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)
Sobs rack my body because I know it’s a pipe dream. I’m already imagining the look in his eyes when he wakes up and finds me gone. I can feel his hurt and confusion and the hate that will inevitably come since I promised, I swore I’d never leave.
And to them, I know it will look like I’m choosing vengeance over being here for them when all I can think about is how long before my uncle tries again. How much will he take from me this time until he’s stopped? I’m constantly watching the doctors and nurses like a hawk, wondering which of them has been paid off, which of them will finish the job. We’ve never been more vulnerable than we are right now. My uncle is a calculating man. He knew there was a possibility Isaac wouldn’t succeed. How long before he tries again? Not long. I know that. This paranoia festering inside of me is whispering that my men will never be safe as long as I’m here. Even if I fail, Uncle Mars will have no reason to come after Khalil, Thorin, and Zeke. All he wants is me—back under his thumb or dead. It makes no difference.
“I have to go back, Thor. I have to. And I’m sorry it has to be without you. Khalil and Zeth need you, and you need them. Take care of each other. Forget me if you can.”
Sniffling, I grab my bag and rise from the chair I’ve barely left in three days, and I force myself to walk away before I lose my nerve. The beep of the machines keeping him alive follows me to the door, and then I look back one last time before I walk through it.
Five minutes.
It’s all the time I have before they return, and this gets a lot more complicated. Not to mention hard. I won’t deny that I’m a coward, but I also know that if Khalil and Zeke ask me to stay, I will. And then my uncle gets away with what he did to Thorin. Marston George’s wrongs against me and everyone else fade into the background. Every day he’s left unchecked, my uncle grows more powerful.
It has to be now.
The elevator comes and I ride it down. Thorin wasn’t taken to the hospital in Hearth. His injuries had been too severe, so he was flown to the nearest city with a hospital equipped to deal with them.
In a weird twist of fate, it’s also where the airport is.
Down in the lobby, I keep my gaze forward as I walk toward the automatic sliding doors and the chauffeured car already waiting at the curb. Standing next to it is sharply dressed woman in a tailored pantsuit and high heels with dark hair, brown skin, and a phone in her hand that she’s typing furiously on.
Oni Sridhar, former A&R rep at Savant Records. The same label my uncle used to work for before he quit to manage me once my name meant something. Now Oni has her hands full co-managing the biggest band in the world, but just as she promised me all those years ago when she saw the vise grip my uncle had on my life, she came when I called.
“Oni,” I greet once I walk through the doors. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Nonsense.” She waves me off and then looks me over but doesn’t remark on my bruises, dark circles, and tearstained cheeks. “Ready to go, my dear?”
“Yes, I—” My ears pick up the sound of rapid footsteps pounding the pavement, and when I follow it, I spot Khalil and Zeke running an easy pace side by side on the sidewalk leading up to the porte cochere.
Their faces are tense as they talk with one another, but they haven’t noticed me yet.
Go! Go! Leave before they do.
But my feet are rooted to the ground, and I can’t move. Oni is saying something to me that I can’t hear. I’m stuck staring at my most volatile mountain man and my most loyal.
I can’t move because my heart that bleeds for them won’t let me.
Khalil notices me first. His brows inch down, and he slows to a stop when he sees me standing there. Zeke, realizing Khalil isn’t running next to him anymore, stops too.
“What’s up?” I hear him ask. When Khalil doesn’t respond, Zeke frowns and follows the direction of his gaze until his own lands on me. “Princess? What are you doing out here?” And then he notices my bag, the car, and the chic exec, who doesn’t look like she belongs within a thousand miles of here, and his chest expands with a deep inhale that he releases with a shake of his head. “No.”
“It’s like that, Goldilocks?” Khalil shouts with a sneer.
I turn my head.
Out of the three, Khalil is the least likely to understand me abandoning them when they need me most. And I don’t blame him when I remember all he’s sacrificed.