Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
He stalks inside. Scalpel clutched in my fist, eyes locked on his, I circle around behind the examination table, trying to put anything between us. Oh my god, but he’s fast. So fast. One second he’s just walking and the next he’s charging. Blind terror grips my heart. I turn to run and slam into a tray of medical equipment, sending it crashing to the floor.
Then he’s on me. Screaming, I slash at his chest. I cut him, I know I cut him, but it’s like he doesn’t feel the blade at all. But one shove sends me flying and I hit the back wall so hard that stars flare behind my eyes. The explosion of air from my chest leaves me dizzy—then horrifyingly aware when he drags me down under him, shoving my thighs apart, ripping away my panties. Sobbing, I slash at his throat and only cut his shoulder before he grabs my wrist and pins my hand. Thunder cracks in my ears and he’s all over me, crushing me beneath him, heavy between my legs and I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.
But he’s not moving. Not moving at all.
Because that thunder had been a gunshot.
And Tusk is dead.
On top of me.
With a shriek, I shove at his massive weight, scrabbling my way out from beneath him. The shadow of another huge form crosses the room, the dull metallic gleam of a weapon in his hand. New panic tears through me. Because this nightmare can’t end like this. It can’t.
“Please,” I beg frantically as he comes closer. “Please, I don’t care what you do to me. But please first let me find my b—”
Hard fingers shove fabric into my mouth, cutting me off. And it’s Stone. Relief staggers through me, then vanishes again.
Because he’s so angry. So savage as he hauls me close.
“All this time, you had a way out,” he snarls viciously. “And a fucking knife. You could have escaped and went for help. All this fucking time.”
No, I didn’t. I couldn’t.
Wildly I shake my head, try to tell him. I try to pull out the gag but he rips my stocking from my leg and ties it around my head, securing the wad of fabric between my lips. Fighting, I pull at the silk and a second later he binds my wrists behind my back. Movement to the left catches my gaze and I realize there’s someone else in here with us.
The gunman. Oh god, oh god. But not just any gunman.
The blue-eyed devil. The one called Gunner. Stone’s friend.
The one who betrayed him. The man who put him in here.
But now Gunner came to free him?
Confusion and terror tangle in my chest. Then the world upends, and I cry out in surprise as Stone tosses me facedown over his shoulder. All I can see is the concrete floor and his gray sweats as he carries me down the aisle. Blood rushes to my head, my stomach hurting from panic and dread, my spit saturating the gag in my mouth.
We’re getting out of here. I should be filled with relief but I don’t know where we’re going now. And I’m obviously not free.
Because I owe him. I remember Stone saying that. I owe him.
And that he’ll collect.
A strange calm settles over me. Because I do owe him. So I’ll pay up. As fast as I can. Then I’ll go to the police and get help for Matt. He’s safe for at least a few weeks at the doc’s clinic. Papa isn’t going to tell my brother that everyone at the stables escaped. They’ll never admit that I’m gone. They’ll just keep telling him to fall in line or they’ll hurt me.
But I’ll be out of their reach. And there’s nothing, nothing that Stone will do to me that compares to what Papa might. I know Stone’s angry. But I don’t think he’d ever really hurt me.
I’m not so sure about his friends. And terror fills me again as I remember how, in my panic after realizing Tusk was dead and I might be next, I almost revealed that I had a brother.
Stone might not hurt me. But I can’t risk anyone discovering who Matt really is. Especially anyone who’s a member of an outlaw motorcycle club.
Heat flares against my side the moment Stone steps outside. Craning my neck, I catch an upside-down glimpse of the farmhouse engulfed in flames—and the other barn, too.
Horror crawls through my gut. Did his friends get the other fighters out first? Or are they in there burning? Desperately I twist and fight Stone’s hold, trying to dislodge the gag.
“Settle the fuck down.” His grip tightens, his fingers clamped on my thigh. “Unless you want me to march you over to Handlebar and tell him that Crash didn’t have to die in that Cage. That if you didn’t wait until you were saving your own goddamn skin, his brother could have been in a hospital weeks ago.”