Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88918 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“It’s Cole.”
His pulse spiked. He hadn’t heard from Cole Hartman since he wired the finder fee. After five weeks, he started to wonder if he’d been scammed.
“Hang on.” He shoved on his jeans and slipped into the hall, shutting the door behind him. “Did you find her?”
“Yes. We’ll talk in person when I get back to the States in about…” A pause. “Fifteen hours.”
“Is she—?”
“I’ll come to you.”
“Is she alive?”
Dead air.
“Hello?” He glanced at the phone, and the call was disconnected. “Motherfucker!”
After spending a week at The Velvet Den, Tate had returned to Austin. Evidently, Cole didn’t need to be told that. But Tate had a million questions, so he hit redial. When the call wouldn’t connect, he tried the contact number he had for Cole.
No answer. No voicemail.
Frustration roiled through him as he grabbed the rest of his clothes and left the woman’s apartment without a word.
Over the next twelve hours, he tried to sleep between attempts to contact Cole. If Lucia were dead, wouldn’t Cole have just told him on the phone? They wouldn’t need to meet in person. The same could be said if she were alive and happy and safe.
His insides twisted as he dug through the laundry on his bedroom floor, sniffing each shirt in his hunt for something clean to wear. If Cole was coming to him, he needed to get out of the house. Two of his roommates, Tomas and Martin, were home. He didn’t want them volunteering for a dangerous retrieval operation. Their untrained vigilante group, the Freedom Fighters, wouldn’t hesitate to help him. But this wasn’t their fight.
An hour later, he pulled into Liv’s driveway and parked beside Kate’s car, knowing his timid little roommate would be there. When Camila moved to Colombia, Kate started spending more time with Liv. Not that he blamed her. She was the only girl living in a house with five overprotective men who monitored her every move.
As he knocked on the front door, he didn’t have to worry about Liv or Kate risking their necks for his cause. Liv’s husband would never allow it, and Kate… Well, she was still recovering from her time in Van’s attic, which made her painfully guarded and cautious.
The door opened, and Josh’s bulky frame filled the entrance.
Tate had been Liv and Van’s sixth captive. Kate came next. Then Josh—the last one. The one Liv fell in love with. While Camila and the others had helped Liv free each slave, it was Josh who had been the nail in the slave operation’s coffin. Somehow, he achieved the impossible and broke through Liv’s cold mask.
“Hey, man.” Josh’s smile lit up his green eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Is Liv around?”
“Yeah. Come in.” Josh retreated, leading him through the house. “She’s back here with Kate. Everything okay?”
“I don’t know yet. It’s about Lucia Dias.” As he passed the living room and kitchen, there were no signs of Liv’s teenage daughter. “Where’s Livana?”
“She’s at a friend’s house this weekend.” A sheen of perspiration slicked Josh’s nude back, his feet bare and hair mussed.
Christ, had he and Liv been fucking? With Kate here? Surely not. But they were into some kinky shit, and he was headed straight toward the master bedroom.
“Hey, uh…” Tate paused in the hallway, unwilling to be part of anything that involved Liv’s whips. “If I’m interrupting something…”
“I wouldn’t have been able to answer the door.” With a wink, Josh disappeared into the bedroom.
Wouldn’t have been able to because he would’ve been tied up. Literally.
Tate exhaled a sharp laugh. Of all the men Liv had captured and trained, Josh was the only true submissive.
Since Tate had spent ten weeks in her restraints, he was intimately familiar with her dominant nature. The whole Mistress thing was a total turnoff, but when she’d had him naked and chained to the wall, she found ways to arouse him, torturing his cock until he begged for release. Unlike Van, she never fucked him, but there had been times when she’d taken pity on him and relieved him with her hand.
He rubbed the back of his head and tried to clear the memories. Over the past six years, he and Liv had become good friends, and he rarely dwelled on those dark hours of his life. But he’d never been in her bedroom, and as he stepped into the room, his stomach cramped.
Josh knelt on the bed, messing with a chain that connected to the headboard. Liv stood behind him, directing the work. In the corner of the room, Kate was curled up in a chair, her gaze drifting to the doorway.
A toolbox sat open on the floor. A drill on the nightstand. A package of heavy-duty eyehooks on the bed. Hairline cracks splintered the frame of the headboard. If he looked closer, he’d find more hooks and bolts. Probably a hidden rig of chains. Maybe a ball gag and a cock ring. The usual.