SURVIVING SAVANNAH: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK 16) by Honey Palomino (buy e reader TXT) 📕

red belts, and they build a bonfire near the fountain and dance around it and throw stuff into it, chanting and, I don’t know, worshiping the moon or the devil or Beddingham or something. They do it every summer and we always just watched from the shadows and laughed at them. And then, when we saw them in public, we’d just snicker and make fun of them amongst ourselves. It was just one of those weird, quirky Savannah things, you know?”

Blade nodded in understanding and she kept going.

“But two years ago, they did a lot more than dance. We couldn’t believe it when they brought Lily out. She was practically naked, in just her underwear, and she looked drugged or drunk or something, because her grandfather was literally dragging her by her arms into the circle. They dusted her with some kind of white powder, then said some prayers or something over her body as she laid in the dirt. And then…”

She stopped, taking a deep breath, her eyes filling with tears as she kept going.

“They killed her. Her own grandfather! He started cutting her, and like, catching the blood in this goblet. She was screaming and moaning, but she was really out of it and eventually she just passed out. It was sick,” she shook her head, and Blade reached over, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him. “We ran away, of course. We were all afraid, and hoping it wasn’t real, that maybe our eyes were lying. But the next morning, Lily’s body was found by Little Gracie’s grave and everyone in town was talking about it. We were terrified, so we didn’t say anything about what we saw.”

“I am so sorry you witnessed that,” Blade said, his voice full of emotion.

“We tried to forget it, but it wasn’t easy. It was just me and Tara that night and we tried to just make light of it. Maybe that was mean or something, but we didn’t know what to do or how to handle it. We even kept going to the cemetery, pretending we weren’t scared.”

She took a drink of water and continued.

“We figured that was it, you know? We never expected it to happen again. But sure enough, the next summer there they were again, but this time they had Josephine. They did the same thing with her that they did with Lily, only this time it seemed even more violent. They all took a turn with cutting her and capturing her blood, and then they…they…they drank it and poured it on themselves! We’d stayed longer this time, and seeing them do that was just so…gross and wrong. Tara started crying and puking, so we left again. The next day, her body was found in the same place as Lily’s.”

“And you and your friend never told anyone?”

“Who were we going to tell? The Sheriff? He was there! The Mayor? He was there, too! And he’s my grandfather! I was stunned. Even though Mom had cut him out of our life years ago, I still couldn’t believe he was there. And Anton Beddingham, the most influential man in town, was one of the murderers! Carlisle did the same thing. Even Beddingham’s lawyer was involved. And we figured that nobody else in this town was going to believe a couple of teenagers with no evidence.”

“You’re probably right about that,” Blade said.

“We screwed up, I know,” she said. “We should have filmed it. But both times were so unexpected, we just froze and then we ran.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I assured her.

She flashed me a grateful smile and I felt so bad for her. She’d been holding all this in for so long and it was a huge burden to bear for such a young girl.

“Maggie, what does this have to do with your father?”

She looked over at me with wide eyes and started crying again.

“He’s involved now. He talks to Beddingham all the time. Today, I heard him on the phone and I heard him say he was going to ‘take care’ of me. My birthday is this coming weekend and he’s insisting I go out of town with him.”

“You mentioned that he did something to Cherry.”

“They were doing some kind of rehearsal or something, I’m not sure. But Cherry was there and they saw her. She ran and Dad chased her. I didn’t see what happened, but when we were driving home later, we saw them towing her car away from the scene. The next time I saw Dad, his car had been painted another color. It used to be red.”

I nodded, remembering that Hannah had seen a picture of Cherry’s car and mentioned red paint.

“What are you afraid of exactly? With your dad?” Blade asked.

“I’m afraid I might be next,” she said. “That list…”

“Maggie, we don’t know who, if anyone, might be next,” Blade said.

I pulled the notebook out of my bag and held it up. They looked at me with surprise.

“Actually, yes we do,” I said.

Chapter 49

ROSE

After getting home with Clem, something felt off.

I expected Maggie to still be here when I returned but she was gone. I went into her room and saw her phone lying on the bed. No teenaged girl leaves her phone at home willingly.

I looked on the kitchen counter and saw her purse lying there. I looked inside and saw her wallet and phone charger inside.

“Shit,” I said, my heart speeding up as a feeling of dread washed over me. Maggie would never leave home without her purse and phone.

I fished my phone from my purse and started to call the police, but then stopped cold. She’d never forgive me if I sent the cops after her.

I pulled up Derek’s number and hit the call button, but hung up immediately. The last thing I wanted to do was involve him.

Finally, I pulled up Blade’s number, grateful I’d made him put it in my phone before he left. When he answered, the words rushed