31. Chapter 31 – Lincoln
Chapter 31 – Lincoln
W ith every step I took through the house, my feet seemed to sink deeper into the floor, as if invisible anchors weighed them down. I was bone fucking weary and just wanted to crawl into bed beside Peyton and sleep with her wrapped around me.
My Peyton.
She put my necklace on. Witnessing her carefully clasping the skull pendant around her neck, a surge of electricity coursed through my chest. Something that felt a lot like what I imagined love to feel like, though I wouldn’t know. I had never loved or been loved before.
But I was ready to lay it all out for her.
At first, there would be complications when I revealed myself to her. I was sure of it. She’d balk at it simply because she was going to feel duped. But she’d come around to it eventually, I’d make sure of it.
I’d also make sure to lock the fucking necklace first, reminding her of her vow to me.
“So you think she’s going to freak when she finds out what you did to her fuck boy?” Tamen asked, following me up the stairs, and I looked over my shoulder to glare at him.
The tracker on Peyton’s phone confirmed that she was in the guest house, but I couldn’t let my guard down. I needed to ensure that he didn’t expose me before I could make my move and come clean first hand. I was so busy cleaning up messes and putting out fires today that I didn’t have a second of time to check in on her since our morning fun without Tamen looking in over my shoulder. And knowing my pretty little Puppet, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t be doing something naughty if I randomly opened my cameras and I wouldn’t give him the privilege of seeing that.
I’d hate to have to remove his eyeballs, too. Two sets in two days was a bit much.
Turning back around at the top of the stairs, I stopped, with one foot in midair, as something caught my eye on the floor.
Crimson.
“Is that—?” Tamen asked as he nodded to the trail across the floor leading down the hallway. “Blood.”
“Peyton!” I pulled my gun and walked down the hall, following the trail as my stomach turned violently. I could feel it in my gut that she was hurt, like a new sense that had just revealed itself.
As I turned the corner, my chest seized up in agony when I saw the trail disappearing into my office, where the door was ajar. “Oh, fuck.” Tamen groaned, following me as I took off running toward it.
“Pey—” As I pushed the door open all the way and walked in, a chill ran down my spine and I couldn’t help but shiver at the sight in front of me.
The mask I wore during our chase in the corn maze ended up abandoned on the ground, right next to the cabinet where I stored Dane’s clothes. The door was open and the cuffs I used on her hung askew off the shelf.
I turned and my attention was drawn to the computer screens at my desk. Most of them were dark, but the one in the middle stood out with its cracked glass, resembling a spider’s web. The glass orb paperweight laid on the desk covered in blood with jagged broken edges.
I shook the mouse to wake up the system and died inside when the video of Peyton’s assault lit up the broken screen. “No.” I whispered, haunted by what I knew happened.
And then I ran.
“Peyton!” I bellowed as I tore through the house, desperate to get to her. She knew who I was. And she knew that I had seen the video. Fuck!
I shoved the back door open to the guest house and froze right inside the doorway.
She was gone. I could feel it in my bones.
Her things were gone from where I left them when I gave them back to her the night before. The clothes, blankets, pictures, and other meaningful possessions; gone. There wasn’t anything of hers left in the now cold and vacant space. All of Tyson’s electronics still littered the kitchen table, but that was it.
“Baby, please!” I screamed as I searched the house anyway, pleading with any power above to make her show up in one of the rooms. But she was gone.
As soon as I ripped the front door open, I noted her car had disappeared as well. Her absence washed over me, and my knees buckled as I fell backward into the wall, ripping down a meaningless picture on my way down. I landed in a heap on the floor, staring unseeing at the wall as I tried to form a plan to find her and make it all right .
All I had to do was locate her and explain, regardless of her where she was, I had to find her. She said she was mine! She put the fucking necklace on and promised herself to me!
“Linc.” Tamen spoke softly from where he crouched next to me. I blindly looked over at him, hardly able to make out the shape of his face as he held something between his fingers to me.
Blinking and forcing my body to sit upright and focus, the object finally became clear and my heart completely died inside of my chest, once and for all.
Her bloody black necklace hung limply from his fingers, with the skull closure broken and useless.
“No.”