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)
“It’s wired into your DNA, Menace. I made sure of that.”
I roll my eyes, trying to fight the smirk pulling at my lips as he reaches up and wipes the tears off my face. “You and me, we’re going to have a long life together. I’m not letting you go.”
“Is that a promise?”
“It’s a fucking vow.”
My heart races, and I purse my lips as I take him in. “I think we should go into hiding. Just you and me, far away from the rest of the world, where nobody will ever find us. Maybe somewhere on the beach where we can drink mimosas and bake under the sun every day.”
“And get sand wedged between your butt cheeks?” he questions. “You always hated the beach.”
He’s right. The idea of the beach is much nicer than the reality of it. Besides, I burn like a peach. “Okay, no beach,” I admit. “But somewhere beautiful that could be all ours.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he tells me, a pained groan in his tone, making me realize just how much he’s playing off the pain to keep me calm. “Any life you want to build, I’m here for it, but on one condition.”
My brows furrow, and I glance over at him again. “What’s that?”
Regret shines in his eyes, and he has the audacity to look at me with a strange hesitation. “I have to come back to the city and finish what I started,” he tells me, digging in his pocket and holding up a single Polaroid picture—the man who held me at gunpoint and forced Stone to his knees. “He’s never going to stop coming for us. Not now. Not after what went down tonight. He won’t take our escape lightly. Men like Lux Valen—this is a game to him. He’s a hunter who gets off on claiming prizes, and he’s not about to bow out. I need to end this, otherwise, we will spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders. After that, the world is yours. Whatever you want, we’ll build it together.”
“Shit.”
“Ball’s in our court, Menace. We’ll heal. Get stronger. Go in with a plan and finish this.”
I nod, wishing things were easier, and as the idea of having to return to the city truly takes root, terrifying the absolute crap out of me, it dawns on me just how close we both came to losing our lives.
I wasn’t just tortured by these men; I was hung from a meat hook by my ankles and beat until I bled. They had no intention of sparing my life, and all for the purpose of breaking Stone, meaning I am his one and only weakness.
“Menace,” he murmurs a moment later, breaking me out of the dark fog claiming my every thought. “I don’t want to panic you, but you have about three seconds before I pass out.”
“WHAT!” My gaze whips toward him, and I slam on the brakes just in time to watch as his body goes limp in the seat. “FUCK!”
Panic surges through my body, and I dive across the car, my fingers all but slamming against his throat, feeling for a pulse and making sure the big asshole didn’t just die on me. I find a pulse quickly, but it’s faint, and it makes my stomach clench with fear.
I have to help him somehow. I can’t just leave him like this, otherwise, he really will die, and that’s not about to happen on my watch.
Hitting the gas again, I fly down the highway until I come to the very next exit, and I take it without a care in the world, sailing into the suburbs.
“Shit,” I mutter, not sure this is where I need to be.
It’s the middle of the night, and as I speed through the streets, I come up blank. Just as I start thinking about turning around, I take a left onto the main street of the area. The road is lined with businesses, most closed at this late hour, but as I continue down the road, I find the town wide awake.
Nightclubs and bars are open, music booming through the street. Men hang out in the windows of sports bars, screaming at the TV, while drunk girls wander the streets, trying to get themselves home after a wild night of partying. There’s a 24-hour diner, and just beside that, a gas station that, for some reason, also moonlights as a tattoo parlor, but to each their own.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Okay,” I say to myself, trying to put a plan together as I pass the clubs to find somewhere quiet I can park where the escaped criminal won’t be caught passed out in the front seat.
Looping around the block, I find a deserted street and drive until the shadows consume the black Charger, concealing us in darkness. Only then do I pull into an alleyway between two buildings, hiding us away as best I can.