Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 18000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 90(@200wpm)___ 72(@250wpm)___ 60(@300wpm)
The sound of barking then reaches my ears, and I turn just in time to see all nine dogs come running to me with exuberant barks and wagging tails.
I burst into tears even as I can't help but laugh when I find myself falling under a pile of canine babies.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
I count them again, and then I count them for a third time because all of this is another miracle my brain finds impossible to comprehend.
How can this be true?
How?
And yet it is.
They're all here and accounted for.
Safe.
Happy.
And all I can do is cry harder as I push myself up to a sitting position.
"T-Thank you," I sob out.
My dangerously seductive escort crouches down on one knee.
"I meant what I said the last time," he says quietly. "We are now husband and wife, Eden. Ask whatever you want, and if it is within my power to give, then consider it yours."
Did he just say...wife?
Only A Matter of Time
Calixte had always wondered how he would die.
And it seemed he had his answer now.
Why did I even bother trying to escape?
He was on an island run by one of the world's most wanted drug lords and his henchmen.
Alone and handicapped by a crushed kneecap.
Outnumbered, Calixte was used to.
He had survived much better odds than this.
But in all those instances, he had never been as badly injured as he was now, and with backup reinforcements only likely to take another hour before they could locate and rescue him---
This is it then.
He waited to feel fear or regret.
But instead, there was simply emptiness inside of him.
Jacques had warned him against taking this mission.
'Suicidal' was the term his cousin had used, if he recalled correctly, and to be fair, the description was looking more and more apt by the second.
You already know your informant has double-crossed you.
So why bother showing up?
Why do you want to kill yourself so badly?
At that time, Calixte had answered the way he would if subjected to an internal investigation.
Suarez is a high-value asset, and locating his base of operations has been a priority for over a decade. This may be the only chance we have to take him down.
But now that it was just him and the waves that would witness his inevitable recapture?
It's because I no longer care.
He wasn't sure when, where, or how it happened. He had just realized one day that he had changed. His life no longer had meaning, and the job he used to love was just work, nothing else.
And maybe that's why I've slipped up.
Calixte had made mistakes that were unforgivable for veterans like him, and the result had been inevitable.
Imprisoned in one of Suarez's infamous torture chambers underground.
Chained and beaten up.
And likely to be recaptured, once they realized he had escaped.
They would set their dogs loose to search for him, and it would only be a matter of time before they found him.
After that, they would torture him.
It was par for the course since all they knew of Calixte was that he was someone who mattered. But there would be no ransom to be paid if they didn't know his name and who to ask money from.
This is really it.
Death was a certainty at this point.
But the jury was still out on when they would decide to kill him.
Suarez would likely keep him alive for a couple of days. Maybe even have someone play bad cop, good cop. The man was no quitter, and he would likely have lost several fingers and toes before they finally realized the truth.
He would never speak.
And so they would have no choice but to kill him.
It Had To Be You
My head is still spinning at all the things he's revealed.
All this time, people had thought of Dauphin Tueur as someone who used Calixte Romano as his alias. But in truth, it was actually the other way around. Calixte was his real name while Dauphin Tueur was the alias he used to infiltrate my world. His real "job" involved classified ties to the defense department while stories about Dauphin Tueur were nothing but strategically fabricated tales to instill fear at the mere sound of his name.
I feel sick to my stomach when I think about the complexities and intricacies that he was required to master when crossing and double-crossing the people he spoke to. One mistake alone could result in his death, and that was exactly what my father had planned for him.
"My father would kill you if he finds out you're the same man he lost that day."
"Your father is welcome to try, but he won't succeed. The only reason he was able to capture me that day was because I stopped giving a damn. I was a different man then. I was ready to die at that time...and I know would have if an angel hadn't decided to interfere."