Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Santiago exchanged a long look with Carlos, the man in the red shirt. Yeah, Taviano was right, they’d come there to bring Iker in line. He wasn’t going to get in line. He was angry that Benito’s brother, Tonio, had come in from New York and taken over the chapter a couple of years earlier.
Iker broke off to swear at them, a long string of expletives, but neither reacted, although Taviano suspected both wanted to take out their guns and empty them into the man. There were six other men in the warehouse including Jorge. Those men had to be Iker’s. Taviano didn’t blame the two Demons from New York for not carrying out their orders right that moment. They would have been gunned down in a bloodbath had they killed the LA vice president.
Taviano had a lot to work with though. He couldn’t have Clariss know he had been at the warehouse—or that Nicoletta had. She had to be rescued, but not by them. Iker had to die and so did the other members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Demons, but again, not where she knew who killed them.
He assessed the situation in a matter of a minute, and in that minute, his body was catching up. Nicoletta’s was finally doing the same. He had chosen a shadow far from the others in the warehouse, and they were in the mouth of it, where the others couldn’t see or hear—and it was a good thing, because Nicoletta went to her knees, and this time she was vomiting a mixture of bile and blood. Not much blood, thankfully, but there was some pink mixed in.
CHAPTER FOUR
No matter how sick she was, Nicoletta still seemed aware they were in danger. Taviano could tell she was making every effort to muffle the sounds of first the horrendous vomiting, then the dry heaves, followed by gagging. She tried to lift her head a couple of times, but clearly, pain crashed through her skull and neck, and she grabbed both sides of her face and held on.
“You have to breathe, Nicoletta. Take in air. You don’t yet know how to breathe in the shadows properly.” He should have thought of that. So many things to teach her. He was so wrong for allowing this. Now they were in the situation and he couldn’t get them out of it. They couldn’t be seen anywhere near the warehouse. No car could be brought near it. Was their safety worth risking her life?
“I’m sorry, piccola, I shouldn’t have taken you with me. You aren’t trained. Your body isn’t conditioned for this kind of travel yet.” He swept back her hair and did his best to try to massage her neck and shoulders to ease the cramping.
“Not you, Taviano,” she denied, her voice stuttering a little. “Not your fault.”
He didn’t want her to talk. It was obviously too much of an effort. He sank onto the floor and pulled her onto his lap, away from the corner where she’d gotten sick. They were in the darkest part of the room, but where Iker had deliberately placed overhead lights that could swing and cast macabre shadows that would add to the sinister atmosphere and strike fear into enemies.
Those shadows were everywhere, allowing Taviano full access to almost anywhere in the warehouse. He needed to start a gun battle and allow the Demon members from the two chapters to take one another out. In order to do that, Clariss had to be protected. His mind worked to solve that piece of the puzzle even as he rocked Nicoletta gently back and forth, breathing deeply, willing her to follow the rhythm he was setting for her.
She kept her head down and her fingers pressed to her face. With her hair falling around her, he couldn’t see her expression.
“Are you bleeding?”
She hesitated as if she might attempt to deceive him, but then remembered his warning. “A little. My nose. I think my left ear. My head feels like it was in a vise. Is that normal?”
“It happens. Usually at first, or when we’re in a fast tube, like a feeder tube. Your body isn’t conditioned to this type of travel. I shouldn’t have allowed it without bringing you into it slowly and letting you get used to it. I was being selfish, Nicoletta.”
“That’s not true.” She started to shake her head and stopped immediately. “You wanted me on the plane. I pretty much begged to stay with you. Don’t make this your fault. This was our decision. I wanted to be with Clariss if she needed me. Did you see her? Is she all right? Did they hurt her?”
“It doesn’t look as if they raped her.”
“Thank God.”
“I need to know if you’re all right, Nicoletta.”
“It’s a headache. I’ve had them before.”