Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Ambrielle had no idea why she allowed him to take it. The man in front of her, the one they called Master, flicked his icy gaze toward the hapless victim folded over the pew. Apparently, he wasn’t dead enough. He tried to raise a gun toward the trio. Master shot him between the eyes and casually turned back to her.
“You really came here to rescue me?” Ambrie didn’t know any of the men or women still alive in the room with her. They were all wearing vests and armed like he was.
She looked around the chapel. Mostly Thompson’s bodyguards were dead on the floor. The preacher sat on the floor with his hands locked behind his head, right next to the two dead bodies she’d crawled out from under. Her blood-spattered tulle with the 3D silver embroidery train was still locked under the bodies. She found that a bizarre sight. Dobbs was facedown in the front aisle, his hands over his head, fingers locked behind his head indicating he was still alive. A burst of fury shook her.
“Excuse me for a minute.” Head up, she swept past two more men she didn’t know and should have been afraid of, but now adrenaline had taken over. No one stopped her. She marched to the front of the chapel and kicked Dobbs hard in the ribs. “You asshole. If I still had that gun, I’d shoot you. You might as well have killed my parents yourself.”
Groaning, curling his body, Dobbs turned his head to look at her. “Ambrie, I didn’t have a choice. Walker was going to kill me.”
“Well, now I’m going to. I’ll get to you somehow. Right now, I have to get out of here and warn my friends.” She turned back to the men and women watching her as if she were an actress in a play. It was Master she instinctively went to. “Thompson threatened my friends. If I don’t marry him and cooperate, he’ll hurt them. Or kill them.”
Master shook his head. “We know he threatened your friends. We have some of our people on it. They’ll protect them.”
He sounded safe. Reassuring. She wasn’t certain she could trust anyone. She wanted out of the bloody wedding gown. She needed to think. Thompson wasn’t going to give up. This was a setback.
“All he has to do is fake the marriage certificate, kill me and he gets money he wants anyway.” Ambrie murmured aloud, talking to herself more than to her audience. She began to pace back and forth as if they weren’t there, paying no attention to the fact that her dress was soaked with blood or that she was surrounded by dead bodies.
“Actually, Ambrielle,” the platinum one said, “he’s more likely to kidnap you again and insist on marriage. Thompson’s obsessed with you. I’m Ice, by the way. We were after him, and our tech found him watching you. He’s got a thousand pictures of you. He isn’t going to give you up easily. Although, this time, if he had married you, it wouldn’t have been legal.” He grinned at her. “Code, our tech, substituted Master’s name on the license for Thompson’s.”
She jerked her head up and looked at Master. Really looked at him. He was intimidating to say the least. And beautiful in a terrible, rough, scary way. He looked powerful. All muscle. His body dense. She could barely keep from staring into his eyes, mesmerized by the intensity there. He didn’t bother to hide what he was from her. He didn’t give her an easy smile that would have been fake as hell. Yet he was the one who said she should have a choice, and his voice, even though it was low and gravelly, held honesty.
“You came here to kill him, didn’t you?” For the first time, she believed them. This wasn’t just about rescuing her. They didn’t know her. They were after Walker Thompson for some reason she didn’t care about. She just happened to have gotten caught in their net because they made their move against Thompson. She’d gotten in the way, and they missed him. None of them seemed upset about it.
Master nodded. “That was the plan. He had an army surrounding him, and no one wanted to take the chance of a stray bullet hitting you. We’ll get him next time. He can’t run forever. Even if he leaves this area, he’ll head back to New Orleans. He thinks he owns that town. He feels safe there.”
“He’s going to make another try for me.” She knew that to be true. Thompson wouldn’t give up. He was very focused on the money.
Master shrugged. “I told you, I’ll keep you safe.” He frowned at the snicker that went around the room. “The club will keep you safe,” he corrected.
As if they all thought that mattered to her. Walker Thompson had ordered his private hit squad to murder her father right in front of her. Gleb had done so. She was all about revenge, and she didn’t care if that wasn’t considered ladylike. And this man . . .