Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
A cold fear runs down my spine.
“What are you doing with that thing?”
He frowns at the weapon. “I heard someone walking around my house in the middle of the night. I didn’t know it was you.” He lowers it further, aiming down at the floor. “What’s going on?”
“Kady’s missing.”
He tilts his head. “The truck?”
“It’s out front.”
“She’s nearby then.” He starts toward the door but when he gets close to me, I put a hand on his arm.
“I heard something. Or I think I did.”
He looks at me. He’s so close I can smell him, the musk of his skin, the grassy scent of his lips and hair. My heart races and I can almost feel his mouth between my legs again, teasing me wide.
“What was it?”
“Something back in the woods, like a motorcycle backfiring. I can’t be sure, but I think that’s what it was.”
“The woods aren’t deep and there’s an old farm road on the other side.” He curses softly and pulls the door open. “I’ll check it out.”
“Wait, you don’t have shoes or clothes.”
He looks down at himself and I run off to my room. I throw on a sweatshirt and shove my feet into sandals and meet him back in the hall. He’s got a shirt and running shoes on now and there’s a gleam of defiant anger in his eyes like he’s looking for an excuse to hurt someone tonight.
It scares the hell out of me.
We head out together. The night is warm and humid, a sticky Southern evening. He finds a path between bushes that’s barely more than a single rut along the ground, but it’s clear enough that we can navigate by moonlight. Every shadow seems to jump out at me, and I walk closer to him searching for some comfort in this strange and foreign place. “Kady?” I hiss into the darkness but he squeezes my wrist and shakes his head.
No noise then.
The seriousness of the situation lodges itself into my guts.
The search continues in the blackness. Movements and noises make me whimper but Nolan’s steady. I grab onto his arm, feeling childish and stupid but I can’t help myself. I’m jumping at literal shadows, but so much has happened in the last few days to teach me that evil things really do live out in the night, and I’d better be careful.
Nolan holds the gun in his other hand as he sweeps through the forest, walking lightly, looking around like he can see in the darkness through the gloom. I catch only vague shapes, trees and bushes, the scuttering sound of nighttime animals, the swoop of a bat.
We round a corner and Nolan slows down to a stop. I run up against him and hold his arm tighter as he turns to whisper in my ear. “Listen. Hear them?”
I frown slightly and tilt my head, concentrating—
And there, barely audible. Human voices talking somewhere nearby. A woman and a man. I can’t tell what they’re saying, but I think they’re having an argument in harsh whispered tones.
I stand on my toes to say in his ear, “Kady? And who else?”
He shakes his head and holds a finger to his lips then starts to creep forward. His hand slips down and laces into mine, holding tight and pulling me along.
We move at an agonizingly slow walk. I feel like I want to scream as each step crunches over leaves and sticks. He’s quiet but I feel like I’m staggering along crushing everything and making so much noise by comparison. He steps off the path and drifts into the trees as we get closer and closer to the voices, until he finally stops and crouches, gesturing ahead.
It takes a second for me to focus on them through the trees and the darkness.
Kady’s standing with her arms wrapped around herself by the side of a gravel and dirt road. In front of her is a guy in biker gear sitting on a motorcycle. They’re whispering at each other now and they don’t look happy about it. Whatever he’s saying, he seems like he’s pleading with her, and Kady keeps saying no and no and no and shakes her head.
Nolan’s lips brush against my ear. “Jaxson.”
I feel a shiver run down my spine.
He’s right—it’s Jaxson. I recognize the clothes and the bike and the hair now. I feel stuck, pinned to the spot, and I don’t know what to do. I’m terrified of what Nolan’s thinking, because this looks terrible. Kady knows what’s going on between Jaxson’s club and Nolan’s Famiglia and she knows she can’t get involved with him anymore, much less sneak out of the house to go meet him in the middle of the night without telling anyone. This is beyond shady, and mobsters do not like shady.
“Stay here.” Nolan slowly stands, gripping the gun in both hands, but I hold onto his arm.