Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“Stubborn ass,” he muttered. “They’re already gone. Thatcher, Gage, Huck, and Storm are going in with Blaise. Wells and Sebastian, along with three of the Ocala guys that came with Huck. Ten of the Mississippi boys and five from the Alabama branch are with them. It’s an army. Led by lethal weapons. She’s going to be brought back safely. You can’t go in there like you are. It will be a hinderance.”
“She needs me!” I argued, knowing he was right. I didn’t need to be in the fucking way, but I’d be damned if she came out of there, thinking I didn’t give a shit. No one else was going to hold her.
“Put it on speaker,” he said.
I pressed the button. “It’s on speaker.”
“Wilder,” Stellan said.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll send you the location on the burner phone. Take him there the moment I send the go-ahead. I’ll make sure she is brought out to him directly. That’s the best I can do, King. Anything else, and someone will be killed.”
My jaw was clenched too tightly to respond. I just nodded my head once. Rage rolled inside of me because I knew I couldn’t go in there and find her. That the first face she saw wasn’t going to be mine. I fucking hated it!
“Got it. But, Stellan,” he said, glancing at me, “he’s on edge. Not gonna be able to hold him back long.”
“I know. It won’t take long now. Not with Blaise there. He’ll kill everything that moves and not pause as he does it.”
“Yeah, I know,” Wilder replied, then ended the call.
“When the location comes in, go directly there. We aren’t waiting,” I told him.
“I never thought we were,” he replied.
I stared straight ahead, trying to work through the throbbing in my head and the monster demanding I go and get what belonged to me.
• Twenty-Seven •
Fuck, I guess he gets to live.
Rumor
I had taken the fork that had been brought with my meal and slid it underneath the blanket before putting my napkin haphazardly over my plate after I finished. When the maid came to take my plate, she didn’t even notice the missing utensil. Sitting on the bed, I kept my hand wrapped around it, reminding myself I had something, that I wouldn’t be helpless.
I considered hiding it and going in search of something more, maybe a knife, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve just yet. The thought that I might do something that would make Falcon start beating me sooner kept me here.
There was a strange sound in the hallway, and I tensed. Had they realized I’d kept the fork? A loud thud startled me, and I shot up from the bed where I was sitting with the fork gripped tightly in my right hand. I started to run to the bathroom when the bedroom door swung open, and a man came stalking in with a bloody knife in his hand. I froze, staring at him in horror. There were two red sprays over his shirt that could only be blood.
“Rumor?” he asked with a cocked brow.
I glanced at the bathroom door again, knowing I couldn’t get there in time. So, I held up my fork, which was ridiculous, considering he had a terrifying knife that he’d used recently on someone’s vital arteries, if I had to guess.
The man’s face was misleading. If he’d walked in here without being covered in blood and a knife, I’d have thought he’d come from a photo shoot. He didn’t look like a man who sliced people open, but then what did I know?
His smirk as he looked at the fork in my hand didn’t surprise me. It was rather pathetic.
“A fighter. That’s good,” he drawled. “If it makes you feel better, keep your fork, but I’ll handle anyone who comes at us, yeah?” He nodded his head toward the door. “You ready to blow this joint?”
I lowered my hand. “Who are you?” I asked, afraid to be hopeful.
“The calvary. Let’s go,” he said, then turned and headed for the door.
I glanced back at the room and decided I was going with the crazy knife man. When I got to the door, there was a man lying on the ground with a slit in his neck and lifeless eyes staring at nothing as blood pooled on the floor around him.
I lifted my horrified gaze to the man who was responsible for it, and he grinned, then winked at me. Was this man insane? Perhaps I was making a mistake. He started down the hallway, and I jumped over the blood and hurried after him. Insane or not, he was clearly getting me out of here. I’d worry about who he was and why he was here to get me once I got out.
When we reached the stairs, there were two more dead men, and one was missing eyeballs. I covered my mouth to silence the scream I couldn’t stop.