Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“Holley,” she rasps. “Babe, you okay?”
No one’s ever called me babe like that—fierce, protective, terrified.
“I’m okay,” I lie. “Are you—?”
“I’m fine. I’ve had worse,” she mutters. “Not loving the ambiance, though.”
I almost laugh. It comes out a broken sound.
Footsteps echo.
Tiffany’s jaw clenches.
He steps into view.
Eric.
Still smiling.
Two men flank him—one adjusting brass knuckles, the other checking his phone like they’re waiting for lunch orders.
“Good,” Eric says brightly. “You’re awake.”
“What do you want?” Tiffany spits, her eyes burning.
Eric chuckles. “Oh, sweetheart, I don't want anything from you. You’re just a bonus.”
He turns to me.
And his expression shifts—grows darker, colder, meaner than I’ve ever seen.
“You owe me, Holley.”
“No,” I whisper. “I don’t owe you anything.”
He crouches in front of me, tapping my cheek gently where the bruise blooms.
“Oh, but you do. I invested years in you. Then you left me to deal with the fallout. The debt collectors. The judgments. The humiliation. Made it out to be my fault. You didn’t work hard enough.”
“You did that to yourself—”
He backhands me.
White-hot pain explodes.
Tiffany lunges against her restraint, snarling. “Touch her again and I’ll tear your throat out!”
Eric wipes his hand casually. “You Hellion women really are something. Fiery. Loud. Very marketable. I learned a lot when I went on a deep dive on the dark web.”
He strolls toward her, examining her like she’s livestock. “Your family has enemies. There are people who will pay big money to punish a Hellion.”
I feel sick.
“Tiffany,” he says slowly, “you’re worth far more than Holley ever was. Beautiful. Strong. Defiant. Some very wealthy men prefer a challenge. Then there are the ones who want to get at Smoke.”
She spits in his face.
He wipes it off, unfazed. “I could break you,” he murmurs. “But that reduces your value.”
“What do you want?” I choke out. “Money?”
“Oh, sweet girl,” he laughs, turning back to me, “I want freedom. I want the debt erased. I want the men I owe to stop breathing down my neck. And lucky for me…”
He gestures between us.
“…you two are more than enough to cover everything.”
My stomach drops.
He’s not threatening us to scare us.
He’s making a business transaction.
“Eric,” I whisper, trembling. “Please—don’t do this.”
“Oh, Holley. You always were too gentle to survive without me. But don’t worry—this time I’ll make sure you don’t run.”
A sob tears from my throat.
He cups my chin again.
“You should never have left me.”
Then he stands, brushing off his hands like he’s finished with paperwork.
“Prepare them,” he tells his men. “We leave in thirty.” I don’t know who they are or where he got them from.
Tiffany swears under her breath. “Holley,” she says urgently when they move away. “Holley. Look at me.”
I do.
Her eyes burn with fury and something else—fear, yes, but also iron.
“We’re not dying today,” she says fiercely. “We’re not disappearing. We’re not letting that psychopath win.”
“Tiff, we’re tied, we’re outnumbered, we’re—”
“Holley.” Her voice sharpens. “My dad is going to burn the world down to find us. Do you understand me? He’s coming. The Hellions are coming. We just have to hang on.”
A sob shakes my chest.
Because I believe her.
I really do.
“He’ll find us,” she says again. “He always does.”
But even as she whispers it, I hear Eric laughing in the next room.
And I know—Tony is running out of time.
Eighteen
Stud
Smoke shows up at the wrong damn time.
Not that there’s ever a right time for him to show up, but today? Today is a special kind of hell.
I’m in the garage, elbow-deep in an engine that stopped cooperating three hours ago, when I hear the crunch of gravel under slow, deliberate boots. Hellions don’t walk like that. Strangers don’t walk onto our property like that. Only one man alive moves like a man who’s already decided everyone in sight is beneath him.
Smoke.
I don’t bother turning around. “I told you last time—if you step foot in my shop again, I’m ripping your face off.”
“Good to see the vacation softened you,” he drawls.
My fist curls so tight the wrench bites into my palm.
Reluctantly—very reluctantly—I rotate my head enough to glare at him.
Same old Smoke. Tall as hell, stocky and cocky, beard trimmed to corporate length even though he pretends he’s an outlaw. Blue eyes sharp, calculating. Looks like he bathes more than he should for a biker.
What pisses me off most?
He looks like trouble that knows its own worth.
I stand slowly. “What do you want?”
“Not your friendly welcome, apparently.”
“My friendly welcome is a bullet,” I say. “Try again.”
He doesn’t flinch. He walks closer instead, stepping into the light like a man unafraid of the consequences.
“Tony,” he says tightly, and him using my name throws me off. “this is about Tiffany.”
Cold hits my bloodstream instantly. “What about her?”
He studies me. Really studies me. “You mean she didn’t tell you she was meeting up with Holley to go into town?”
“She did,” I snap. “She left here two hours ago.”