Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 145088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Pain stabbed his cheek and nose, and his poor brain shook in his skull yet again. Before he could even think of working his way back to his feet, a strong hand took hold of his jacket and pulled him up as if he were a pup grabbed by the scruff. Harsh, but for his own good.
Heat pulsed in his face when Hammer pushed him at the back door. When Dex fell on it with his shoulder, it flung open, spilling them both out into the evening chill.
“He’s reloading, go,” Hammer roared as they dashed through the backyard at a speed that felt more like falling off a wall than running. Air seemed to be stuck up Dex’s nose when he clashed with the wooden gate and was catapulted into the alleyway. Hammer tugged at the back of Dex’s jacket and flung him into the passenger seat.
There was no time for seatbelts when they heard the unmistakable roar of a motorcycle.
“I could have been your shotgun now if you’d just let me!” Dex yelled and braced himself when Hammer took off.
He stilled when something hot slid down his cheek and nose, but his mind only rang in alarm when the unmistakeable taste of blood hit his lip. More bright red drops dripped down his chin, staining his T-shirt, and he arched to see himself in the rearview mirror as panic hit his gut.
A deep wound cut through his right cheekbone, and from the layers of skin, meat, and fat seeped sticky red goo. He looked as if someone had sliced into him with a butcher knife.
The buzz of a metal hornet speeding behind them made Dex freeze, but he snapped out of it when a bullet hit the rear window. Curling up in the front seat, cuffed, vulnerable, and bleeding, he screamed out as Hammer dashed toward two trash cans blocking their way.
The impact echoed through their vehicle, and he flinched when one of the containers rolled up the windscreen, spilling plastic bags, but a moment later, something crashed behind them, and Hammer roared with laughter.
“That’s where you belong, you fucker! With all the other trash!!”
Dex dared sit up and glanced back for a glimpse of Ryker scrambling in the piles of refuse while the wheels of his overturned bike still spun. Seconds later Hammer took a sharp turn out of the alley, and gravity sent Dex right at him.
For once, Dex wasn’t about to pretend he accidentally fell face-first into a man’s crotch, and backed off to his seat as pain erupted in his cheek again. He was bleeding so much there were even spots on Hammer’s top!
“As soon as we’re in the clear, you need to take me to a hospital,” Dex uttered, taking another horrified glance into the small mirror.
Hammer frowned, cutting through busy lanes to get away from Ryker’s place. Car horns rang out over and over, but in the shaking vehicle, with his freedom taken away, Dex was dependent on this guy and could do nothing to alter his fate. So he pressed his back to the seat in an attempt to avoid smashing his face into a hard surface again.
“Are you high? They’re gonna find us if we go to the ER.”
Blood pounded in Dex’s ears. “I need stitches! My face is fucked up! Can’t you fucking see I’m bleeding everywhere!”
“Are you hemophiliac?” Hammer asked after a moment’s hesitation, but whatever was going on in his head didn’t stop him from stepping on the gas pedal and cutting through a large intersection as their light turned red.
The question caught Dex off guard. “Is that when you have both a dick and a pussy? Because I don’t have a pussy…”
“No, that’s hermaphroditism. It’s when your blood doesn’t stop bleeding on its own.”
Dex frowned. “Everyone stops bleeding eventually,” he said grimly. “And then they die.”
“So do you bleed out if you cut your hand or not? It’s a simple question,” Hammer roared.
“No, I don’t! But this isn’t my hand. It’s my face!” A very important asset if he was to get laid at the pace he got used to. The thought of being denied such a vital part of his life made him breathe faster.
“Well, then you can wait. It’s just a cut,” Hammer said and took an abrupt turn into a suburban neighborhood made up of near-identical homes.
Dex understood the finality in Hammer’s tone, and it froze him to the bone. This guy wouldn’t budge. He didn’t give a shit about Dex. He only cared about Dex making it out of Ryker’s because he needed a hostage.
He slouched in the seat, biting his lip at the bleak future he could already envision. How much would a fucked up face cut his prospects by? Confidence was one thing, but there was only so much you could get away with when the face didn’t match up.