Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 108709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
I hear his sigh of frustration up ahead, and the next thing I know, he glances back at me just moments before his strong leg shoots out, slams against my chest, and shoves me up against the wall of the small crawlspace, knocking the breath right out of my lungs. “Shut the fuck up. Otherwise, I promise you, Menace, your body will rot in this fucking crawl space until it’s nothing but dust.”
Well shit. I suppose now isn’t a great time to remind him that he still hasn’t told me who he’s been trying to protect all these years.
My hands grip his strong thighs, desperately trying to put some space between his muscled leg and my chest, but all I can do is scowl at him until he finally releases me, making me realize that not only could he kill me with his bare hands, he could also kill me with nothing more than a single thigh. Just fucking great. Though there’s no denying just how strong that thigh was. It was juicy. I wouldn’t mind taking a bite out of—ooop. Nope. I cannot start thinking about Stone like that. He is the literal definition of a walking red flag. Only, Stone doesn’t believe in red flags. His are pitch black, and he enjoys flying them high.
He gets moving again, and deciding that remaining with him is still my safest bet, I shuffle along behind him, my knees grazing the uneven crawl space and tearing holes in my pants.
We move over the top of the canteen, and the noise is insane. I hear the men below talking about us, bragging about what they’re going to do to me once they find me, and just how brutal it’s going to be. It’s almost like a competition between them, and as we move through, I find myself grateful for the overwhelming alarm disguising any noises the inmates might hear as we crawl overhead.
“Where are we going?” I ask, realizing Stone’s moving with too much conviction. Though after studying the prison layout for the past week, it seems like he’s making his way deeper into the prison, as opposed to the edges. I mean, sure, I’m not exactly versed in executing prison breaks, but surely heading this way is counterproductive.
I get no response, and considering I have no real choice in my participation, all I can do is keep moving and hope like hell this professional moron doesn’t get me killed before I can escape.
As we continue crawling through the roof space of C-block, I find small holes that make up some kind of vent. They give me a clear view of the space below, and as I peer through them, I realize this must be the C-block guards’ quarters.
The room is empty, probably having been raided long ago, but the camera feeds are still up . . . most of them. A lot of the cameras have been disabled and destroyed by the inmates, but they’ve clearly missed a few.
“Hey, check this out,” I say to Stone.
He groans. “Keep moving.”
“Okay, sure. We’ll just keep moving blindly through the prison when we could look at the surveillance feed directly over the guards’ quarters and see exactly where the other inmates are and what areas the guards have access to. But sure, let’s go with your plan. Seems like you’ve really thought it through. When in Rome, right? Risk it for the biscuit and all that good shit.”
He looks back at me, his jaw clenched, and damn it, that jaw could cut glass.
“Fucking hell,” he mutters before turning his giant ass around in the small space and working his way back.
“Right here,” I tell him, pointing toward the small ventilation holes.
He leans down toward the holes and cautiously watches the surveillance feed below, and I’ve never seen anybody more focused. “Looks like the guards are just as blind as we are,” he muses. “Completely locked out of C-block.”
“Are there other ways in? Like discreet walkways between the other blocks that divert from the main corridors.”
“Plenty of them, but they’re too risky to take while blind. They won’t do it, not until they have overwhelming numbers, so until then, we keep moving.”
He goes to continue the way he was going before pausing and looking back down at the security feed. “This way,” he says, taking a sharp turn to the left.
I follow behind, my body still trembling, but with Stone being my only chance at coming out of this alive, I keep it moving. We crawl through the small space until my knees start to bleed, only stopping when we come to another manhole. The only difference is that this one has a red X marking the spot, almost as though someone has already marked an escape.
Stone slowly lifts the edge of the manhole covering, peering down into the space below before finally moving the whole lid and dropping through it. I peer down below, trying to figure out how the hell to get down there, when he looks back up at me, those dark eyes filled with the kind of authority that makes my stomach squirm. “Stay here. Put the cover back, and don’t fucking move.”