashioned white gown. My body trembles, whether from the shock or