Page 57 of Weather the Storm
Sometime later, Cash and Myla Rose arrive. Drake texted Cash immediately after hanging up with me, but they had to drop Brody off with Sandy, Cash’s mom.
Together, we all huddle around the coffee table, waiting for some news…any news.
Chapter Thirty
MAGNOLIA
I wake to unfamiliar surroundings and panic fills my body. I try to move but find I can’t.Why can’t I move?My mind is groggy and sluggish.Where am I and how did I get here?Think, Magnolia, think.
I try to move again, but still, nothing. I’m stuck.
No, not stuck…
Tied.
I’m gagged and bound.
I scream, but the rag stuffed in my mouth muffles the sound. Tears stream down my cheeks, blinding me. I contort my body, trying to break free, but it’s no use. My ankles and wrists are secured too tightly.
A door opens somewhere near me and light floods into the room, stinging my eyes. “Oh, good. You’re up.” I know that voice—it’s one I hoped to never hear ever again.
Straining, I look up, into the cold, dead, merciless eyes of Grant Edward Ellington—my husband.
He stalks closer and, on instinct, I lower my gaze from his, submissive and docile, just the way he likes. “Good girl,” he praises, like I’m a dog—his bitch.
A whimper slips past my lips, and I cringe.
“What was that, Magnolia?” he asks, fire in his tone. Even if I weren’t gagged, I wouldn’t have replied. Engaging Grant is never a good idea.
He crouches down before me and rakes his fingers through my hair, pushing them into the base of my skull. Fisting my long locks, he jerks my face up to look at him. His grip is so tight that I swear I can feel my hair ripping loose from my scalp.
My body shakes with sobs, and Grant rears back, his open palm striking my cheek. “You’re not a good girl, are you?” he asks, his sugary tone no match for his lethal words. “No, you’re a bad girl, and bad girls must be punished.” He strikes me again, clipping my eye this time.
My vision tinges red, blood mingling with my tears. Again and again Grant comes at me until my left eye is swollen shut and my lip is split in several places. Heaving and gasping, I beg him to stop, but it’s no use. My words are garbled from the gag, and even if they weren’t, my pleas would fall on deaf ears.
He stands and begins pacing in front of me. “You’re a stupid fucking cunt, but you’remine,mystupid fucking cunt. We tookvows, Magnolia.Till death do us part—death, Magnolia.Death.” Grant’s voice is that of a madman—completely and totally unhinged. “Before we move to the end of our vows, let’s show your precious Simon just how insignificant and pathetic you really are.”
Squinting, I see Grant pull a phone from his pocket. He yanks my hair again and angles my face toward the tiny camera lens.Click. Click. Click.
“You won’t have to worry about him wanting you after he sees you like this.”
§
SIMON
It’s been hours since my girl vanished without a trace, and we haven’t heard anything. Cash and Drake feed the beast within me with promises of retribution when Grant is found, while Myla Rose and Azalea offer me hope and kind words, assuring me Magnolia will be okay.
I’m not sure if I believe them. If she were okay, she would have called, some way, somehow, and she hasn’t. To me, that all but proves she’s anythingbutokay.
I alternate between sitting and pacing, until Cash speaks up. “Hey, did y’all hear that?” His words stop me in my tracks.
“Hear what?”
A beep sounds from the kitchen. “That,” he says. The beep sounds again, and I’m off like a shot.
I practically rip Magnolia’s phone—her real phone, not the prepaid one—off the charger. I swipe her unlock pattern and balk at the sight of an unread text from the 617 number.
“What is it?” Myla Rose asks over my shoulder.
