Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 19880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
There’s a glint of metallic light as he pulls something from his pocket. I freeze as I see the muzzle of a pistol aimed straight at me.
“I guess I’ll be getting the credit for this one—”
There’s a snap. Blood sprays from the man’s head, his legs go limp, and he drops. Gage emerges from the shadows, a gun in his hand. He holds it steady, placing himself between me and the fallen man. “One of them,” he snarls. “Come on. We have to go now.”
Tucking the gun into his coat, he swings a leg onto the motorcycle. The engine roars to life, and he motions to me. “Get on.”
I hesitate, frozen after what I just witnessed. He leans back and snatches me by the wrist and pulls me to him. “Billie, come on. There’s no time. We have to go now. I got your laptop. You can write about this in one of your books. Now put your helmet on and wrap your arms around my waist.”
My head is spinning. I barely have time to process what’s going on as I take hold of him. The bike lurches forward, and we’re speeding away from the motel, the world nothing but a blur on the edges of my vision.
Gage feels so tense in my arms. I can’t believe what I just witnessed. I knew he was fast. I knew he was capable of doing things—that he called himself a devil. But seeing what I just saw was like getting a true glimpse into the world he comes from, and my body is reacting. Cold adrenaline is pouring through me, and my heart is a timebomb ready to explode.
The single headlight on Gage’s motorcycle carves a hollow through the darkness as he speeds us on. Where is he taking me now? What will happen next? There are questions I don’t even know if I want the answers to. But as he leans the bike around a hard left turn, bright lights blast us from behind. I glance back over my shoulder to see two men on black motorcycles speeding toward us.
Gage shouts something, but his voice is drowned out by the sound of the screaming engines. There’s a loud crack of a gunshot from behind. I cry out, duck my head, and clutch Gage tighter. Gage’s muscles seem to expand with lethality. It’s like I’m hanging on to a monster as we weave through the darkness, gunshots cracking like thunder behind us.
A bullet impacts Gage’s left shoulder, spraying leather and blood into the air. He cries out and slams on the brakes, whipping the bike into a 180-degree spin. I scream as I’m tossed off into the grass and look up just in time to see Gage draw on the two attackers.
He moves like a blur. It’s like I’m watching life in fast forward.
One shot hits the first man directly in the skull. He drops dead to the ground.
The other man barely has time to fire, but he misses Gage, who fires back, dropping the man. And then, in the blink of an eye, he’s at my side and helping me to my feet.
“Come, angel. Let’s go.”
I’m in a daze as he helps me back onto the bike. Holding him feels so reassuring, but also so frightening. My heart is screaming in my chest. I feel like I’m a balloon ready to pop. I wanted him to come for me, and he did. But this was hardly the way I wanted us to reunite.
I clutch Gage, my devil and constant savior, as we race through the night. I couldn’t say how long it’s been, but dawn is just beginning to break over the horizon as he slows the bike and turns down a dirt road overhung with trees. Presently, a house comes into view. Modern, concrete and glass, and absolutely gorgeous. Gage pulls up to the steps and parks.
He gets off and tosses his helmet. I can see by his face that he’s in pain from where he’s been hit, but he immediately turns to me. He removes my helmet and kisses me.
Sensations come rushing back in a torrent of emotions I can barely even process.
“Are you all right, angel?” I try to answer, but when I try to speak, only breath comes from my lips. Gage takes my hand. “Come on, let’s get you inside.”
I feel like his doll as he leads me up the steps and into the house that looks like something out of a magazine, a far cry from the sixty-dollar-a-night room I’ve been staying in for the last two weeks. He leads me to the couch and sits me down beside him. I’m quivering as he runs his hands up my legs to my hips and then my waist. Like he wasn’t just shot in the back, he locks his eyes hungrily on mine, then leans in and kisses me.