Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
“What the fuck?” Ky snarled, rushing to the entrance of the van. The buildings that housed the girls were alight. I watched the flames climb higher and higher as they devoured the godforsaken structures. Adrenaline surged through me, and I tried to scramble from the van.
“Michelle!” I cried frantically, my voice too quiet to be heard outside the van. “She’s still inside!” Someone held me back. I clawed at the arms. “Let me go!” I screamed, my blood rushing through my veins. “Michelle! I need to get to Michelle!” But the arms wouldn’t let me go. I kicked and thrashed, trying to break free. I looked back to see Ky’s stony face. “Ky! Let me the fuck go!” My head turned back to the camp. “No!” I cried. The place was a fucking inferno. There wasn’t a building untouched. All burning to the fucking ground.
I slumped in Ky’s arms, no longer feeling my legs, all my strength stolen away by the blaze before me. The heat from the buildings rose until my face began to sweat. I didn’t even notice Ky had moved me away from the doors, placing my back against the van’s wall, until Cowboy laid a gentle hand on my arm. I looked tiredly, numbly, into his bruised eyes. “She wanted to go home,” I pleaded, voice cracking. “To the green fields of Texas.” I swallowed. “Her parents deserve to have her back . . .”
Cowboy’s gaze filled with sympathy, the light of the fires outside reflected in his blue eyes. “Not like she is,” he said softly. “They couldn’t cope with what she went through. We’ll get word to them, but we’ll spare them the truth. No one could cope with their daughter being put through that.”
I held Hush’s hand tightly. Cowboy stroked his thumb along my face. I could feel Ky watching us. But I had no energy to spare for him right now. I slumped back against Hush, letting him cradle me in his warm arms. Cowboy leaned into Hush, the last of his energy seeming to drain away.
Angelo, or as Ky had called him, Shadow, came to the door. He was slightly breathless. He smiled, making his already handsome face breathtaking. “Couldn’t fucking stand this place when I worked here. Been dreaming of torching it since I got out.”
The door shut, plunging us into darkness. AK opened the latch between the cabin and the back of the truck. “How many?” Tanner asked.
“Fifteen,” AK replied.
Tanner nodded and then lowered his eyes to some iPad-type device. “The road’s clear. The brothers are all on guard and expecting us.” He sighed. “An hour to the all-clear.” I looked up at Hush to see him watching Tanner like a hawk. But as the van started moving, I gave in to the sleep that was calling.
And I sent a prayer to Hades to welcome Michelle into the afterlife with open arms. Her beautiful face once again intact, with a wide smile upon her lips as she danced through the Elysian Fields.
But Juan . . . that fucking bastard could burn in Tartarus.
Chapter Twelve
Hush
We walked through the door to our apartment. I should have breathed a huge sigh of relief. Instead the numbness that had possessed me since Mexico remained in place. If anything, it was growing stronger, its weight starting to make me buckle.
We’d been at the Diablos’ place for three days. Doctors had stitched up Sia and Cowboy. But their brand, the one I’d recognized in an instant, could still be seen.
23/2 . . . The Klan mark for people who were in a mixed-race couple. I knew, because three days after moving to town as a teen, it had been spray-painted on our house. White and black. Unacceptable. Forbidden. Wrong. Worse, in their eyes . . . punishable by death.
Sia’s hand landed on my back. She was better—still pale and in pain, but the IV and the pills the Diablos’ doctor had given her had helped. Cowboy too. I looked up to find him watching me. I studied the bruises and cuts on his body. A beating he took because they thought he was with me too. Something he never denied, of course, just to fuck people off.
I sighed and got a glass of water. We’d left a while ago, driving back in silence. Sia was unusually quiet, no doubt thinking of Michelle. Cowboy, who always spoke, was quiet too. I kept thinking they were looking at me . . . placing the blame at my feet.
Because I should have been with them. If I hadn’t had the seizure, I would have been. I would have helped defend the ranch. Maybe if I’d been there, none of this would ever have happened. Sia couldn’t even think of returning to her ranch; too many nightmares awaited her. Clara. Her horses . . . everything she’d built had been razed.