The Sacrifice: Chapter 54

I walk downstairs, fresh out of the shower. I’ve been staying with Ryat and Blakely. I think it’s a way to keep an eye on me, but I don’t want to go home. We hadn’t been staying at our house for long but just the thought of going there, knowing I’ll be without my wife, makes me ill. Having to see her clothes in our closet makes me sick to my stomach. Or having to lie in our bed by myself while her pillow smells like her shampoo. I can’t do it.

So I’ve been here. Letting Blakely pretend to take care of me. She tries to get me to eat but I just push it around my plate while she watches like a hawk.

She never stops crying. I know she and Lake haven’t gotten really close over the last couple of months but the fact that she’s pregnant has also added to her emotional state.

I miss my wife, but I’m not going to sit around and cry about it. I’m going to make people bleed until I find her. I’ll let myself feel something other than rage once she’s in my arms again.

Entering their kitchen, I see a familiar face already sitting at the table. He pushes his full plate to the side. “I need to talk to you,” Gavin states.

I sit down across from him, and I watch Blakely cover her mouth at the smell of the food.

“I spoke to the coroner yesterday. He said that out of the ten bodies he received from the fire, only one was burned beyond recognition.”

“Which was?” I ask, but I already have an idea who he’s going to say.

“Who they assumed to be Bethany,” he answers.

I watched the cameras and saw my wife with Bethany in the cage before the fire started. They were still in there together when the fire took out the footage.

“Well, he just called me about thirty minutes ago with the DNA results.”

I sit up straighter, knowing that the Lords put a rush order on it. They want answers just as much as I do. “And?”

“They confirmed it was her.”

I bang my fisted hands on the table, making it rattle, and Blakely sucks in a deep breath. I was hoping that she was still alive. Bethany is the one who could lead me to my wife. But with her dead, I may never find Lake. I’ll never stop looking, little darling. Which also means that whoever was in on this wanted Bethany dead so she couldn’t tell anyone what really happened.

I thought this could be Lake’s father, but I’ve had eyes on Frank since the fire took place, and there’s nothing that would make me think he had a part in this. I’ve also had eyes on Miller. Colton, Alex, Finn, and Jenks are busy but haven’t seen one fucking thing. So if they are involved, they’ve got someone else doing it for them. I’m afraid if I go after either one of them, they’ll make sure she’s dead if she’s not already. As much as I want to kill them, I need them alive a little longer. Just until I find her. And if they had anything to do with this, they will burn as well.

“After Jimmy called me, I did some digging of my own,” Gavin goes on. “The night of the fire, a Bethany Pace was admitted to a private hospital, the psychiatric ward about thirty minutes outside of town.”

“I don’t understand,” Blakely says slowly. “You said DNA matched her body at the morgue.”

My heart starts to hammer in my chest. Ryat sits up straighter. “Do you have access to this facility?” he asks Gavin.

“Legally? No. But I know someone on the inside, and he can get us in.”

I jump up to my feet, the force making the legs of the chair scrape across the floor.

“I’ll drive.” Ryat jumps up as well. He’s kissing his wife bye, and I’m already heading toward his garage with Gavin.

Ryat enters behind us and grabs Blake’s keys to her SUV off the key ring.