Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
We’d stayed there for what felt like hours but ended up being twenty minutes as we waited for the threat of a tornado to pass us by.
That’s when I learned I could go this way.
“Where are we?” the man asked as we made it inside.
I stood up and started walking, feeling a weird tingling in my foot.
“Acoustic room, I think they call it,” I said. “We need to get more people in here.”
“Everyone in that room is hurt,” he said. “The only people left standing are gangs.”
My stomach sank.
If Costas’s people were involved with this…
“How do you know?” I whispered.
“I heard them talking,” he said. “When we came in and paid. They were buying food. But I really like this movie, so I decided to come anyway. So fuckin’ stupid.”
I looked at the man who wasn’t really a man.
He was more of a kid.
The weird stage between full adult and still teen.
“It’s not like you knew a different gang was going to show and start firing off shots in the middle of a movie theater,” I said as I tried the door that would lead us to the exit.
Locked.
“Goddammit,” I grumbled darkly, looking back at the door we’d entered through.
“The equipment,” my companion said. “Let’s…”
More shots, and then the kid/man went down.
I cursed and pulled him out of the way of the huge rolling speaker, then moved the speaker into the spot between the door and the shelf.
I locked the wheels, then hurried back to the man, placing my hand on the seeping wound in his left shoulder. “We’ll get out of here.”
The kid looked terrified. “I just wanted to escape.”
I knew the feeling. “Same.”
“I want to call my mom,” he whispered. “We had a fight.”
I helped him pull his phone out of his pocket, then supported him as he propped himself up against the far wall.
Then I followed suit.
I desperately dialed the number that I knew by heart.
It rang and it rang and it rang.
He didn’t answer.
Not that I expected him to after I’d been ignoring his phone calls all day.
Then, remembering that I’d gotten a call from his house earlier, I’d desperately hit redial on that and waited.
It didn’t take long for the phone to be answered.
However, who I expected to answer the phone wasn’t who answered it.
“Hello?”
“Quinn,” I whispered, unable to get my voice to go any higher. “I need Quinn.”
“Sorry, you have the wrong number,” Elliette quipped before hanging up the phone.
A loud bang sounded beside my ear, and I felt warm wetness start to seep into my pants around my waist.
I called back, but the phone immediately was sent to voicemail.
I closed my eyes, then started whispering into the phone, trying to keep myself calm by telling him about the sweatshirt I was wearing, reminding him of the time he hurt me.
Quinn did, eventually, show.
But by then, I’d lost any and all hope I had left that this relationship would ever be able to be rekindled.
You just couldn’t fix something so broken. Not if the universe was convinced you should stay apart.
If you inch up at that red light, no matter what car I’m in, you just locked in a race.
—Quinn to Quaid
QUINN
“Who was that?” I growled.
“Wrong number,” Elliette hung the phone up.
I frowned. “You didn’t even answer it,” I pointed out. “And why are you answering my phone anyway?”
She shrugged. “Habit I guess. I hear a phone ring, I answer it.”
I held out my hand for the cordless phone, then put it back on the charger next to the back door.
“Why are you here now?” I wondered. “I have to leave for work in…
My phone vibrated on the counter, drawing my attention.
I frowned at it.
“That’s weird,” I said as I walked to it. “Why is it on silent?”
I never, ever had it on silent.
When you were on call like I was, twenty-four-seven, you didn’t have the luxury of turning your phone to silent.
I answered the phone, frowning when I saw a notification for seven missed calls on top of that.
My heart utterly leapt inside my chest, but I ignored the stupid organ and answered.
“What’s up, Boseman?” I said into the phone, leaning my hips against the counter.
There was a long stretch of silence as I heard voices urgently telling someone to do something, and my back went ramrod straight.
“Uh,” he hesitated. “There’s a gang shooting going on at the old movie theater down by the interstate. I have reports that there are mass casualties. Ten different shooters. And I also have a bird’s eye view of the theater. Owner put up cameras. I’m looking at what I think is your girl lying on the ground in the acoustics room.”
I stiffened impossibly further, then turned my gaze toward Elliette.
She had the fuckin’ nerve to look bashful. “I’ll be there in five.”
Elliette held her hand up to stop me, but I brushed past it as I all but ran to my bedroom to grab my gun and shoes.