Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Wolf leaned back, his expression shifting. “Respect, Burkhardt. Your proverbial balls are in a vise, and you try to make demands.”
I smirked—forcing confidence I didn’t feel. “My balls aren’t in a vise. You play at being the king, but the actual king is on my side. He already forced you to put yourself at risk, facing me in person.”
His lips twitched almost too fast for me to catch his displeasure.
“If you want that laptop, you’ll do more than turn Everleigh down. You’ll help me put that crazy bitch in the ground. And, oh yeah, you’ll undo whatever you fucking did to frame my boyfriends as terrorists!” I shoved him. “I lose them and the only thing you’ll get is the honor of being next after Everleigh.”
“Uhhh, rude. No need to get physical,” he said, making a show of dusting his shirt off. “How many times do I have to tell you there’s nothing I can do for your boyfriends? Even without my nudge in the right direction, the cops found those weapons in their place. What exactly do you think I can do to make them forget that? I erase hard drives, not minds.”
“There has to be something—”
“Even if I could, I wouldn’t,” he replied, “because this is not a negotiation. Everleigh’s plan gets me what I want too. I’m the one with choices, Burkhardt, while you have one. Get me the laptop, your father lives, and I don’t touch Victor Wilson.” He brushed past me. “You should be thanking me. I’m leaving you with the richest of your boy toys. Quite generous of me.”
“But you can’t—”
“You have until midnight tomorrow night to get me what I want,” he said. “Or I give Everleigh what she wants.”
Wolf blew out the door, leaving me stock-still and speechless.
What just happened? What am I going to do?
“YOU DON’T THINK HE’LL do it, do you?”
I held Wilder tighter. After Wolfgang, I sped all the way from campus to the beach house—half expecting Wolf’s horrible prediction had come true. My guys were on their way to a cell.
I arrived and found them in the living room, all present and accounted for.
“He’ll do it, Luna.”
Wilder traced slow, lazy circles on my arm. Together we swayed in the hammock, warm under a thick fleece blanket. His touch, the ocean breeze, our warm spot for two—all of it was doing too good a job of calming my nerves. Then, more than ever, was a good time to freak out.
“Wolf doesn’t lie. Our mother was brutal when she caught us in a lie. She’d say if we were man enough to do something, we were man enough to own it.” Wilder gazed up at the awning, tone soft. “Wolf’s done everything he’s said he’s done, and he’ll do everything he promised he’ll do. Give him the laptop and he’ll spare you, Victor, and your father.”
“But what about you?” I shot up, and he eased me back down—tucking me snug against his side. I shut my eyes, breathing him in. “What about you? You can’t seriously think I’ll ride off into the sunset with Victor and forget about my Rogues. I will break you out of prison if that’s what I have to do. You’re stuck with me.”
He chuckled. “I like being stuck with you. I like the future you see for us, Luna, and I hate that I fucked it up. The guys thought it was too risky to keep my arsenal down the hall, but after Levi tried to set us on fire, I wasn’t taking chances again. Levi left us the choice of burning to death or running out to get our faces beaten in by him and his boys.
“I figured if the Royals were determined to take us out, we’d go down fighting.”
“I know why you had that stuff, Wilder. I don’t blame you.” I slipped my hand under his shirt. “I also know that you never planned to use any of it except for self-defense. Wolfgang said he was going to make it out like you guys were terrorists. We can’t let that happen. We have to do something.”
Wilder tipped my chin, lightly kissing my nose. “I’ll do whatever it takes to stay with you, Luna. But what will you do? Will you give him the laptop?”
I hesitated. “What will happen to the Rogues if Wolfgang is in charge?”
“He’ll modernize. Make them more efficient, deadlier, and hide their identities under so many layers of protection they’ll forget they’re Rogues themselves. Once he’s turned them into an anonymous army, he’ll use them to collect all the money, land, and women he wants. And he’ll kill anyone who stands in his way.”
“Wow,” I breathed, working my way up and over his hard bumps and ridges. “He is Everleigh’s soul mate.”
“There isn’t trust, but there is respect between the Rogues. Those who can will drop everything and help a Rogue in need when their flag goes up. It’s so serious they harshly punish anyone who raises a false flag. When you truly need one, a Rogue is there.”