Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92133 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
He’s a hit man with many aliases.
Over forty years old, multiple passports, and so many kills under his belt. I’d met him once, nearly twenty years ago on the streets. He’d been a cold dead killer then, and staring at him now, he hadn’t changed. Age marked his face, but I recognized him.
Nathan burst out laughing. “Do you think I pose a threat to Adelaide?”
I wrap my fingers around his throat, cutting off his air. “You don’t get to say her fucking name.”
It’s pointless. This man has been trained to withstand all kinds of torture.
“If you had questions about my friendship with her, why didn’t you just ask?”
“I did.”
Nathan coughed, spitting up blood. I’d told my men that he didn’t need to arrive at the warehouse in one piece. He just had to be alive. That was my only requirement.
Now I’m wondering if he had to be alive. I’d gladly have him dead.
Adelaide hadn’t seen him in a while. They’d texted but not met. It would be so easy to cut him out of her life, and that’s what I wanted to do. First, I wanted to know what brought him to Adelaide.
“Have you been hired?” I asked.
Nathan sighed. “I’m not here to kill her.”
I frowned. “Why are you friends with her?”
“Because she’s so sweet, don’t you think?” Nathan asked. I wanted to kill him, but he spit out some more blood, and it looked like a tooth had come loose as well, as that was mixed with the blood. “Bethany is the person I was hired to kill. She pissed off the wrong people several years ago. Adelaide was unexpected. She was selling some nasty-ass lemonade, helping some kids. Bethany was supposed to be volunteering, but as always, she put Adelaide to the task. That’s where I met her, and that’s where Nathan was born.”
“The charming gay friend with a job she doesn’t understand.”
He chuckled. “Exactly.”
“You’re not here to kill her?”
“I’m here to protect her,” Nathan said.
This made me pause. “Why?”
“Do you really think her sister is going to allow her to play ‘happy family’ at your side? Bethany got out of the contract on her head. I don’t know how, but I got paid and she’s still breathing. I follow the money, but Adelaide always needed someone in her corner. Do you think Ivan Volkov is the only person Bethany pissed off?”
This made me pause.
Just as I was about to answer more questions, I heard the commotion outside, and then my men stepped forward as Adelaide entered the warehouse. Without Leo. On her own. Her gaze went to Nathan and then to me. What the fuck was she doing here?
I see the red dot on her chest and I know it’s not from my men. Someone lured her here. Someone who knew I would be here, and before I can stop it. I watch Adelaide’s body jerk as someone shoots her. One to the chest and the other to her stomach.
I charge forward as she starts to fall. “Fucking kill them!” I scream, pulling Adelaide into my arms.
Blood has soaked through her white shirt. Two gunshot wounds.
“I … I…”
“Shut the fuck up, Adelaide. Conserve your strength. You’re not dying on me.” Her face has already gone pale.
“I … I’m so cold.”
My hands are covered in blood as I cup her face. “Look at me.”
I don’t know how Nathan got loose, but in the commotion, he’s on the other side of her.
“Adelaide!” I scream her name, shaking her.
Fuck.
No.
Fuck.
This is not supposed to happen. Adelaide was meant to be at home. Safe. Away from danger.
“We need to get her to the hospital,” Nathan said, reaching for her.
I punch him hard, staining his cheek with Adelaide’s blood, but I don’t care. “You stay the fuck away from her.”
I don’t have time to tie him up, and while my men deal with whoever fired at my wife, I pick Adelaide up.
Terrance is there, but I ignore him, climb into the car, and hold my wife close to me as I pull out of the warehouse and head to the first hospital. I’m not thinking straight but I don’t give a fuck. This is my wife. Adelaide—the nicest person I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, who didn’t deserve me as a husband, and who should have never come near me. Who I stayed away from even though I craved her, and she became mine. Ivan knew what he was doing the moment he replaced Bethany.
Adelaide was mine. She is mine.
I pulled up outside of the hospital. I don’t park the car, I abandon it and carry my bleeding wife into the hospital. Doctors and nurses surround me. They keep bombarding me with questions and in the end, I warn them. I tell them who I am, and that I will end all the fucking lot of them if they don’t fix my wife.