Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 121728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Or so she thought. Until she heard a door slam down the hallway behind her.
A quick peek over her shoulder confirmed she and Hatchet were alone.
She considered her choices. Fight or flight. And since the biker with broad shoulders was blocking her escape, the only thing left to do was fight.
Trying not to be too obvious, she adjusted her grip on the lug wrench pinned to her leg, pulled in a breath…
And swung.
Chapter Five
“For fuck’s sake!” he shouted, grabbing the tool and wrenching it from her so hard, it tweaked her wrist.
The pain was the least of her worries. Now she didn’t even have a weapon to protect herself.
His eyes lifted from the lug wrench in his hand and narrowed on her face. “What the fuck? Coulda fuckin’ killed me with that.”
That was kind of the point. Well, maybe not to the extent of homicide but at least a debilitating injury to help her escape.
“You wouldn’t let me go,” she insisted.
With nostrils flared, he lowered his voice so it wouldn’t carry over the music. “No shit. Stubs thinks your my fuckin’ woman. It’s my job to get you in hand.”
“Get me in hand?” she squeaked.
“You don’t know what the fuck that means?”
“Oh, I do. That’s the problem.”
“This ain’t the time or place for women’s lib.” He latched onto her wrist and just about jerked her off her feet. He was that damn strong. “Let’s fuckin’ go,” he ground out.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Panic rose up her throat and she was having difficulty swallowing it back down.
Ignoring her, he marched down the steps with the lug wrench white-knuckled in one hand and her wrist in the other.
“Hey!” she shouted just as they reached the first floor.
Slamming to a stop, he spun and went nose to nose with her. He lowered his voice to the point she hardly heard him. Although, she couldn’t mistake his expression. It spoke volumes. And nothing promising at that.
“Keep your fuckin’ voice down and walk with me. The last thing you need right now is to catch more attention. Too many fuckers around here would love to get in your goddamn business. And if you don’t get what the fuck I’m sayin’, then…” He shook his head.
When she opened her mouth to argue, he turned and continued to drag her behind him toward the front door, not giving a crap what she had to say. Or that she was leaning all of her weight back in a feeble attempt to stop him.
He didn’t only see her to the door. Nor did he stop on the porch. He was a damn runaway draft horse pulling her out of that farmhouse, away from those people and down the rickety steps out into the cold, dark night.
“Stop! Where are you taking me?” Her heart pounded in her ears and the hair prickled at the back of her neck. “I’m not leaving.” Not without her sister.
“The fuck you ain’t,” he growled, continuing to tow her across the trash-filled patch of weeds until they came to a spot far enough from the house where no one would overhear them. He once again spun to face her but didn’t release her wrist.
She yanked so hard, instead of freeing herself, she almost dislocated her shoulder. Damn it. “Let me go. I need to find my sister. And you’re not going to stop me.” She didn’t feel as sure as she sounded.
“The fuck I ain’t.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
Even in the dark and under that beard, she noticed his jaw become sharp enough to cut glass. “Someone who knows you shouldn’t be here. You need to fuckin’ leave before it’s too late.”
Before it’s too late.
Ice slithered down her spine at the ominous warning.
She was quickly losing her will to fight because he was right. Coming here was stupid. But desperate people did stupid things. Apparently, it ran in her family. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“I can. I will. And you’re gonna fuckin’ listen.”
“You need to let me go,” she pleaded. Since being confrontational wasn’t working, she needed to switch gears. Play on his empathy. If he had any.
“I let you go, you’re gonna go back in there. You go back in there, you’re gonna get hurt or dead. You get hurt or dead, you’re no fuckin’ help to your sister.”
That truth stung.
But if she gave up and Sadie ended up dead, Sloane would never forgive herself for not doing everything she could to save her sister.
“Sadie right? That’s her name?”
Her dying hope suddenly got a blip of a heartbeat. “Do you know her?”
“No.”
Well, that hope just flatlined. “Then, why do you care? Especially since you’re one of them.”
“You should care ‘cause I’m gonna help you out.”
Wait. Was this a trick? “Doubt that.”
“Gonna find her and bring her out to you. But if you don’t want that…” He shrugged. “Fuck ya, then. But what you ain’t gonna do is go back inside that place.” He jabbed his finger toward the run-down farmhouse with loud classic rock pouring out of every open door and window.