I had to keep hope alive.
I moved along the front windows, wanting to get a look inside, knowing I would be useless to them if Josh saw me coming and took me out before I could get them free.
But as soon as I heard it, faint against the loud backdrop of nature, I turned and ran back to the door.
Crying.
Someone was crying.
I had no idea who it was.
But no matter which sister, it was my fucking job to protect them. So I ran through the center of the house, following the sound of the sobbing to the kitchen at the back of the house.
Where Whitney was standing over the bloodied body of Josh with a dripping chef’s knife in her hand.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Whitney
I thought I’d experienced adrenaline surges before.
That time I’d broken Josh’s nose being a prime example.
But nothing even came close to what I felt as I flew into that house.
I felt oddly in and out of my body at the same time. Like I felt the way my blood was rushing through my veins, the thrumming of my heart against the confines of my ribcage.
But I almost felt like I was watching myself from above as I charged in the house, rushing through to the kitchen at the back where the screams of my baby sister were originating from.
I saw her first.
I think I was somehow hardwired to always look for her instead of the man threatening her, like some part of me had to know she was okay before I could give Josh even a second of my attention.
There she was, backed against the kitchen island, her knees drawn to her chest, making herself a smaller target, protecting as much of her body as possible.
Her arms started up, trying to protect her face from damage.
Frommoredamage.
It was naive to think he would finally get her again and she wouldn’t be hurt. But I guess I’d just been hoping that I’d gotten there quickly enough.
The last thing Wren needed was more pain, more terrible memories.
Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t spare her that.
Her lip was already split and there were bruises starting to peek through on her cheek and under her eye.
The arms she had raised had marks too.
Her arms suddenly shot upward as the man towering over her reached behind her head and grabbed a chunk of her hair, pulling so savagely that he dragged her up to her feet by it, making her let out another shriek of pain through her sobs, through her pleading.
“Please, please stop. You’re hurting me!”
“I fucking hope so,” Josh snarled. “You had this coming, you know. Running away from me. Letting that fucking bitch sister take your beatings for you. Whoring yourself out to that loser!”
His voice gained in ferocity as he ran down her list of supposed trespasses against him. And with each one, he gave her hair a hard yank, shaking her around like a rag doll as she cried.
My eye-gouger and mace were just… not going to cut it. Not with how enraged he was.