Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
“Calm down, Ryder,” Jeremy said. “I’m calling in the family. What hotel are you at?”
“Your grandmother is a fake, Jeremy. She isn’t going to help with anything.” Ryder put his phone on speaker and put it on the nightstand. As soon as his hands were free, he started rubbing Remi’s hands between his own. Like before, his lover felt like an ice cube. His beautiful face was contorted in anger and swear words snarled from between his lips.
“What hotel, Ryder?” Jeremy yelled. “I’m not kidding. You and Remi are going to need help.”
“We’re at the Westin, but your grandmother can’t help. Oh, fuck. What am I supposed to do?”
Ryder heard Jeremy calling someone in the background. He could hear him talking but couldn’t make out what was being said. He didn’t give a fuck; all his attention was on Remi. It damn near ripped his heart out, but he knew all he could do was wait.
He had a feeling he was going to have to hold Remi while the man he was falling in love with watched someone die. He’d never felt so fucking helpless in his entire life.
Remi sat in the back seat of a car. The girl with the rat sat on one side of him and Gary on the other. Neither of them made a sound. In the front, the man, wearing his black ski mask, drove the car while another girl sat in the passenger seat. The lower portion of her body was shrink-wrapped, like Jason, but her arms and hands were zip-tied only. Other than that, she couldn’t move at all. It didn’t stop her mouth, though. She was ripping him a new asshole with every mile that passed. Remi smiled. This girl wasn’t going to go quietly.
Remi tried talking to Gary, but the only response he got was when Gary sadly shook his head from side to side, indicating he couldn’t communicate with him. Knowing it was probably useless, he turned to look at the girl. As usual, she stroked her furry companion and its pink nose twitched. Pretty pink eyes watched him warily. It would have been cute, if they weren’t on a fucking rat.
When that thought slipped through his brain, the girl frowned at him and clutched the rat closer to her chest. She shook her head slightly and narrowed her eyes. Oh, fuck. She could get inside his head.
She smiled; it wasn’t a full-blown smile, but it was a smile.
“Can you tell me your name?” he asked.
She shook her head from side to side.
“Do you know the man that killed you?” he asked, nodding in the direction of the man driving the car.
She nodded.
Remi jerked in surprise when Gary’s hand reached across his lap, so he could hold the girl’s fingers with his own. He thought it odd that he could actually feel them. In his mind, he’d figured they would be ghost-like spirits. Oh, shit. What if he was dead, too? What if the man had finally gotten him?
The girl smiled and gave her head a negative shake. Then her smile turned into a frown, and she, using her eyes, urged him to look out the window. It only took a few seconds for him to realize she was trying to get him to pay attention to where they were…which was too fucking bad because it was pitch-black outside, and he didn’t have the slightest clue where they might be. From best he could see, they were in the middle of no-fucking-where.
The girl in the front seat said, “I know who you are, you cowardly fuck! He was a coward, just like you! I’m glad he’s dead and I’ll be glad when you finally are, too,” she spat in disgust.
The man laughed. “Well, that’s not going to happen, is it? One of us will die tonight, but it won’t be me, Kris. I tried to warn you, sweetheart. I told you not to spread all those lies, but you wouldn’t fucking listen to me. Now…well, now, you’ll have to pay the ultimate price for your stupidity.” The man looked in the girl’s direction and said, “You didn’t even deserve to breathe the same air as he did; don’t ever fucking speak of him again!”
Instead of backing down, the girl said, “He was a pretentious cowardly bully! I didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as him?” she mocked. “Ha! He didn’t deserve to breathe at all…and now he’s not,” she finished with a smug smile.
The man backhanded her hard enough to cause her head to slam against the window, cracking the thick glass. Her shrink-wrapped body crumpled forward as she lost consciousness.
Okay…somebody was an asshole…and they were dead. They’d been important to this man. He’d warned the girl to keep her mouth shut. Remi shoved all the information to a safe spot inside his head, knowing he could use it later to help stop the man behind the wheel. He was still contemplating what all the words could mean when the car slowly rolled to a stop. The man quickly climbed out and then pulled the unconscious girl across the gear shift until she was in the driver’s seat. Remi watched as the man pulled out a roll of duct tape and then methodically started taping the girl’s hands to the steering wheel. Round and round the tape went until both her hands and part of her lower arms were tightly secured to the steering wheel. When that task was completed, the man reached across the girl and pulled out the car keys. Remi watched as he tucked them into his front pocket. After that, he ran around to the passenger side, opened the glove box, and pulled out a clock of some sort. After slamming the door shut, he returned to the driver’s side, fiddling with the clock with each step.