Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
I go there.
Even though I’m shaking and crying.
And I don’t like the monster holding me.
I go there.
Until the door bursts open and voices fill the room. There is yelling and cursing, and women dressed in pretty dresses. One of them has pretty hair, like Mommy used to, and she’s waving her hands around screaming so loudly her face is bright red. I don’t know what she’s saying, but she steps forward and pulls me off the monster’s lap, putting me by her side. She pulls out her phone and starts dialing something. The man stands, and he’s really angry. He pulls out a gun.
I run.
I run so fast.
Tears run down my cheeks. I can’t hear properly; my ears feel like they have lots of bees in them. I’m scared. And my dress is ripped. And I want my mommy.
But I keep running.
I run out of the big house and past all the people who look shocked to see me.
And I just keep on running.
I don’t know where I’m running to.
But I keep going, because I know as soon as I get home, Father is going to be so angry at me.
He’s going to be so angry because I failed. Because I let that bad man hurt me, and I didn’t get what he wanted.
He told me this job was the most important.
The biggest one yet.
And I’ve failed him.
I know what’s going to happen when I get home.
So, for now, I just run.
-12-
THEN – KODA
Fake I.D.
Fake passports.
Fake everything.
It’s going to be the only way I can get Braxton out of this. He’s in too deep. He’ll never even be given the chance to try and pay off what he’s stolen, let alone fix the mess he’s made. There is just no way he’ll get away with it, and we’re only two people, not capable of taking on something of that size. Which means the only way out is to wipe everything clean and start again.
Hell, I’ll even consider faking his death if it means I can get him out safely.
Whatever I can find, I’ll try it.
I don’t have long.
I know people, thank fuck, and they have put me onto someone who can get me everything I need for the right price. New identities. We’ll start again. Somewhere else. Somewhere fuckin’ safe. I’ll get my brother out of this mess, and I’ll get him clean.
My boots splash into a puddle, jerking me from my thoughts. I glance around, pulling the hoodie further down over my head. This is a bad side of town, dangerous, but that’s what you’re dealing with when you step into this world. Danger. Always fucking danger. But for Braxton, I’ll risk it. I can’t be seen or recognized. If I am, it’ll be my life mistakenly taken.
I walk down the dark alleys, dripping with water from the rain that fell a few hours ago. The pipes make a swishing sound as the water runs through them, but that’s the only sound that can be heard. Everything else is dead silent. Nobody is around. The streets are quiet. Eerily so. I don’t like it, at fucking all. I glance at the address I was given once more and then walk up to an old, broken-down door. It has been put back together with a few slabs of timber that have been nailed on very, very well.
I lean in and yell, “Hello?”
Takes a few minutes and a dark man appears. He’s tall, with skin so dark he blends with the night. His eyes are piercing against his skin. He’s big, fucking big. A good six feet three and solid muscle.
“I’m looking for Jarod.”
He narrows his eyes. “Name?”
“Dakoda.”
He studies me, squinting. “Yeah. OK. Come around the back. Make it quick.”
I thumb the gun in my jeans that I shoved in before I left home and move around to the back of the building where a solid door opens and Jarod appears again, his domineering presence a lot stronger now. I wouldn’t fuck with him unless I had a lot of fucking weapons to back me up. He’d snap a man even my size in a millisecond.
He looks at me, for a long, long time.
“This some sort of fuckin’ joke?”
I pull my hoodie off and he takes a step back.
“You’ve got some fuckin’ balls comin’ out here,” he growls, pulling out his phone.
“I’m not Braxton.”
He grunts. “My eyes see what my eyes see, and you’re Braxton.”
I reach for my hoodie and he pulls out a gun quickly, so fucking quickly I pause and hold his eyes. “Got I.D. in my pocket. Goin’ to show you. I’m his twin brother. But I’m here on his behalf. You don’t want me to move, I won’t. You can get it out yourself.”
The big man’s eyes narrow. “Don’t fuckin’ move.”
He reaches for my hoodie pocket and jerks out the papers in there. I made sure to bring it all, in case questions were being asked. Birth certificate, all my photo identification. Everything. He studies it all, flicking through the pages, looking at the pictures, and then thrusting them back at me. “Twin brother. Hate to say it, but you’re fuckin’ in as much danger as he is, walkin’ around lookin’ like him.”