Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“So you’ll teach me?”
I grin. “It depends. Will you be a behaved student?”
“Oh, I don’t know. If I’m not, will you call me a bad girl and spank me?”
“You don’t need to misbehave for me to do that,” I tell her. “I’m more than happy to bend you over my knee and spank you until you’ve learned a lesson.”
Harper sucks in a breath, pausing for a moment before groaning. “Shit, Knight, you got me right in the daddy issues.”
“It’s fucking on when you get home,” I warn her. “You better come prepared.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” she murmurs, her voice low. “I’m already wet.”
“Goddamn it, Morticia. How the fuck am I supposed to focus on this shit now?”
Harper laughs, and the sound seems to wrap around me like a warm hug, refusing to let go, but I don’t want it to. If I get the pleasure of hearing that laugh every day for the rest of my life, I’d die a happy man. “That sounds like a you problem.”
I grin and roll my eyes, leaning back in my chair. “What are you doing, doll?”
“Just had a break, but I’m heading back in and trying to convince myself to get started on this next autopsy,” she tells me. “It’s a young mom, and from what I can tell of the markings on her skin, my guess is that this is an extreme domestic violence case, and it breaks my heart. I’ve been avoiding starting it all night.”
She lets out a heavy breath, loud enough that I hear it through the phone, and I can’t help but feel for her. Just like me, there are parts of her job that aren’t always the easiest, but she faces them with courage because at the end of the day, all she wants is justice for the victims on her table.
“You can handle it, doll,” I tell her. “Be thorough. Dot all the i’s and cross the t’s so you can help put this bastard away.”
“Yeah, I know, I just . . .”
Everything goes quiet, except for the sound of her accelerated breathing in my ear. “Doll, you there?”
“I . . . I think there’s someone in here,” she murmurs, her voice low but filled with fear as I sit up straighter, my hand already hovering near my keys. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“You sure?”
“I don’t know,” she murmurs as I hear her making her way around the morgue. “I just . . . I have this weird feeling that I’m being watched.”
I get to my feet, already pacing my office as my hands ball into fists at my sides. “Doll?” I say, my heart racing, hoping that she’s just screwing with me as her breathing becomes shaky, her fear coming through loud and clear.
“Knight,” she whispers. “I—”
A petrified scream tears through the line, and my blood runs cold. “HARPER?”
“KNIGHT!” she screams, the terror in her tone like nothing I’ve ever heard before. “KNIGHT! NO. KNIGHT, HE’S HERE. HE’S HERE.”
Fuck. I take off at a sprint as a scuffle comes through the line. “HARPER!”
“DON’T TOUCH ME. DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
My feet pound against the cheap linoleum when I hear a familiar tone behind me. “Knight?” Diesel demands. “What’s wrong?”
I glance over my shoulder, seeing both Diesel and Ace barreling out of the gym. “Call hospital security,” I roar as I continue toward the stairs that lead down to the underground parking garage. “Harper’s in trouble. Someone’s in the morgue.”
They bolt after me, and as we run, I hear Ace on the phone, shouting orders to the hospital security team. We reach the door that leads down to the parking garage, and I throw it open, skipping down three steps at a time.
“Doll, speak to me. What’s happening?” I demand. “Are you hurt?”
I hear Harper’s cries of pain just moments before the sound of a man’s cold laugh cuts through the line. “HARPER?” I roar, but the line goes dead. “FUCK!”
I barge through the door at the bottom of the stairs, the metal hinges screaming with my force, but I don’t have a second to spare. As I barrel toward my truck, my whole fucking world flashes before my eyes.
I throw myself into the truck, not bothering to wait for the boys. Diesel barely manages to get into the passenger seat and close the door while Ace has no choice but to launch himself into the bed and hold on for dear fucking life as I hit the gas and sail through the parking garage.
Not having a second to waste, I take out the fucking boom gates at the entrance, knowing I’ll have hell to pay for that, but I couldn’t care less. All that matters is getting to my girl.
Pulling out onto the main road, I push my truck to its limits. It’s only a short drive from the station to the hospital, but right now, it’s never felt longer. I try Harper again and again, but her phone is off, and as the frustration and panic eat me alive, I throw my phone down, not giving a shit how the screen smashes into a million pieces.