Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
“The feeling is mutual,” she snaps. “Drive faster.”
I press on the accelerator and drive. There’s only one option I can think of. There’s no way for me to wrestle the gun out of her hand at this high a speed without getting shot. I’m not even wearing a seat belt, so the resulting crash would surely kill me anyway if the bullet didn’t.
I notice a curve with a turnout up ahead, and I tighten my grip on the wheel.
“What are you going to do Mandy?”
She’s scared. There’s fear in her eyes. She doesn’t want to die, but she knows that’s her only choice. She’s boxed herself in. My question is distracting her, so I use the opportunity to let the speed drop slowly.
“We’ll just keep driving,” she says. “And then when the car runs out of gas, they’ll give me the keys to theirs or I’ll shoot you in the head. It’s just the way it is. I’m not letting them destroy me.”
We’re approaching the turnout, and I know what I have to do. But before I get a chance, the engine dies and the car starts to roll to a stop.
“What are you doing?” Mandy screams, shoving the gun into my hair. “Don’t fuck with me!”
“It isn’t me,” I tell her, trying frantically to restart the car. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Donovan uses the moment of her distraction and panic to launch himself at Mandy and tackle the gun out of her hands. I don’t waste a second scrambling out of the car and towards the safety of Lachlan’s waiting arms. Their SUV is parked behind ours on the freeway, and he’s running straight for me.
“Get in the truck, Mack,” he orders.
I shake my head, but then a gunshot goes off.
“Get in Mack,” Lach pleads. “I haven’t got time to argue.”
I reluctantly do as he says, climbing in as I watch from the window. Ronan fires a couple of shots into the car, and then Lachlan is wrestling Donny out of it. He’s bleeding from the leg and the face as they drag him back to the SUV and toss him into the back.
Lach jumps in with him and makes quick work of tying him up while Ronan bangs a U-ie and turns us back around. Mandy isn’t with us, and I’m afraid to ask what that means.
Silence falls around us, and then Lachlan is beside me pulling me into his arms. I wish I could say that I was numb this time, but I’m not. I feel everything. The pain and loss for Talia, and even reluctant sympathy and regret over Mandy.
“I’ve got you sweetheart.” Lach wipes away the tears that fall down my cheeks. “I’m right here, Mack and I’m not going anywhere.”
“How did you get the car to stop?” I ask.
“Alexei,” he says. “I told you he’s good with computers.”
I nod and then ask my last and final question. “Is Mandy really dead?”
“Aye, sweetheart,” he says solemnly. “She’s dead.”
Chapter Forty-One
Mackenzie
When I open my eyes again, the first thing I see is a sea of stormy gray. Lachlan’s beside me, stroking my hair, and kissing my hand. He’s been here beside me often over the last three days. I’ve given him a vague explanation of what Mandy told me, but it’s all I could force out.
He’s been patient with me, but I can tell it’s wearing on him. I’ve been despondent. Depressed. Unable to come to terms with what’s happened to Talia. Everything she said validated what Alexei already told me. She was sold into slavery and shipped overseas somewhere. There’s no doubt in my mind that Mandy had gone crazy, but I believed her when she said Talia was dead. In my heart I already knew that she was probably gone, but this didn’t bring me closure like I’d hoped. Or even justice. Because what justice is there?
I know Donny will die. And Mandy is dead. Lach has promised that they will find out who the Russian was, and I believe him. But I don’t feel any better about it. There’s just a mountain of grief and a million other things that still need to be dealt with. I don’t know how to move on, but I know that I have to try.
Lachlan kisses me on the forehead and moves to leave again, but I reach up and grab him.
“Don’t.”
He sits back down on the bed beside me and holds me close.
“I know ye won’t believe me, Mack,” he says. “But I understand how ye’re feeling right now.”
I glance up at him, and for the first time in my selfish state of grief, I notice how exhausted he looks. I haven’t even considered what he’s been dealing with these last few days. I just knew that if Niall wanted to come and drag me from the bed to kill me, I probably couldn’t have put up a fight. It isn’t fair of me to heap all of that onto Lachlan though.
“Tell me,” I say.
He moves up and rests his back against the headboard, and I climb up onto his lap and curl against his chest.
“Ivan was the rat,” he says quietly. “He killed my grand-da. And your father. And I wanted to be the one to kill him. That’s what this was all about.”
“I’m sorry, Lach.”
A few more tears spill from my eyes, and I quickly try to wipe them away. But more just come to replace them.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” he asks.
“I’ve been awful to you,” I tell him. “I didn’t even stop to think what might be happening with you. I had no idea. I’m sorry about your grandfather. And I’m sorry about Ivan too.”
“I don’t want ye to be sorry,” Lach says. “I just want ye to be mine. It’s time to put it behind us. Do ye think ye can do that, butterfly?”
“You still want me?” I ask. “After everything?”
“I want you, Mack,” he says. “I’m never letting you out of my fecking sight again.”
I smile and blink my eyes a few times. He’s right. I can’t keep living in the past, and neither can he.