Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
“I don’t know.”
Apex tried to look around, but the blanket’s dark folds turned everything into a stage set that had yet to be revealed.
A familiar female voice now: “Unlock the doors.”
“Why is Rio here?” Apex demanded. “Are you fucking nuts? The guards are coming. We were followed—”
“Of course you were,” Lucan’s shellan muttered. “That’s why we’ve gotta stop talking and move fast.”
It had been a long time since anyone had essentially told him to shut up. Like maybe, ever.
“Take Kane out from up above,” he said. “He’s not going to make it if you try to get him out of the front.”
Conversation now on the periphery, quick and intense, between the wolven and his female. And then there was a rocking—Lucan climbing up onto the side panels as Rio started to rip out what was left of the safety glass from the windshield frame. After that, another round of f-bombs, which Apex didn’t need translated to guess the problem: The rear door was jammed.
“Toss me the tire iron,” the wolven said to his female.
Another smash, and this time there was a raining of small fragments.
Now Lucan’s voice right above: “Okay, Kane. This is going to get rough. I’m sorry—Apex, I’ve got him. Can you release the seat belt?”
“Yeah.” Fighting through the loose limbs and folds of wool, Apex found the belt’s anchor. “You ready?”
“Yup.”
The resulting groan of pain was hard to hear, and then the load on top of Apex eased in increments while the other prisoner started to be pulled off of him. As the blanket went along for the ride, Apex could finally get a good look at—
“Oh… shit,” he breathed. “Mayhem.”
As Rio squeezed herself into the cockpit, the prisoner didn’t acknowledge her—given all the blood running down his face, he had to be either dead or unconscious.
“Apex, release this belt for me, too?”
Shoving his hand forward, he did the duty, and then refocused and tried to help with the Kane evac. The moaning was goddamn awful to hear, but at least it meant there was still life. Although at this rate, the extraction was going to finish the fucking job—
Everything stopped as Kane screamed.
“The blanket’s caught,” Lucan said. “Shit.”
Apex’s one and only impulse was to shove as hard as he could, but where was that going to get them other than skinning Kane alive. Either he lost what was left on his bones when the wool wrap came off, or the window with its busted rim of glass did the duty.
See, this was why it was better not to get involved with other people.
Their suffering became your own.
* * *
Up on top of the tipped-over SUV, Lucan tried to be gentle with Kane, he really did. But there were limits when you were attempting to drag the dead weight of a male through an opening barely big enough for the size of the guy’s shoulders. Plus even emaciated, Kane was over a hundred pounds, and with his body so weak, he was slippery as hell to grip.
And then there was that fucking blanket.
“We’re out of time,” Apex said from down below. “We’ve gotta get him out.”
This was correct, of course.
As one of Lucan’s boots slipped out from under him, he slammed down on the side panel, and lost the ground he’d gained.
“Hang on, buddy,” Lucan gritted as he reestablished his foot position. “Just a little farther—on three.”
“Got it,” Apex called up.
“One… two… three—”
All at once, the prisoner broke free, and with the abrupt release, it was all Lucan could do to keep from losing his balance and taking them both down to the ground. As he steadied himself, he laid the guy out along the flank of the car, and the way that head fell back was truly alarming. Alarming, too, was the blood on the mouth, the bruises on the face. And all those raw wounds that glistened and wept.
Lucan pulled open what was left of one of the eyelids. The whites were showing and nothing else. “Shit—”
Apex leaped out of the broken window like his boots were spring-loaded, the momentum so great that he not only cleared the vehicle, but pulled off a somersault in the air. Landing hard, it was no surprise that he went immediately to Kane, even though he himself had a head wound that was bleeding.
“Is he breathing?”
The question was spoken roughly, and the answer was what it was: Anyone could see that the bare chest was going up and down. But Apex clearly cared so much that he didn’t trust his own eyes.
“For the moment,” Lucan hedged as he leaned out to the side.
At the front of the SUV, Rio had pulled Mayhem out of the driver’s seat and laid him flat on the scruffy weeds. Face up to the sky, the male was moving in an uncoordinated way, arms circling weakly, legs up-and-down’ing, like he was drunk and trying to run.