Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I spun, jabbing out an elbow blindly but catching him in the chest. Rage suffused his expression, and I could barely hear over the blood rushing in my ears as he came at me.
Before he could grab my arms, I raked my nails down his face and he stumbled back, cursing. “You fucking bitch,” he hissed, his gaze searing as he whipped a penknife out of his back pocket and brandished it. “You’re nothing. Nothing to him. A nobody. I’ll teach you that you’re nothing.”
Nothing.
Nothing.
A word my mum had used to describe me.
How fucking dare he? This sick, twisted fuck of a stranger.
Fury unlike anything I’d ever felt surged through me, like a live flame burning through my blood, propelling my body forward. I charged him like a wild thing, grasping the wrist of his knife hand as I shoved with every ounce of adrenaline coursing within. It took him so by surprise, Quinn moved with the force until I slammed him into the opposite brick wall.
His head connected with a sickening thud and the knife clattered to the ground.
I lunged for it, but a weight crashed down on me, Quinn’s breath puffing against my nape as my chest hit the ground. Struggling to breathe as my panic surged, I grappled for the knife on the wet, cold ground and then smashed my elbow back into his face. He jerked back just long enough for me to turn and slash out at him, but he dodged the blade and then grabbed my wrist.
We wrestled for the knife as his weight forced me onto my back. I knew if he got the weapon, it was over.
I screeched in pain and rage as he squeezed the bones in my wrist until I thought they might break. My fingers involuntarily let go of the knife and he grabbed it.
No!
I couldn’t see his expression in this light, but I could sense his dark triumph. Tears of fury and fear sprung to my eyes. It couldn’t end like this. Not just for me but for Theo.
If it ended like this, it would end him.
I screamed with renewed determination as I snagged at his wrist, trying to fight for the blade.
Thirty-Six
THEO
My phone rang just as the cab pulled up to the Lute. I answered it as I shoved twice as much cash at the cabbie than was required.
“Someone spotted Quinn Gray in Covent Garden two hours ago. We’re on our way to that bar,” Rick announced without preamble.
Fuck.
“I’m already here.”
“If you see him, do not engage.”
“If he’s anywhere near Sarah, you’ll be lucky if you don’t take him out of here in a body bag.” I hung up, charging into the crowded bar, searching for a familiar dark blond head.
I spotted Liz by herself at a bistro table near the back.
“Fucking move,” I muttered belligerently under my breath as I tried to get through the crowds.
“Hey, watch it!”
“Rude, bro, rude!”
I ignored them until I’d woven my way out of the crush and around the tables.
Liz spotted me, her dark eyes widening as I approached. I didn’t like to think how I looked, but whatever my expression was, she stood up. “Theo, is everything all right?”
“Where is Sarah?” I practically yelled.
She blinked in surprise. “She went to the restroom about five minutes ago. I was just about to go in search of her, actually.”
“Oh, fuck.” Nausea rose with my fear as I pushed past Liz and shoved like a bulldozer through the crowds around the bar. As soon as I was free, I ran down the hallway. The ladies’ restroom was out of order. I pushed inside, kicking at the door stalls.
Nothing.
I checked in the men’s, but there were just two guys pissing.
Heart racing, I zeroed in on the door at the end of the hallway.
I ran, realizing on approach it was the exit door to the alley. Then I swore I heard a scream.
“Sarah!” I shoved outside.
Light spilled across the alley only so far and on the edges of the shadows, I saw two figures. A man astride a woman, his arms raised above her as she wriggled and fought beneath him.
Just a hint of light glinted in the darkness.
Off a knife.
Her hair spilled across the ground in dark blond strands and the light caught on a blue shirt. The blue shirt Sarah was wearing.
I processed all of this in two seconds, leaving me just enough time to run like my world depended on it.
Toward him.
Toward Gray.
And the knife he was about to bring down on my fucking reason to exist.
I roared with rage at the thought of what he’d done to Sarah before I’d gotten here and I tackled him off her.
Pain sliced into my side as I wrestled Gray to the ground. The knife in his hand was now covered in blood, and the agony scoring up my side told me it was mine. Fighting through the burn, I grabbed his wrist and slammed it down on the ground over and over until he released the knife. We grappled and wrestled as sirens filled the air. And then I pounded my fist into his face over and over.