Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Someone needs to turn on the fucking lights.
Weight falls on top of me and I can’t breathe. Pain shoots up my side and I scream so loud my throat burns.
“Laikyn.” I hear a familiar voice yell out my name, but I can’t make out who it is. A second later, the weight is gone, and I manage to get to my feet.
I stumble over to the bar that now looks to be deserted. They’ve either joined the fight, or they were forced to leave. Beau looks up at me. “Lake, you, okay?”
“Yeah…” My eyes flutter shut; my hands fumble to grab a hold of anything to hold myself up.
“Laikyn?” He jumps over the bar, knocking drinks and shot glasses off. Some shatter at my feet. “Fuck … Lake.” His eyes go to my side. “Colton? Alex?” He shouts over my shoulder.
I blink again, trying to stop the room from swaying. Feels like something heavy is sitting on my chest. “I-I can’t. I can’t … breathe.”
Arms grab me from behind and I don’t have the energy to fight them this time. But I realize it’s Colton when he picks me up in his arms. “Call Tyson. Tell him to meet us downstairs.”
FORTY
TYSON
I’m sitting in my office talking to Ryat on my cell when my office phone rings. “I’ll call you back,” I tell him, and answer the other call on speakerphone.
“Fight broke out,” Beau rushes out and I sit up straighter, grabbing the remote and turning the cameras on. I’ve had the old surveillance on of the girl the night she was here while talking to Ryat. “Get to the basement. Laikyn is hurt. Colton—”
I hang up and am already running out of my office. I take the stairs all the way to the first floor and storm down to the basement. “What the fuck happened?” I demand as I enter.
“A fight broke out,” Colton answers, laying Lake down on the metal slab we use as a table. “She’s been stabbed.”
I look over the knife that is still in her right side.
“Fuck,” Alex hisses, entering as well.
“Call Gavin,” I order to Colton, then turn to grab a hold of Alex. I slam his back into the wall, getting in his face. “Go back upstairs. Close the club down. Every door locked. Have the employees shuffle those who weren’t involved out the back door one at a time. But every motherfucker that was involved in the fight stays. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir.” He nods quickly.
“Go.” I shove him toward the door, and he runs out, closing it behind him.
“Gavin is on his way,” Colt states, pocketing his cell.
“Ty-son.” Comes her small voice.
I rush over to the table where Lake lays. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”
Her shaky hands go to her side and her watery eyes widen when she sees the knife. She grabs a hold of the handle.
“No!” Colton and I both shout. I wrap my fingers around her wrist and force her to let go. I shove them above her head and Colt takes over, pinning them to my surface.
She arches her back and starts to cry.
“Hey.” I grip her face with my now bloody hands. “Look at me, Lake.”
Her watery eyes find mine. “We can’t remove it. Not yet.” Too risky. She can bleed out and I won’t let that happen. I reach up and rip the thin material of her leotard, down the center, gently removing it around the knife. Then I yank off my own shirt and wrap it around the knife, trying to apply pressure the best I can without pushing it in deeper.
She arches her back, mouth opening wide, and screams. It makes my chest tighten, listening to her. “I know, Lake. I know.”
“Ple-ase.” She begins to sob while Colt continues to pin her arms down to the table above her head. “Pull it out,” she cries, and starts to kick her legs, making me wiggle the knife which just makes her scream again.
“Goddammit,” I hiss. “Lake, you have to—”
“Take it out. Take it out,” she sobs.
“She’s making it worse.” Colton growls the obvious.
Letting go of it for just a second, I jump up onto the table and sit on her thighs, pinning them down underneath me. And my hands grip her upper arms, holding them down. “In the safe.” I nod to it back in the corner.
Colton lets go of her wrists and runs over to it. I tell him the code and he opens it. “Black box. Bottom shelf.”
He yanks it out and pops it open, immediately understanding what I’m saying. Pulling the syringe out, he holds up the vile of clear liquid and fills the syringe.
She catches sight of what he’s doing, and her wide eyes meet mine. “No, Tyson. Please.” Her body thrashes on the table. “You promised me,” she cries. “You promised you wouldn’t drug me.”