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)
“No fucking idea,” I find myself saying, unsure why I’m indulging this conversation as the image of Doc feasting on Aria’s intestines pops into my head. “I don’t know. Nor do I want to. The less I know about that man, the better.”
“Kinda fucked up, right? I mean, who looks at human flesh and thinks, mmmmmm lunch?”
I don’t respond, and after a minute, Aria sighs. “Seriously? Is this what it’s going to be like? We could be walking through this tunnel all night. The least you could do is try to be decent company. Besides, when those cuts on your shoulders start getting infected, you’re going to need me to help you, because you and I both know that with muscles like that, there’s no way in hell you can reach the back of your shoulders with those big meaty fingers. Can you even open a Band-Aid?”
For fuck’s sake.
Not that it’s any of her business, but no, I can’t reach the back of my shoulders, but it’s not as though I was going to ask for her help in the first place. And as for the Band-Aids, I could open one if I needed to, but I’m a man—a very big one at that—so naturally, I don’t need Band-Aids. They’re for small children who graze their knees, not convicted murderers who break out of prisons via sewer systems.
“Okay. Fuck the Band-Aids,” Aria says with a huff, realizing her ploy to bait me isn’t going to work. “What’s your plan?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“You’re just going to bust out of this sewer line and hope that there aren’t any cops waiting for you at the other end?” she questions. “And if by some miracle, you happen to get out of here, without dying from an infection, what then? You drag me around everywhere you go and live life on the run? Because you know that’s not sustainable, right? You’re about to become the most wanted man on Earth. There’s nowhere you can go where people won’t actively be searching for you. You can’t walk through a town. Can’t get groceries. Can’t even stop for gas. What kind of life is that to live?”
“Are you done?”
She rolls her eyes and grumbles. “Not really. I have plenty more to say on the topic.”
“I’m sure you do.”
Another hour passes when I hear her stomach grumble, and she stops in the middle of the sewer, letting out an exhausted sigh. “Can we just . . . pause for a minute? My legs are aching, and I’m—”
“No. Keep walking,” I throw over my shoulder. “The sooner we find the end of this tunnel, the better. We need to put as much space between us and the prison before they realize we’re gone. They’ll canvas the outskirts of the prison first, but it won’t take long before they widen the search.”
She lets out a shaky breath. “I don’t hear the alarms anymore. Does that mean they’ve turned them off, or are we just too far away to hear them now?”
I shake my head. There’s really no telling.
“Wow. You’re just full of information, aren’t you?” Aria mutters, clearly irritated with the situation she’s found herself in, but I get it. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t be happy about it either. But then, if she didn’t want to get herself kidnapped by a convicted criminal, then she shouldn’t have baited the one she ensured was locked up in the first place.
“Get walking, Menace.”
She groans, and I listen as she drags her feet again. “You’ve really got your heart set on killing me, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Because you think I’m this menace girl.”
“We’ve already covered this.”
“And what are the chances that you get out of your own head and look at me long enough to consider that you might be wrong? Because, even though I haven’t really got my shit together, I’m not exactly ready to die because of someone else’s bullshit. There’s still so much I need to do. Though it’s not as though I can go back to work after all of this. You know, you kinda killed my boss and crew. Knowing Janette, she’ll find a way to blame all of this shit on me and have me written up. I’ll—”
“Who’s Janette?” I ask, the words tumbling out of my mouth before I even realize that I’ve been sucked into her bullshit.
“This woman I work with, Captain Clipboard. She’s the biggest pain in my ass, and I don’t doubt that she’ll have something to say about all of this and find a way to blame it all on me,” she says. “According to Janette, I’m a colossal screw-up and not worthy of being anything more than a coffee runner.”
“Sounds like a bitch.”
“Mm-hm.” She pauses for a moment before catching up to me, glancing up, and looking at me with a deep curiosity. “What were those little papers you got from your cell earlier?”