Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Khalil hands it to her and as promised, she tosses it at Thorin, who raises a hand at the last minute and catches it in midair. He then leans back with a cocky grin and takes a bite out of the apple.
“Thanks, songbird. I was starving.”
Aurelia fidgets in my lap. I can tell she wants to go to him, so I sigh and unwind my arms from around her waist. Aurelia smiles softly at me over her shoulder and then crawls from my lap and into his. Thorin grips her thigh possessively, and she rolls her eyes at him.
I don’t get those two and probably never will.
“You ever thought about cutting your hair?” she asks him after examining the unbound strands falling around his face.
“You don’t like my hair?”
“I love your hair. I’m just thinking about how much hotter Brad Pitt was with shorter hair in Mr. & Mrs. Smith after seeing him with long hair in Troy.”
“Yeah, but I’m a lot fucking hotter than Brad fucking Pitt.”
Aurelia groans and tips her head back. “Yes, of course you are, but that wasn’t the point.”
Thorin sighs and leans his head back on the couch to stare at Aurelia from under his lashes. “If you want me to cut my hair, then I’ll cut it.”
Aurelia doesn’t miss a beat, swiveling her head toward Khalil. “What about you, handsome?”
Khalil pauses, looking like a deer caught in headlights with a beer frozen halfway to his lips. Clearing his throat, he sets the bottle down. “Actually, I was thinking about loc’ing my hair. I should have done it years ago.”
Aurelia’s expression becomes thoughtful as she taps her chin. “You know, that’s such an interesting thought. Let me see…yeah, no.”
Khalil sucks his teeth while Thorin and I snicker.
“You really want them to cut their hair?” I ask, noticing she hadn’t asked me about mine. She’s already seen me both ways since Seth doesn’t do well with haircuts.
“No. But I was thinking we should probably consider disguises. By now, my uncle will have done background checks on all of you, and we shouldn’t underestimate him. You’ll all be a lot less easily recognized if you alter your appearance. Just a little.”
“What about you?”
Aurelia plucks one of her longer curls from her shoulder and studies the gold giving way to her natural brown before eyeing Khalil. “I hope you’re not too attached to calling me Goldilocks.”
“Your hair wasn’t the only reason I called you that, so changing it won’t change who you are to me.”
Aurelia leaves Thorin, who looks like he was nodding off before being jarred awake by the loss of her warmth. He scowls at Khalil when he finds Aurelia curled in his lap now and then scrubs a hand over his face as he leans forward.
“We’re still no closer to figuring out what to do about Isaac,” he reminds us.
“What about drawing him out?” I suggest. It was the plan I’d come up with months ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to go through with it because it felt too much like a betrayal. I realized it the moment Bane started uttering warnings of the cabin not being safe. He’d known what I was thinking, what I was planning to do, and was trying to warn them. When all three sets of eyes turn to me, I know I can’t take the words back, so I gather the courage to press forward. “We bring him to us.”
“And if we fail to kill him? What then?”
“If we fail, we die, so I guess we won’t have to worry.”
Khalil snatches his beer from the table and sits back as he swigs from it. “Not necessarily. We could be blowing our cover for no reason. We’ll end up on the run again.”
“Then we don’t fail.”
Thorin shakes his head, already shutting down the idea. “It’s too dangerous, Zeke.”
“More dangerous than sneaking into his compound and fighting our way out? That won’t work a second time, and you know it. It’ll be the four of us versus his thousands.”
“Zeke’s plan has merit,” Aurelia says after quietly watching us argue. Khalil and Thorin both glare at her, but she pays their scowls no mind. “But what if we find somewhere far away from here to draw him out? If he gets away, we retreat to our hidey-hole to lick our wounds in peace and then try again later.”
“But not immediately,” Khalil amends while considering her plan. “Just in case we’re tailed.”
“Didn’t Thorin mention Aruba? I could use a vacation.”
The room falls quiet as we all look to Thorin, our unspoken leader. He’s staring at the floor as he contemplates the pros and cons.
“We can’t wish him dead, Thor,” Aurelia says gently to urge him into the decision we all made minutes ago.
Thorin’s head doesn’t move, but his gaze cuts her way while his lips remain firmly shut. Thorin is no coward. He simply has too much to lose, especially now with Aurelia, the girl of our dreams right here within our grasp. We’re safe here, and there’s no reason to believe we won’t be for another ten years and another ten after that. We’re inviting chaos into our lives by choosing vengeance over peace, but a man like Marston George should not be allowed to live.