Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Mack yanked the gun out of the back of his pants and he pulled the trigger right in Bone’s face.
Bone stopped, wincing. But then he laughed when nothing happened. Shit. The waterlogged gun hadn’t fired.
Mack felt his eyes widen as he swam frantically backwards.
“Think fast.”
Then a soaking medical duffel bag hit Bone in the head from behind, throwing off his attack on Mack. Bone swung around, tossing off the blue duffel but getting tangled in the straps. Mack wasn’t about to lose the opportunity.
He grabbed Bone’s knife arm from behind, wrenching it back with enough force to— Crack. Like the sound of a wooden baseball bat smacking a ball. There went Bone’s bone.
He screamed and dropped the knife.
He still struggled when Mack grabbed and shoved his face under water but he was weak. After the blood loss and then his arm being broken, for once, he was weak and Mack was strong.
“Who’s my best little bitch whore? Bone’s breath on Mack’s ear while he raped him. “You love being my little baby boy, don’t you?”
“Go fuck yourself in hell,” Mack spat.
Bone fucked him even more mercilessly. “You’re clenching on my cock like you love it. You’re my favorite, you know that? Out of all the bitches I’ve ever had, you’re my favorite. My special little baby boy.
Mack shoved him even further beneath the water’s surface.
He’d never hurt Mack again. He’d never hurt anyone again.
“Mack. Mack!”
Mack ignored Liam shouting his name. Until Liam rammed into him from the side, forcing him to let Bone up for air.
Bone gasped as soon as his head hit the surface.
“What the fuck are you thinking?” Mack shouted, grabbing Bone and shoving him underneath again.
But Liam just shook his head, mouth agape. “You can’t just kill him like this. Listen,” he gestured at the road. “The cops are almost here.”
“We’ll say it’s self-defense.”
“You’re going to make Calla lie for you?” Liam demanded. “After everything she’s been through today. All because of you?”
Mack kept shaking his head. “You don’t know what he did.” He spoke through his teeth.
Liam’s face softened. Compassion. It took Mack aback. As did Liam’s next words. “From where you shot him, I can guess.” Liam moved closer. “He’ll never hurt anyone like that again.”
Mack looked over and saw Calla watching them, sitting up, obviously tense as she waited to see what Mack would do. Beautiful, innocent Calla, who deserved so much better than to witness anything as ugly as this.
“Do this and you might go back to jail,” Liam went on, voice pleading. “Don’t do it. Choose Calla. Choose me.”
Mack looked at Liam. His handsome, boyish features were strained with earnestness.
“Fuck,” Mack shouted, lifting a gasping and sputtering Bone back out of the water and hauling him over toward the incline where the reservoir met the road, far away from Calla. If Bone tried anything else, Mack would still be happy to bash his head in with some of the smooth stones near the base of the road.
The sirens were louder than ever, right over head. Liam swam back over to Calla and started to climb up the muddy, rocky embankment.
“Down here!” Liam yelled. “We’re down here. We need help. And bolt cutters!”
40
CALLA
Calla’s own heartbeat was galloping a million miles an hour as the doctor moved the ultrasound wand over her stomach in order to see if her baby was okay.
Wown, wown, wown, wown, wown.
A smile split the doctor’s face. “You hear that?” He held the wand steady and watched the screen. He was a tall man with more white than gray in his hair. “One hundred forty beats per minute is well within the healthy range. We can run a couple more tests to double check, but you haven’t had any spotting and I see no reason to think there’s anything wrong with your pregnancy.”
“But I passed out when I fell off Painter. My horse,” Calla clarified.
“You said you felt like you had the wind knocked out of you when you came to in the ambulance, right?”
Calla nodded.
“Did you have much to eat this morning?”
Calla shook her head and looked down at her lap. “No. I mean, I had half a bagel, but that was it.” More like a fourth of a bagel if she was being honest. Mack had urged her to eat more but she’d felt nauseous. Morning sickness still hit some days. She claimed it was nerves because of the competition. God, that seemed like it was a million years ago now.
After the police had gotten her free of the cuffs attaching her to that horrible coffin of a gurney, another ambulance brought her to the hospital. She’d about hyperventilated when they put her in the back of it. Liam and Mack hadn’t been able to come either because the police were still questioning them.
“Well,” the doctor said, running his pen-light over her pupils again, “barring the results of your blood test, I’d venture to say that it was just a combination of low blood sugar and the shock of the fall that had you briefly passing out. And after the stress of everything that happened to you today,” he patted her shoulder, “I suggest focusing on rest and nutrition for the next few days. But like I said, I don’t see any reason you shouldn’t continue with a healthy pregnancy.”