Chapter Thirty-Two
A Lamb to Slaughter
Kennedy
That surreal feeling kept coming and going as we traveled the roads between Penny’s house and a property I’d never seen before.
There was a house to the left of the driveway he stopped in.
The perimeter was littered with rubble and blown-off shingles.
The drapes were open, and the walls inside were bare.
Something about the emptiness of the place made me shiver inside. Was I going to end up amongst that rubble, or buried in the woods out back?
“Come on,” Kingston grunted, before slamming his door and jarring me out of my thoughts.
The barn smelled like livestock, and soiled straw. A row of sturdy dog pens lined the back wall. I followed him toward them, my heart dropping a little further toward my stomach with each step.
“Where is he?” I managed, when all I saw was a dark, empty cell.
Kingston snorted, his gaze shifting past me in a way that made me uneasy. When I stumbled with my efforts to turn and investigate, he swung the door open and shoved me into the cage. I didn’t even bother trying to catch myself, I was so stunned by the sight of Roy that nothing could have caught me.
It was a mental and physical free fall.
He was unrestrained and moving around of his own free will. Tears leaked from my eyes as I finally accepted that he had never been my savior.
“I hope you never forget me,” I seethed, and it was true.
I hoped the memory of how low he had stooped, and how wrong he had done me haunted him until his last breath.
“Emergency meeting. Forty wants all hands on deck,” Birdman announced.
Kingston gravitated toward him, leaving me in the cage. Meanwhile, Roy somehow managed to look remorseful, and it made me want to spit. Why was he still trying to keep up his act? Did he really think I was that fucking mindless?
“Get the fuck out of my sight,” I whispered, hoping he could read my lips.