Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Power oozed from his tattooed flesh, and I swore it was obscenity that was scored on his stealthy body.
Every slashed angle of him as sharp as a blade.
For one fleeting second, his face turned in my direction.
I didn’t even know what the hell was written in it.
I figured he was just conjuring up ideas of exactly how he was going to torture me.
Elena didn’t seem to notice as they strode by as she told me about some new boots she’d ordered last night.
Each volatile man blipping by like a meteor set on a path of destruction.
This was it.
My opportunity.
I needed to know what they were up to.
“Um…where is the restroom?” I basically cut her off, and her head rocked back in surprise.
“Oh.” She glanced around before she gestured toward a door at the far-right side of the windows and buffet. “It’s right down that hall, first door on the right.”
She started to climb from the bench. “I’ll go with you.”
I popped to my feet faster than I should have, attempting to school the shaky anticipation that ripped through me. I pushed out a hand to stop her. “Oh no, that’s fine. Finish your dinner. I’ll be right back.”
Concern curved her brow. “Are you sure?”
“Yep. I’m all good. I figure I’m going to need to learn my way around here if I’m going to be staying, right?”
I wondered if she could decipher the guilt in my laugh.
Without waiting for her to change her mind, I beelined toward the door, putting on a show that I really needed to pee.
Sucking for breath as I curled my hand around the doorknob, my pulse thundering and thumping as I pulled it open to the dimly-lit hall on the other side.
The second I stepped into the darkened, dingy corridor, the air seemed to become nonexistent.
Stagnant and stale.
I might as well have been taking a bath in the stench of the corruption.
Music echoed from the left, beyond another swinging door that must lead back into the bar area.
A hall that was so long that I couldn’t see its end beyond the gloom that swallowed it to my right.
It appeared all the rooms were likely linked by the long hall.
My blood sloshed and careened.
I glanced back once more to make sure no one was around before I began to edge down the long corridor.
Sweat slicked my skin, just waiting on one of these assholes to reach out and grab me.
But no one was there.
With my breaths heaving, I crept down the passageway.
I noted the door to the bathroom that Elena had indicated. I bypassed it and kept on moving.
The quiet click of my heels that I tried to subdue made my heart beat even faster as I was drawn deeper into the murky shadows like one of those first to go in a slasher film.
And maybe I was making every horrible decision that I could.
Just begging to get myself chopped into pieces and fed to the pigs.
But this was my life.
My brother’s life.
I wasn’t going to sit like a good girl and get complacent.
Silas Mercer did not know who he was dealing with.
I made it to another door on the right, and I pressed my ear to the wood.
Moaning.
Okay.
Not what I was looking for.
I kept moving, my heart beating so loud I might as well have been shouting that I was coming.
Another door.
No sound.
Another and another until I made it to the very end.
Here, there were double doors.
The heavy wood extended the entire expanse and reached up to touch the ceiling.
Massive and foreboding.
That emblem was carved right in the middle.
The crows on the gravestone and the one celebrating on the grave.
Crimson Crows arched over the top of the scene, the words stretched across both doors.
My chest tightened to the point of pain, and the fear that crawled up my spine nearly had me retreating.
But the low tenor that barely seeped through the wood had me creeping all the way forward.
I pressed my ear to it. Frustration bubbled up when I was barely able to make out what was being said.
“You think he’s getting ready to betray us? Set us up?”
Half the words were garbled, so I wasn’t sure I was getting the full extent of the conversation.
A frown slashed into my brow.
Rocks in my throat, I pressed my ear closer, desperate to hear the exchange.
An unintelligible mumble then a, “…sure.”
A different voice. “…already dead.”
What?
What were they saying?
Dereck?
Is that who they were talking about?
Alarm clamored through my senses, and I might as well have become one with the wood with the way I was trying to get through it when there was the intonation of a voice that I couldn’t make out at all.
Crap.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
“…the girl?”
“…kill…handle it.”
A cold dread slithered beneath the surface of my skin.
Kill.
Panic shot through me faster than a bullet.
I had to get out of there.