Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
It wasn’t much.
What was I going to do? I couldn’t believe I’d fucked this up so much. I should have listened to that moment of doubt before I’d rung the doorbell. I should have turned around and gotten back in my car instead of being an idiot.
Even better, I should have told Shane I’d come back later.
God, why hadn’t I suspected him? How could we have overlooked him so completely? He’d seemed like the perfect storybook hero, sweeping in to save his friend who was in an abusive marriage.
We’d even said how weird it was that he’d moved here on a whim, but we’d just carried on like it was normal.
How did we not consider him?
Perfect storybook hero or not, nobody was perfect.
I still didn’t understand. I didn’t know how or why Declan and Shane had ended up at the bed and breakfast or how he thought he’d get away with it.
Especially now.
What if he killed me? Who’d fix up the B&B? Who’d be there to defend Gwen’s cottage pie that they hadn’t even eaten yet?
My God, if I survived this somehow, I was going to eat all the cottage pie she wanted.
The car went over a bump, and pain shot both up my leg from my ankle and across my head. I winced, but every time I bit down, it was onto the fabric Shane had gagged me with.
My teeth felt like they squeaked across it, and I shivered every single time. There was no way to get it out of my mouth, even if I brought up my hands. The rope he’d used to bind my wrists was so tight I could barely move them, and the burn across my skin was already becoming too painful to bear.
Boom.
The car jolted, and a scream tore out of me before I could stop it. The last thing I wanted was to alert Shane to the fact I was awake now, but there was nothing I could do. Adrenaline flooded my body at a rate of knots, and I barely had a moment to calm myself before another huge boom rattled the car.
We stopped.
No.
We crashed.
The engine didn’t restart, and panic grabbed hold of me as I waited for Shane to open the boot.
He didn’t.
Why wasn’t he opening the boot? Surely, he knew I was awake, and we weren’t moving.
Unless…
We’d crashed so badly that he was knocked clean out.
I did the only thing I could do.
I screamed.
I screamed, and I screamed, and I screamed. Every single one was muffled, but I kept screaming until my throat was hoarse and I physically couldn’t anymore. Tears spilled from my eyes as I struggled to breathe.
My lungs burned. My head spun like I was on the waltzers at a fair, and I was vaguely aware of the fact my entire body was shaking.
And sirens.
That was a siren.
Was someone coming?
Was I safe? Would I be safe now?
I screamed again, desperately bringing up my hands despite the burn on my wrists and banging them against the boot door.
It hurt.
So much.
I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it anymore. I could only cry and scream, try and fail to breathe. I just needed to get out of here.
“Pop the boot!” Noah’s voice filtered through my screams, and a warmth ran over my skin.
A door.
A pop.
The door opened, light filled the boot, and my eyes locked onto the most beautiful, terrified pair of dark green eyes in the world.
Noah.
He was here.
Somehow.
“It’s okay,” he said, yanking out the parcel shelf. “My God, Lottie.”
I couldn’t speak because of the gag, but I wasn’t sure I had any words anyway. Just screams. Just sobs.
“It’s okay. You’re safe.” His voice was gentle, and the first thing he did was gently remove the gag from my mouth.
I gasped, breathing in as much fresh air as I could, and more sirens filled the air. Blue lights spun, burning my eyes.
“I’ve got you,” Noah whispered, sliding his arms under my body. He lifted me out of the car, and I rolled into his body, letting the tears fully take over.
“Jesus,” Jamie’s voice said from somewhere.
“Get these damn things off her wrists,” Noah ordered.
His words made his chest rumble.
I pressed my face into the crook of his neck. Jamie was as gentle as anyone could be as he cut the rope, but the burns on my wrists were so painful, I couldn’t stop myself from crying out.
“The ambulance is almost here,” someone I didn’t know said.
Noah didn’t respond, and I bobbed as he carried me somewhere. I wanted to stop crying but I couldn’t—everything hurt, from my head to my toes. My head was a pain I’d never felt before, and it almost felt like I was going to throw up.
“I’m sitting down,” he whispered, slowly lowering us to the ground.
His hold on me never wavered, and he tucked me right against his body, gently wrapping his arms around me. I felt like a baby curled against him, crying and heaving out each breath, but he never faltered, not a single time.