Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
I don’t know what she told him, but I do know one thing—her lie is about to end, and the fallout will not be as pretty as her. And there is no fucking way I want her alone in a room with him.
My eyes are on them both as she searches the room, opening all the drawers and sifting through the papers, her frown growing increasingly harsher. Sweat drops roll down her forehead as she paces around the room, back and forth, from one closet to another, desperately trying to find whatever it is she promised him.
“Well?” my owner growls, tapping his foot. “Where is it?”
“I know it must be somewhere in here,” she says, and she grabs a stool and places it next to a bookshelf, hopping on top to reach for something above the shelves. She’s not nearly tall enough to reach the box, but her fingers still manage to pry it loose.
“Hurry up!” he growls.
Just then, she loses her footing.
I sprint to her, catching her right before she falls.
The contents of the box spill out over the expensive flooring, but my eyes are transfixed on hers as they bore into mine, my hand firmly locked around her waist. Her cheeks grow redder with every passing second.
“What the fuck are you doing?” My owner’s stern voice breaks our connection.
I clear my throat and release her from my grip as she gets up.
“She fell.”
“I have eyes, you dumb fucker,” my owner barks. “Why the fuck do you even care?”
I stand, towering over him, and he steps back. Just an inch, but enough to tell me the truth.
If this collar wasn’t around my neck, I’d gut him like a fish in a heartbeat.
He fishes the buzzer from his pocket, and I instantly take a step back.
“That’s what I thought,” he hisses. “Back in your corner, dog.”
Aurora silently gathers the papers, tucking them into the box, but her eyes can’t help but find mine every other second. I try to ignore it, for both her sake and mine.
“Is it in there or not?” he hisses at her.
“I-I don’t know. I—”
He snatches the box from her hand and chucks everything onto the desk, shoving all the papers aside until he finds what he’s looking for. I don’t know what it says, but a bunch of numbers have caught his attention.
“Where’s the PIN?” he says through gritted teeth.
“I don’t know where it is,” she replies.
Suddenly, he grabs her by the collar and growls, “Tell me the PIN right now!”
With tears in her eyes, she shakes her head. “I told you, I don’t have it. Papa never told me.”
The way he’s grabbed ahold of her makes my jaw lock, and my muscles tighten.
“Don’t lie. Tell me what it is, or I swear to fuck I will—”
BANG!
Guns.
All my senses immediately go on high alert.
Aurora’s eyes widen as my owner releases her from his grip.
BANG!
The second shot shatters the window, and the bullet ricochets across the room.
My owner grabs the papers, but not in time before shots begin to fill the room.
And I know right then and there that this was exactly what I told him it would be.
“It’s a fucking trap!”
Aurora
BANG!
The shots happen so quickly, they barely register.
“What the fuck…?!” Lex mutters as he crawls up and rushes over to us, shoving me aside so he can hide too.
It feels like my mind is going blank and my body grows numb as the bullets ricochet across the room. The sound is heavy and loud, yet the noise doesn’t penetrate my ears.
All I hear is this ringing.
The god-awful sound of men crying, begging for their life as blood oozes from their veins.
And him.
There was him.
Oxygen is suddenly knocked from my lungs as I’m picked up and hoisted into a corner of the room. A desk is lifted and thrown in front of me.
I look up. Straight into his eyes.
The same man who once showered this house in blood.
Now towers over me, arms wide open, shielding me from incoming shrapnel.
And at this moment, all I can do is stare in awe at the sheer beauty of his power as bullets rain down on us. On him.
He roars out loud as the bullets continue to shower the room in smoke and fire. But his eyes remain on mine at all times, as though our connection is the only thing keeping him standing.
When the hail finally stops, his raging breath is the loudest sound in the room.
“Fuck,” he grunts, blood oozing from his arm.
Panic sweeps over my heart as I look at all the dents in his armor. The floor around him is littered with bullets. He used his body as a human meat shield to protect us. To protect me.
It all happened so quickly it barely registered that he grabbed me first.
Me, not Lex.
I swallow away the lump in my throat as I look up into his eyes, which flame with a kind of fire I’ve never seen before.