Brazen by Armstrong Kelley

Author:Armstrong, Kelley [Armstrong, Kelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: keywords, for, good, metadata, the, more, the, better
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2013-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Nick

Nick walked under the attic door and saw a strap. When he opened the hall closet, he found a hook hanging on the wall. Using it, he tugged down the pull strap. A good yank, and the attic door opened, steps sliding out with it.

As he climbed those steps, there was no doubt the blood scent came from up there. The attic was nearly pitch dark, though, and he had to pause for his eyes to adjust to the light coming from the hall below.

The attic was empty. Completely empty. Whatever the Stokes had brought with them when they moved, it obviously all fit elsewhere.

With no obstacles to block his view, Nick didn’t have to move from the top of the steps to scan the entirety of the massive open space. And to assure himself there was nothing up here. Nothing but the smell of blood.

He walked out into the attic. It didn’t take long before he spotted the blood pool, glistening on the dust-covered floor. When he stopped next to it, and his footsteps subsided, he picked up a sound. A very soft plink. Then silence.

He circled the blood pool. It was perfectly formed, with no footsteps leading from it, no empty spots inside, no sign that whoever bled here had crawled or been taken away. Yet there was clearly not a body.

Plink.

This time he saw the drop hit the pool. He looked up and saw only the black roofline above. When he blinked, his night vision adjusted and—

“Shit.”

She was on the ceiling. Sharon Stokes. Spread eagled above him, her throat and wrists bloodied.

Nick took out his phone and shone the light up at Sharon’s body. Only then could he see how she’d been fastened there, and when he did, his stomach lurched. He lowered the light and noticed the tools hidden in the shadow by the wall. A nail gun and a ladder.

Malcolm nailed her to the ceiling, cut her throat and let her bleed out, hanging there.

Had she regained consciousness? God, he hoped not.

He stared up at that body, and there was a part of him that couldn’t quite believe it. Yes, the Malcolm he’d known was a sadistic son of a bitch, but this? What had the Nasts done to him? Nick wasn’t sure he wanted to know—for now, it was enough to understand what he was dealing with…if he could.

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