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)
When we come together, every touch is tender and yet a blast of lightning, igniting my body, and my heart. We go down on the mattress, and there is no rush. There is no divide. There are no boundaries. We touch each other. We kiss each other. We savor every moment, as if it might be...the last.
Chapter Forty-One
Ana
We’re naked, lying face-to-face, and talking, when Luke’s cellphone rings from somewhere on the floor. Both of us sit up, and adrenaline zips through my veins. This is it. I know this is it. By the time Luke is standing and holding his phone, I’m reaching for my pants I put on back in Denver, with no luck. Where are my pants?!
“Closet,” Luke says. “Blake’s wife brought you clothes.” He answers the call on speaker. “Yeah, Savage?”
“Louis is downstairs in a limo, waiting on Kurt to come down. Get here now.” He disconnects.
I’m already climbing over the bed for the fast path to the closet. In ten minutes, I’m in jeans, boots, a tank, and a hoodie with a gun at my waist. We’re about to exit the apartment when Luke catches me to him and kisses me hard and fast. “This is our apartment now, not mine.”
“Yes,” I say, warmed by his insistence, and determination to make his home my home. “I want to be here, not there. I want to go back, pack up, and just come here. Like tomorrow. Or when this is over. I just want to be here.” I surprise myself with just how vehemently I say those words. I’m done with The Ranch and the FBI. I feel it in my bones.
“Tomorrow,” he agrees, setting me free.
A few minutes later, we are on the street in the SUV with Adam. “You still have the coin?” I ask.
“Dexter has it,” he replies. “We decided we didn’t want you two with it on your persons, which means it can’t be with me because I’m with you. If Louis wants it, we need a trade of sorts. Safety for the coin.”
“It’s his promise of protection,” Luke replies. “I don’t like that view.”
“Kurt knows him,” I say. “I don’t think he will want to cross him.”
“Let’s just hope Kurt isn’t working with him and fucking us over.”
It’s a brutal thought, but one we have to consider.
Adam pulls us into traffic and Luke and Adam’s cellphones buzz with a text. Luke reads his and then shows the message from Savage to me: The cellar. Lower level. And address follows.
A cellar feels way too much like a grave to suit me right now.
Chapter Forty-Two
Luke
Every part of me wants to make Ana skip this meeting, but I know my woman. She will never find peace in anything that goes right or wrong, if she’s not present. But as we pull to the back alleyway behind the cellar, as instructed, I battle my protective side with Ana. Kurt will never let her get hurt, I tell myself. I believe he loves her.
Adam parks the SUV in front of the rear door, and exits. I kiss Ana, and do the same. She follows and steps to my side. Turns out, we don’t have to go inside at all. The door opens and Kurt exits, followed by several men in black, packing obvious weapons. Another SUV pulls across the drive, blocking entry or exit, which makes me twitchy.
Kurt halts and the door behind him opens again. A tall, thin man appears, and you might as well call his suit “money” it’s so obviously expensive. I motion to Ana and we step in front of the two men.
“I am Louis,” he greets, and flashes Ana a smile. “You are right, Kurt. She is as lovely as her mother, or even more so.” He holds up a hand. “No offense.”
Ana tenses ever so slightly and I know she’s thinking what I’m thinking. Did this man have anything to do with her mother’s murder? But I dismiss that idea instantly. Kurt loved her mother. He talks about her. He softens with her name on his lips.
Louis offers me his hand. “Lucifer,” he greets. “I’ve heard much about you. I need you to fly my fleet for me, but I hear I can’t pay you enough to win you over.”
“You’ll win a favor of my choice, not yours, if this goes my way today,” I assure him.
Louis eyes Kurt. “You were right. He holds nothing back. I like him for Ana.” He winks at Ana.
“I didn’t know I had the coin,” Ana tells him. “It was on my brother’s person when he died. I thought it was just a coin. I’m sorry if this caused you distress.” She delivers this with the sweetness of a woman who would never kill a man. But she would. She’d kill him right now if she thought it necessary.