HIS DOE, HIS DAMNATION (An Erotic Billionaire Romance) novel Chapter 177

Alaric’s POV:

I gave my mother one last hard stare before I took out my phone and held it against my ear.

“Talk,” I muttered, turning my back on her.

A few seconds passed while I was waiting for Trip to say something. Static crackled on the other end. “Trip?”

The next thing I heard was the sound of his heavy, uneven breathing. It was ragged, like he was in some sort of pain.

My grip tightened around the phone.

“Sir,” Trip’s voice came out strained, like he was using all of his energy to speak. Everything inside of me suddenly went stone cold.

Something was wrong.

“What happened?” I demanded. My body felt too tight, every instinct screaming at me to act. But I couldn’t fucking act if Trip didn’t say anything.

“I-fuck,” he hissed. “Tyler. Tyler Cross. He fucking shot me.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying my damnedest to remain calm. “What the fuck do you mean Tyler shot you? Where are you?”

Behind me, my mother gasped, but I didn’t turn around to face her.

“Car,” he breathed. “I lost a lot of blood. Passed out before I could call you. I’m heading to the house now.” He paused, and in that time, something heavy settled deep in my stomach.

Meadow.

“They were together. Tyler and Juniper. I think they’re going after her, sir. You should…” But I wasn’t listening any longer. I went over to my desk to check the house feed, hoping to whatever cosmic being was out there that what I was thinking hadn’t happened. Hoping that they had just flown out of the country.

Anything would be better than the images I saw in the back of my mind.

Anything.

“Fuck.”

“What’s the matter?”

I’d completely forgotten that my mother was in the office with me. I didn’t respond or even take my eyes off the screen as I waited for the feed to load.

When the first camera came up, nothing seemed wrong. The front door was clear, and so was the living room. But then, the kitchen feed came up.

And that was when my blood turned to ice.

Ingrid gasped next to me–I didn’t even know when she moved close enough to see the screen. The image sharpened. Mel lay on the floor, unmoving with what I was certain was blood pooling around her head.

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