Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Tessa picked up the gun Luis had dropped when she’d taken out both his lungs.
Damn. He was going to remember not to piss off his baby.
“I am not messy.” Tessa turned on Marta. “You are bossy as hell, and you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re a cook. Leave taking out the trash to the professionals.” She turned his way, and a brilliant smile crossed her face. “Hey, Professor. You okay?”
He crossed the space between them, careful to not step in all that blood. Marta was right about the mess, but he wasn’t saying a thing. Not about that. He did have a few things to say to Tessa. “I love you.”
She went still, and for a moment he thought he was about to get the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech. He would take it and be patient with her. He wouldn’t get angry because she needed some time.
“I love you, too, Hawthorne,” she said quietly and took the last step so she was in his arms. She went on her toes and kissed him, and he felt like the whole world was finally right again. Not merely because he was safe from the ones who’d attacked them. Because he’d found the one woman who could make him open up again. Now he could see how much losing his father had made him close off from the world, to try to avoid that pain.
No more. The pain was the cost of the love, and he would accept it.
He kissed her, relief flooding through him because this time was forever.
The thud thud of a helicopter forced him to break the kiss.
Tessa’s eyes went wide, and she moved in front of him, her whole body on alert. “That’s a chopper.”
“I thought it was going to go over the jungle.” Eddie had gone pale. “Do you think Luis lied?”
“Why would he?” David asked, his mind wrapping around the possibilities. Tessa needed to know everything he did. “Luis told us someone hired a chopper to come out to the island. He told us he’d gotten the information right before you…well…”
“Before I killed his ass and all of his criminal-minded friends?” she asked.
She had a way with words. “Yes, before you killed his ass along with the rest of his body, he was worried about some guy named Rose who hired a chopper to fly over the jungle.”
“Rose?” Tessa looked up at him.
“Yeah, some guy named A. Rose chartered a helicopter to tour the island.” She needed to know everything he’d learned.
“Axl Rose?”
“I don’t think Guns N’ Roses is coming to this island. Also, is he still alive?” David asked.
“Your uncle is. You really need to get to know the man.” She took off, jogging for the hall. “And he’s late.”
He followed her.
Eddie was hard on his heels. “What happens to my son?”
“I already called the police, Mr. Montez.” Marta had her hands on her hips, shaking her head at the bodies they passed. “The idiots talk a lot around me. They give away everything because they think they can handle me. I found out where they were keeping the child and your woman. And she is your woman. According to what I heard, she had nothing to do with this plot.”
“You get a raise, Marta. You get everything,” Eddie said with a huge smile.
“I’ll just keep my job, which might I point out doesn’t include cleaning up bodies,” Marta said as they walked past. “The dining room is terrible. She got blood all over the tablecloth.”
David hustled to keep up with Tessa. There was something odd about the cook, but he didn’t want to think about it now. All that mattered was Tessa and getting her off this island and back home.
The doors that led out to the courtyard had been thrown open, and he could feel the wind blasting from the chopper as a massive man in all black came down a rope, hit the ground, and immediately went into a defensive stance, a gun in his hand.
Was that Ian?
The big guy moved toward them as another muscular body dropped from the chopper.
Was that his stepdad? Where had they come from?
Ian moved forward, his gun coming down. “Hey, you okay?”
What the hell was Ian doing here?
Sean didn’t wait. Sean simply ran up and put his hands on David’s shoulders, looking him over like he was checking for injuries. “Are you hurt? Where are the fuckers who kidnapped you?”
“I told you I could land on one foot!” Someone was yelling.
Kyle was standing on the ground as the chopper took off again. His brother was in the yard, a big gun strapped to his chest and a medical boot on his left foot.
“Your brother is an idiot, and I’m thinking of killing him myself. He managed to get on the plane. It was going to take us longer to get him off than to take him along.” Sean was dressed for war, and David had to admit it looked good on his stepdad. “We thought you were being held at gunpoint. Was our intel wrong?”