Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
I swipe at my eyes, opening them to the rush of water, but they still burn when he shifts my weight to standing.
"Fuck," he growls when my towel slips. "Hold the towel. I've got you."
In the next breath, I'm swept off my feet and carried out of the bathroom. I count four bodies as he carries me out of there.
"I heard five shots. Are you hit?"
"I'm fine, Peach. Fuck, you're gonna freeze like this."
His words don't stop his feet from carrying me right out of that cabin and depositing me in the front seat of an SUV. Before I can fully orient myself, he's behind the wheel and slinging gravel as he flies out of the driveway.
I'm shaking so hard I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop. My teeth are chattering, and I know it has much more to do with what just happened than the cold.
"This motherfucker," he growls as he tries to drive and operate the controls for the heater.
"Pay attention to the road."
He glances in my direction, looking as if he's seeing me for the very first time. "Put on your fucking seatbelt."
I move quickly to obey him because the tone of his voice is nothing I've ever heard before.
"Put yours on," I manage after I click the seatbelt in place.
He huffs a humorless laugh but a minute later, he's pulling the strap across his body.
The lights from the console illuminate his face, and I choose to focus on it rather than think about what could've just happened.
After a few miles of distance between us and the dead men at the cabin, he pulls his phone from his pocket and places a call.
Surprisingly, the call connects to the Bluetooth in the vehicle.
"Hey," the guy who answers the phone says when the call connects.
"What the fuck is going on?" Jericho, or Nolan as he told me back at the cabin, growls. "I've got four down at the cabin."
"Fuck," the guy mutters. "Are you okay? Aspen?"
He darts his eyes in my direction. "We're safe. Did you cut Samuel loose?"
"He's been with us the entire time. Hasn't had a chance to reach out to anyone."
Nolan pulls in a deep breath, his jaw flexing as he clenches the muscles there.
"Jericho, we cleared the car and her belongings, but we didn't scan her."
"Fuck," Nolan grunts again.
"You have everything you'll need there in the SUV."
"I'll let you know what I find," Nolan says before hitting a button on the steering wheel, ending the call.
"What is he talking about?" I ask with a waver in my voice.
"There's a good chance you're tagged," he says.
"Tagged?"
"Damien probably had a tracker put inside of you."
My skin grows immediately colder, my hands trembling as I lift them to my stomach.
"So he can always find me," I whisper as tears stream out of my still-burning eyes.
"He won't find you again," he says. As much as I want to believe him, he just had to kill four men to keep me safe, and I don't know that I'm worth the stain on his conscience for having to do that for me.
I've begged every being others pray to more times than I can count to be rescued from the clutches of Damien Gaines, but it's coming at too high of a cost.
Although I've never felt sorry for the men who died defending Damien, or even when they died defending my father, Samuel's daughter being taken kept him compliant with the rules of the organization. Discovering that information changed everything. Men may be doing their job and dying for it to protect their children. Good, bad, or indifferent, prior to their life with Damien, I don't know that every man who works for him is inherently evil. It changes my entire viewpoint.
Hames should've died a long time ago, but I don't know the other three men or what their stories were. What if Damien has their children? What happens to those kids now that their father is no longer a pawn to be used and moved around the organization at Damien's whim?
"Don't get lost in your fucking head, Peach. We'll get to the end of this shitstorm eventually."
I turn my gaze from the side of his face, my internal battle raging inside of me.
I feel sick to my stomach to think that there's some foreign object inside me that allows Damien to know exactly where I am and when. It's no different from cancer and it's just as deadly.
Chapter 21
Jericho
The idea of him putting fucking anything inside of her makes me want to rain hell down on everything the man has ever touched. I want to hurt him so badly that his fucking ancestors feel it from their goddamned graves.
I keep driving in the opposite direction from where I really need to go because I know she's being tracked, and I don't want Damien to get even a hint at where we're headed next.