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)
Warn Dereck and protect myself.
Stop whatever was about to happen because whatever it was, I was sure it was bad.
I certainly didn’t mean for my elbow to smack against the door when I whirled away, but it made agonizing contact against the wood.
Pain streaked up my arm and nearly dropped me to my knees.
But the real problem was the bang of the impact reverberated as loud as a gong in the echoey corridor.
No question, they heard because the voices clipped off.
And I was running.
Running down the hall as fast as my boots could carry me.
Breaths raking from my lungs as I fled.
The walls blurred around me as I pushed myself as fast as I could go.
Whizzing by the doors, then the long window that overlooked the mess hall where Elena likely still remained.
Did she know? Did she know who these people really were? Did she know what they planned to do?
I wasn’t about to wait around for an answer.
Finally, the swinging door at the opposite end of the hall came into view, and I put my hands out, busting through it without slowing.
Because I could feel explosive energy behind me. A gathering of severity that blistered through the air.
Without looking back, I flew out into the bar.
The lights were low and the music was loud and people were everywhere.
So many bikers in every direction that it made me dizzy.
The air clogged with viscous, sticky fog.
I weaved through, sidestepping as much as I could to remain out of their reach, my eyes narrowed on one thing.
Escape.
I made it to the main swinging doors, and I burst out into the tacky night.
For one beat, I froze at the horde of bikers at the fire, wondering if they could smell my terror, before I shot into action, cutting right, hoping to duck into the cover of the forest on that side.
Praying I could make it to the property line. My mind calculated, wondering how the hell I’d make it over a twelve-foot wall, but people did miraculous things when their lives depended on it.
I would fight it out, but there were far too many of these assholes to take them down.
I would have to run.
Or maybe hide.
Whatever it was, I simply knew I had to get away.
Only there were footsteps behind me.
Heavy and hard.
The cool air coerced into brutality.
I ran beneath the trees.
Branches swishing and smacking against my flesh.
“Brinley!” The cruel, coarse voice curled around me, so harsh it could almost act as chains.
My heart thumped so frantically I couldn’t see as I raced through the underbrush in the darkness.
Only I could make out something in the distance.
Oh my God.
Up ahead, there was a fence.
A legit chain-link fence in the wall’s place where the forest was its thickest, one I doubted many new existed.
I could make it.
I had to.
I pushed myself as hard as I could go.
Boots pounding below me.
The fence three feet away.
Only one second before I made it, two massive arms curled around me.
A scream tore out of my lungs as I was getting tackled to the ground.
TEN
SILAS
This was the last thing I needed after a really bad day.
Chasing down a wildfire that blazed through the woods. Her energy torching every damned thing.
She was fuckin’ fast in those heeled boots. Still, it didn’t take me all that long to catch up to her.
My crew had cast me concerned glances when I’d come crashing out the main doors thirty seconds after her, no doubt wondering if they should jump in and help as she took a frantic jaunt into the woods.
I sent them all glares.
Stay the fuck where you are.
Told them she was off-limits, and I meant that in every regard.
No one was taking her down but me.
Wasn’t sure if I was going to take some sort of sick pleasure in it or if I absolutely abhorred it.
What I did know was I couldn’t stomach what was roiling from her volatile spirit.
The absolute fear that poured out of her.
Masked by that ferocious fight that she was.
“Brinley!” I gritted behind her.
I didn’t think she even heard my voice.
Not when she was in all-out panic mode.
Fuck.
What had she overheard that had sent her running like this?
The little sneak sniffing around outside the club’s Church door. No doubt, eavesdropping on the meeting I’d been having with my highest in command. My brothers. The men I trusted above anyone else.
Brinley cut through the woods, her breaths these haggard pants that jutted into the cool night air.
Distraught, she ran, hands out as she batted at the brush and branches that fought to keep her back.
She suddenly heaved some kind of relief, and I immediately knew what she was angling for.
The twelve-foot chain-link fence that lined this section of the property.
A section I’d been meaning to get replaced by the solid wall the rest of the perimeter was surrounded in.