Total pages in book: 203
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
I’ve never felt so fucking helpless in my life as I roar out rage so hard the building around us quakes.
It dawns that Bailey brought me something to help with trouble she heard was brewing and slapped that bag in my hand in the doorway of the hotel room. I reach into my pocket but the bag she gave me is gone.
Wait.
Realization hits. She must have put me under a shield when I was out. The same sort of shield Stacy’s jackhole brother was in.
Fuck!
Scent and motion catch my attention behind me at the window as the window is covered from outside, plunging us into darkness. Someone hammers a piece of wood into place.
7
BAILEY
I’m guessing if I weren’t a half-blooded shifter I’d be panicking waking in the dark, but my eyes quickly adjust and I know where I am. Alta Starling’s basement, at the bottom of the staircase.
I rub at the painful goose egg on the back of my head, slowly sitting up. Everything hurts and everything is blurry, but within a few more seconds, my eyes have adjusted well enough I can make out shapes around me. I must have collapsed after being put down, maybe because Alta Starling threw something at Jase and it bounced off his bubble, meaning lights out for me instead.
When they caught me and brought me back in, one of them threatening to hurt me if I didn’t cooperate, I stopped fighting. But then as we descended the stairs, the guy who carried me whispered that maybe we could have some fun later. He told me my tits were beautiful, said he wanted to taste them. This had me struggling, feeling like my skin was crawling. He laughed, threatening to use the knife in his pocket to slice away my bra and set them free.
When I saw Jase at the foot of the stairs on his feet, looking furious and also weakened, I was relieved they couldn’t hurt him behind that magic bubble. It was like it was when Wyatt Meadows was trying to run away and the council shifters kept punting him with their heads and noses as if he was in an inflatable bumper ball like the ones we used on the lake at my teen summer camp.
Jase looks normal, uninjured and that might be because he’s behind that shield. And right now, he's close. I smell him and can make out his fuzzy shape a few feet away from me.
I feel around for my glasses and find them still in one piece. I put them on and tighten my loose ponytail, making details out a little better.
He’s worked his handcuffs apart, but they’re still on his wrists. He’s broken the chain between the cuffs on his ankles, too. There’s one of those flowers by his feet, so I’m guessing it’s inside his protective shield and he got the others off when he knocked that pole over. Speaking of which, I sure hope the ceiling over us won’t cave in without that support beam.
My blouse is mostly undone, so I close as many of the remaining buttons as there are; the top two are missing.
He’s looking like he’s leaning back against the wall, one knee cocked, his forearm leaned on it, but there’s a space between him and that wall.
“Come here,” Jase commands with a scratchy voice.
I rush over, feeling slightly lightheaded.
“Are you okay?” I get too close and find I can’t move any closer; it’s like I’m up against a window, so I press my hand against it, testing… and it feels like a hard surface, so I back up a little.
“Am I okay?” he parrots, voice sounding a little sinister.
I swallow instead of answering.
“I’m just fuckin’ peachy. Bailey. What do you think?” he asks, voice dripping with sarcasm.
I back up about five more feet away, like the animosity is a repellant.
And it is. Because an attitude is the last thing I need from him. And maybe also the thing I need the most. Because it’s a reminder of where we are in our acquaintance and why I’m here. I grind my teeth to avoid snapping back at him. Because that won’t do us much good right now.
“Sit down,” he says. “Against this wall. I want to be able to at least block you when they come back down here.”
Sighing, I sit, putting my back against the plastic-covered wall.
“Really wishin’ you didn’t give that shit to me,” he mutters and bangs his head back in a frustrated way that I suspect would hurt if it actually met the wall.
And I feel my face get hot. “I tried to get away to get some help. I didn’t want her to hurt you again.”
“So, let me guess... you only had one of whatever Meadows had? Because there’s not another one in my pocket to turn this off.”