Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“Yeah, baby?”
“You—you can’t do that now. We’re not on the island anymore, honey.”
He looks at me in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You can’t just… just go and kill him,” I say. “It’s… well, it’s too dangerous. We’ll have to use the contacts I know to get him arrested, yes, but killing him yourself puts you in danger.”
His jaw clenches in a move I know well.
“He sent you to that island,” he says. “Not knowing which of the goddamn savages he had on there would get to you first. The one who’d rape you? The one who’d murder you?”
I reach for him, pulling him closer, weaving my fingers through his and hoping to placate him with truth. “But you did,” I remind him. “And you love me.” I lift my eyes to his questioningly. “Don’t you?”
He breathes out then in again, holding me so close it’s painful. One hand on my lower back, the other at the base of my neck, it’s as if he can’t bear to have space or air between us. “You know I do, baby,” he says. “You know it. But he robbed you of your freedom. He put you in the most dangerous position possible. And even after all that, he tore you from me. For what?”
“We don’t know that he did any of that,” I remind him. It isn’t lost on me that he doesn’t mention any of the crimes that were committed against him. He only cares about me.
He nods, kissing the top of my head before releasing me. “Then let’s go find out, Harper.”
I nod. “But promise me you won’t murder the bastard. The last thing I need is to be reunited with you, only to have your stubborn ass sent to jail!”
He grumbles but his eyes are twinkling. “Fine,” he says, “But I will not promise I’m not going to hurt him.”
“Well, yeah. So let’s go over this again.”
“We get into his office and barricade ourselves in with him,” he says. “And we get answers. You have your phone to record him?”
I roll my eyes. “No, I left it in the hotel room, back with my brain.”
“That’s it,” he says with mock severity. “After all this is done, you are so getting a spanking.”
I bite my lip but don’t reply. Once this is over, and we’re alone again, he can do whatever he wants with me.
I hope he does.
“And what if we’re ambushed?” I ask.
“You let me handle that,” he says. I nod. He’s the one more experienced with a weapon.
“And after we have our answers, we call in the back-up I brought with me,” I tell him. “Deal?”
He nods. “Absolutely. Deal.”
I didn’t call the police, but I have a whole camera crew in place. This is one hell of a story they’re not going to want to miss, but more than that, it’s security. Nation-wide, live coverage of this story should ensure our safety even more than police protection would.
“God, it’s stupid to be ambushing this place like this without real back-up,” he says, and I know he’s wishing for a horde of heavily armed military brothers behind him. More weapons, even. But there’s no one who’s got his back like I do. Fucking no one. And we don’t have time anyway.
“Cy Kaufman,” I tell him, holding his gaze with mine. “We overcame so much on that island. We could’ve died, both of us, ten times over. We survived. We made it this far. Do you think a crazy old man is going to be the one thing that does us in?”
My words are only to encourage him, though. I don’t feel anywhere near as confident as I sound. We’re about to face a man who destroyed lives from behind a fucking desk. People are dead because of him. He’s powerful and dangerous, and it’s foolish to think otherwise.
Cy gives me a sidelong glance. “No, baby,” he finally says. “Let’s do this.” He tugs at the door, but it’s locked. Without a backward glance, he manipulates the door, and in seconds, the door swings free.
I give him an appreciative look. “Not sure if I should be impressed or scared at how quickly you did that,” I murmur, but he’s already tugging me inside the building. We go up one flight of stairs, and large glass windows look out into the hallways.
This building is nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before: hugely tall, with enormous panes of windows and ornate carpets. High-end, secure business takes place in a building like this. Anger surges in me like hot lava when I think about it. I want answers, and I want them now.
“Swanky fucking business goes on in here,” Cy mutters, and I know he’s feeling what I do.
When we hit the second floor, we hear the sound of heavy footsteps approaching us. We quickly duck into a doorway seconds before uniformed guards run past us. Fuck. There’s at least a dozen. Someone alerted them to us being here.