Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
At the three-inch mark, Edge killed the pump and slid in a steel wedge. Then he reset the spreader and pumped again, until the seal gave up, and the door split wide enough for a man to slide through.
“I’ll go,” Edge said, because he lived for this shit.
I nodded, and he went in low, rolling off his shoulder, gun up, breathing silent. Then his laughter floated back out—dark, delighted, almost manic. “Oh, sweetheart. You really thought this would save you?”
I followed, then Kane slid in next, while Nitro stayed to hold the hall.
The panic room was sparse, with a low couch, and a small desk with a hardwired phone that had been turned into a paperweight fifteen seconds ago. In the far corner stood Bellatrix Creed.
She was shorter than the video made her look, which happens when power becomes fear. Her eyes were wide, her mouth tight, and in her shaking hands was a compact handgun held the stupid way people did after they saw it on TV.
“Drop it,” Kane said, voice flat.
She didn’t. Instead, she smiled, like we were finally at a meeting she chose.
“You’re late,” she said, trying to hide the waver in her voice.
Edge toyed with his knife. “Traffic,” he replied, his tone bored.
Her gaze flicked across us, then settled on my cut. I watched the realization happen in her eyes—the line from the speedway crash to the clubhouse to the woman in my bed. She knew exactly where to point her weapon. Not that it would make a difference in the outcome, but she was stupid enough to think she had the upper hand.
“Elias was an idiot to pick her as the courier. This one was reckless and ignorant. Not much value beyond spreading her legs, right? Maybe she should have used them to run faster.”
I didn’t decide to do it. It happened before I even thought about my next move. My arm was up, and the pop of the suppressor was the only noise in the room.
The bullet hit her just left of center, precisely at the notch where her heart would have been if she’d ever owned one. She blinked at me like she didn’t understand what had just happened. Then her body leaned forward, before falling to the carpet with a soft sound that barely registered.
“You don’t get to brand the woman I love as a disposable set of parts and keep breathing.”
Edge didn’t flinch, and Nitro’s chuckle floated in from the hall like a cold draft.
Kane looked at me like a man who understood that some choices were their own explanations. He tipped his chin toward the door. “They’ve got this. Let’s go home to our families.”
Family.
The first time I’d heard that word applied to my life it had felt like a joke. Tonight it felt like a clear road under the full moon, the hum of an engine tuned right, the weight of a vest I hadn’t given yet because she’d made me promise I’d come back to put it on her myself. It was freedom and a shackle I had no desire to take off at the same time.
“Finish it,” I told them as I holstered my gun. Then I turned and left it all behind.
Outside, the horizon had the first thin streaks of dawn painted across it. My bike waited patiently where I’d left her. I swung a leg over, fired up the engine, then rolled.
The trees blurred, the air pummeled, and the world narrowed to the hum of my ride and the knowledge that the woman I loved was waiting in our bed. The next time her mouth said yes, it would be when I put my vest over her shoulders and told her what I hoped she already knew. Then she’d be screaming it while I claimed every part of her, inside and out.
The road back to the clubhouse felt shorter than the one here because ahead of me, there was a life that looked nothing like the one I’d planned and everything like something a man would give his last breath protecting.
20
ASHLYNN
Curled up cross-legged on the common room couch, my new iPad was balanced against my knee while I sketched. Mason had gone all-out when he bought it for me—bigger screen, sharper resolution, and a fantastic stylus.
I’d only meant to distract myself when I sat down with it, but I’d quickly lost track of time. I was absorbed in the curve of a jawline I was perfecting when a voice broke through my concentration.
“Holy crap, you drew that?”
I jumped and twisted around, surprised to see Savannah in the common room so early in the morning. She raised a brow and I flashed her a sheepish smile. “Yup.”
“You have some serious skills.” She leaned over the back of the couch, studying the screen in awe. “And that iPad is awesome.”