Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“I’m the one playing games, punishing him by having him tied up. That’s just wasting time. We need answers. We aren’t going to get them with him down there, and us up here.”
“Tying him up wasn’t a game,” he says. “It was smart. It was your instinct and you cannot go down there thinking any differently, you hear me?”
I bristle, my defenses all kinds of prickly. “I don’t need you to dictate to me how to handle myself or Kurt.”
“If you don’t think tying him up was a game,” Adam replies from behind me, “he damn sure does.”
I jerk out of Luke’s grip and whirl around to face him again. “You don’t know me well enough to go there.”
“I consider Luke a brother. I would die for you, Ana. So yes, I know you well enough to speak up if it saves your life and his. Every action you took downstairs, was on the money. It was soldier mode. What you’re doing right now, that’s about emotion, which is human, but also dangerous. He’s counting on that emotion as a weapon and one he tested on Luke.”
“And I gave him my trigger,” Luke replies dryly.
“You saved his life, man,” Adam replies. “Had you challenged him properly you might have killed him. On some level, you knew that. He knew, too. And you also knew that would be the final wedge between you and Ana.”
In my mind, I vehemently yearn to declare any wedge between me and Luke impossible, but I’ve already had similar thoughts to those expressed by Adam. The truth is that the bond between me and Luke is fragile at best, and neither of us would be speaking the truth if we said differently. Only I’m not sure if this is a together or apart kind of thing for us anymore. It feels more like we’re holding onto each other, trying to walk a balance beam made for one, and doing so above a stormy, shark-infested sea. One move left or right, and we won’t be divided. We’ll just be dead.
Chapter Ten
Ana
Believe or you will not achieve.
Kurt didn’t tell me this. My high school dance instructor did when I did a solo dance for regionals and was terrified because Kurt was going to be in the audience. Yes, I was on the dance team. A lot of people find that hard to believe, including Kurt. But I wanted to be a girl. I wanted to feel normal, but I learned that everyone’s version of normal is different. Normal really just has to mean happy. And I’m happy when I’m sharing my life with Luke.
So, I focus on how I find my version of happy again. I focus not on how any of this might divide me and Luke, but on how ending it brings us back together. Kurt is a manipulator, I think again. Of all the weapons he handles with masterful skill, it’s the one he uses to inflict the most damage.
“We can’t let him use us against us. He’s reading us like books and he’ll use it all against us. That’s the bottom line. We have to shift that narrative.”
“I believe that to be a valid assessment,” Adam replies. “Which is why I’m going to point out that we’re in his house which we all know is a booby-trapped nightmare for those who are his enemies. Right now, we’re his enemies. For all we know he’s been here, living here, under your nose, Ana. This place is huge.”
Luke casts me a questioning glance. I give a short nod. “It’s possible,” I agree. “I’m rarely here.”
“Then he could have set us up for an attack,” Adam continues. “Even if that’s not the case, he has the upper hand here. We need to get him out of his comfort zone. We need to get off this ranch.”
“The security system is state of the art,” I reply. “And I made sure it’s on.”
“He was here when we got here,” he reminds us. “Who else was here, meaning on the property, before we got here?”
“There are motion sensors for every region of the property,” I reply. “I set it up on the highest alert. Right now, if there is movement in any region an entire house alarm alerts us. If I had my phone, it would be sent to my phone.”
“Alarm or no alarm,” Luke chimes in, “if there were enough men, positioned at the right places and they all moved at once, we’d be screwed. Adam’s right. We’re in his house, Ana, on his land. No one knows this place better than him. And if he’s been living here, which is possible, who knows what kind of overrides he set-up to that security that could bite us in the ass. We need to get off this property.”
“What if the trigger for an attack is us leaving?” I ask.