Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Fuck. They couldn’t talk. Not about anything important. He couldn’t talk about the team, couldn’t assure her someone was coming. Why else would they be giving him a couple of hours with her if they weren’t watching? Weren’t listening to see if he would talk now that she was here.
“Are you okay?” He could ask that question even though he knew the answer.
Her head nodded slowly, her voice going low. “Yeah. They didn’t hurt me. Not yet, though there was a lot of talk in German. I got the gist. I think the boss isn’t here and they want him here for the interrogation. That’s why we have a couple of hours. They’re expecting him around 1500.”
He started to work the rope binding her wrists, easing them off. Three p.m. “I don’t know what time it is now, Lou. I’ve been drugged a couple of times. I have no idea where we are.”
Or what they want from me. Or how to save you.
“I think it’s around noon,” she replied, her voice still low. “And I think we’re somewhere close to the Austrian border.”
He wasn’t sure how she would know that, but Lou was ridiculously smart so he would take her word for it. Not that it helped to know where he was since he had no way out.
He felt utterly helpless. “I’m so sorry. I would give anything to not have you here.”
A brief hurt flared across her face, and then her hands were free and she scrambled to her feet. “Well, that shouldn’t surprise me. Have they hurt you?”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I meant I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt.”
“Yes, that might have been mentioned a couple of times before.” She frowned and then turned to the door, moving to it and pulling on the handle.
“Baby, I’ve tried. I can’t open it.”
“What is going on?” Lou asked. There was anxiety to her tone that hadn’t been there before. When she’d talked about what she’d learned from their captors, she’d been cool and calm. Now there was panic in her eyes. “I was at home and this man came to the door. I tried to fight him.”
“Who else was there?” Lou lived with his cousins. As far as TJ knew, right now Dare was staying there, too, until he and Tasha moved out.
“I was alone. My roommates left for the week. They had some time off and went to visit friends in Seattle.”
Roommates? Like he didn’t know who they were. And he didn’t know of any friends in Seattle. And that didn’t explain where Tash and Dare were. It was weird, but she was probably in shock. “But someone will look for you.”
She shook her head. “Not for days. My mom and dad are out of town, too, and I took a couple of days off. No one will look for me until Wednesday when I’m supposed to be back at work.”
But she texted with her parents all the time. “Surely when your dad sends you some funny meme and you don’t reply, he’ll know something’s wrong.”
“They have my phone. Like they have yours. I thought you were holed up with a woman in a ski resort.”
He shook his head. “Everyone believed it?”
“What are they supposed to believe, TJ? It wouldn’t be the first time.”
He couldn’t believe they were talking about this now. Did she not understand the danger they were in? But hey, he could throw down. He was kind of sick of always being reminded how he disappointed Lou. “Yeah, I think it would. It would definitely be the first time I blew you off for some other woman. Say what you like about me, but I always put you first, and I am honest with every woman I’ve ever dated. And quite frankly, that’s not many, and not a single one has been serious. Certainly not as many as my cousins make it out to be. And I definitely wouldn’t have missed my sister’s birthday. We had plans, Lou. When was the last time I skipped out on plans with you?”
“This is stupid. I don’t know why they thought I could make you do anything. From what I heard in the car, that’s what this is about. What do they want from you?”
He hated how cold she seemed all of the sudden, but that was what happened when Lou got overwhelmed. She didn’t cry until after the crisis, and then only when she was alone or with him or Kala.
That was why a real scene could work for her. Not some demo, but a scene where he was completely focused on her. He could spank her and she could cry and cry, and then he would hold her and all that anxiety would be gone and he would have given her some peace.