Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
“Good,” River said. “And any movement on the situation with Silas and his sister?”
Disquiet rolled through everyone. Last thing we needed was to get on Kent Ellison’s hit list.
But we’d do it if it meant Elena was safe.
“Silas hasn’t heard a thing,” I said.
It didn’t sit right with me. Clearly, it didn’t sit right with my brothers, either.
“Silas’s sister isn’t going to just up and disappear from his compound without Kent noticing,” Otto said.
“And his guard clearly didn’t get gutted by falling on his own knife.” Theo gave me a pointed look, reminding us of my handiwork.
“Pretty sure a couple of his guys were in the club last night. Something about them raised a red flag,” Kane added.
“Fuck,” I grunted.
“They know we were involved?” Theo asked.
I inhaled a shaky breath. “I haven’t picked anything up on surveillance that says they do, but I don’t have a full tap on what’s going down inside that compound.”
River gave us all a jut of his chin. “Then we be extra vigilant.”
Kane laughed. “As if we don’t sleep with one eye open.”
River grinned something that was pure menace. Dude so fucking intimidating it was a wonder anyone would ever even look at him wrong. “Tonight, we sleep with two.”
Kane chuckled, then River glanced around once again. “Any other business we need to discuss?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“All right then. Let’s finish this so we can get back to our families.” River pushed his fist into the middle of the table, and he led us through the promise we had made to the vulnerable long ago.
“Our oath to the afflicted. Our oath to the forsaken. Our oath to Sovereign Sanctum.”
The second we finished, everyone stood. Conversations struck up as we began to ascend the stairs toward the chaos that ravaged the club above.
I remained silent in the middle of it.
Feeling like I’d run fifteen miles at a full sprint.
My heart racing and my limbs heavy, though there was something antsy underscoring it.
The compulsion to hurry.
To get back on my bike and get home.
To stand in the hall and peek through their door to make sure they were all safe and asleep. To gaze at Daisy lying in the middle of my bed.
The thrum of the music grew louder with each step we took until we piled out into Kane’s office. He locked the basement door and pulled the bookshelves back into place, then Otto worked through the main door’s locks and opened it to the hall.
There was something in the air.
A sense that something wasn’t quite right.
A hazy dread crawled over me that warned someone was there, lurking in the shadows.
I couldn’t get out of that club and on my bike fast enough.
In a flash, my thoughts spiraled back to her. To that time when I finally knew. When I knew what she meant and who she was supposed to be to me.
Who she still would be if I hadn’t fucked it all up.
I pinned the throttle of my bike, swearing that I’d never fuck up again.
TWENTY-SIX
CASH
SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD
Cash sauntered down the long hall of his high school. A buzz of energy surrounded him.
His classmates cheered him on as he passed by, building up the anticipation of what was to come. Tonight, they played a rival team from the south. A win would secure their chance at playing the state championship game in a week.
Scouts would be in those stands. He needed to be on tonight in a way he’d never been before. Show them what he was made of and the potential he possessed.
Yeah, there was little question about him playing college ball, but he had those big dreams, too.
The idea of pro lingering out in the periphery, inspired by the praises of his coaches that he had a skill unlike anything they’d ever trained or seen. Flickering ideas beginning to spark to life that he might be able to go big.
All the way.
He was almost scared to entertain it, worried he was only getting a big head in all the small-town furor. Built up because they didn’t have anything better to look at.
Even if that was true, he was going to bust his ass for the chance to make it happen, anyway.
“Yo, you ready for the big game?” Paulo asked as he waltzed through, the guy clapping him on the back as he passed.
“Ready as I’m ever going to be.”
“Which means you’re ready to kill it on that field.”
A chuckle rolled out of him, that pride rising high. “I’ll do my best.”
“You always do.”
Cash kept moving, angling down the aisle to where Brandy would surely be waiting at his locker.
She was.
All long blond hair and long legs, wearing her cheerleading uniform, the same way the rest of the squad did during every home game.
She bit down on her bottom lip and went coy when she saw him coming.