Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
In one split second, he went from the man that I knew to a killer that I didn’t.
We were standing in his driveway. My dogs were poised in between us—Glock closer to me, Kimber closer to him. Rafe was standing at the end of the driveway next to the mailbox.
The neighbors’ guests still lined the street, but one black panel van must’ve not belonged to the neighbors because men poured out of it and started circling us. Three coming for me. Three going for Rafe.
I froze as terror started to slide over me.
These men, all of them, were huge, buff, and covered in black. Their beards were bushy and thick, and not well maintained at all. Where Rafe looked like a bad ass, these guys just looked plain fucking scary.
My eyes sliced to Rafe, taking in his reaction.
In his haste to get to me, Rafe had left his gun. He’d also left his shoes, shirt, and anything else that might’ve come in handy for this situation.
“She was sent to get you quietly,” the man closest to Rafe, the one that looked to be the leader of these band of misfits, said. “You should’ve let her do her job.”
Rafe didn’t say anything, but he’d crept closer to me. Suddenly, he wasn’t the length of the driveway away. He was only a foot away. Reaching distance.
A sound of gravel grating at my back made me flip around, but it was only Kimber, menacing and silent.
I turned back around and crowded close to Rafe’s back. The moment nothing separated us? I lifted my shirt and pressed my stomach against Rafe’s hand, which was behind his back. He’d been reaching for me to make sure I was close.
He hadn’t really needed to bother. I was as close as I could get without actually hindering his movements. I was practically in his arms.
The moment his hand felt my revolver, he closed his fingers around it.
It only held five shots. I’d always joked with my dad—if I need more than five shots, I’m screwed anyway. There’s no way I would be able to get that many people all by myself.
But Rafe? He could. And suddenly I wished I had a semi-automatic with fifteen rounds in it. If anybody could do it, he could.
There were six men, five shots, and only one of him. I looked down at my side when I felt something brush up against it, and saw Glock there, letting me know that he had me.
I swallowed past my pounding heart and turned my attention back to the men, and what they were saying.
“…Layton wants you to know you’re not as smart as you think you are.”
My heart sank.
How had he found out?
Rafe was so careful. That’s why he hadn’t gotten anywhere in the months that he’d been on this case. He hadn’t wanted to tip his hand.
Rafe’s hand clenched around the butt of my gun, and he pushed against my belly with the tip of one finger.
I bent down and stepped away, the gun sliding free.
I went to step back forward, but he stopped me by shaking his head.
I remained where I was as I prayed that this wouldn’t turn out the way I thought it was going to.
That this was only a discussion. That we were going to walk back inside and figure out just what in the hell was going on.
But, by the tenseness of all the men, including my man, I knew this wasn’t going to work out like that.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I looked surreptitiously at my watch to see who it was.
Daddy.
I pressed answer on my watch, then hoped that since the volume was so low—I accidentally answered my phone a lot. And, most of those times were inopportune. Like, when I was going to the bathroom, or in the middle of my doctors’ appointments. Sometimes, while I was sitting on the couch watching porn—and that had only been one single time, and lucky for me, it was Kayla that had called. Not anybody else.
I could hear my dad calling my name,
“Don’t touch her,” Rafe snarled, his body going tight like a bowstring.
I looked to my left to see one of the men try to get closer to me, but Glock turned his big body to block him.
If they got through my baby, they wouldn’t get through Rafe…right?
I was literally shaking, and all the while my nausea rose.
I wasn’t cut out for this.
I wouldn’t be able to hack this part of the job. My dad was right.
I never, not ever, thought I would be agreeing with my father on the fact that I couldn’t do what a man did, but I was right then.
Where I was shaking, sweating, and nauseous—and obviously showing the fact that I was scared to death, Rafe was cool, calm and collected.