Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
I roll my eyes and laugh.
“Let’s go,” I say as I grab his hand and pull him to the truck. “We’re eating at the restaurant!”
Chapter Twelve
Chloe
I’m enjoying the sunset on the balcony when Ethan walks out with two big mojitos. This man can do it all.
He has lots of vacation time saved up over the three years he’s been a fireman and he’s decided to take a big chunk of it now. And since I’m on a permanent vacation from my job after my boss tried to kill me and burn the place down, we have all the time in the world to be together.
“Cheers,” he says as we clink glasses and enjoy the view.
His jaw is a little tight, which usually happens when he’s worrying about something. I love that I’m already getting to know all of his mannerisms and ticks. It’s only been a few days, but I already feel like I know him so well.
“What’s the matter?” I ask after I take a sip of the deliciously minty drink.
“Nothing,” he grunts.
“You’re lying.” His eyes snap down to mine. “Please don’t lie to me. Ever.”
“It was just… I saw a car on our way back from the restaurant.”
“The restaurant where you made a big scene about having a male waiter and made them move us into a girl’s section? That restaurant?”
I’m grinning as he shakes his head, trying not to laugh. “Yeah. That’s the one.”
“Okay. What about this car?”
“I got the sense he was following us.”
My stomach drops when I remember the guy from earlier. “Was it a black car?”
His eyes dart open. “How did you know?”
“With a man inside?”
“Chloe, who was that man?”
“I don’t know, but I saw him waiting outside my apartment. He took off when I looked at him.”
Ethan’s big biceps start quivering as he turns back to the lake with a fierce glare. “I knew I should have stopped and pulled him through his windshield.”
“Do you think he works for… Aylwin Kirk?” Just saying his name makes the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I’ve been too busy enjoying and discovering Ethan that I haven’t been thinking of him much. But now it all comes crashing back to me. The cold look in Mr. Kirk’s grey eyes when he pulled me to the floor and handcuffed me. The way he just walked out without a care in the world as I begged and screamed for him to let me loose. The smoke. The fire. Then, Ethan.
“He tried to kill you for a reason,” Ethan says. “Were you in the wrong spot at the wrong time or do you know too much?”
“Probably both.”
Ethan huffs out a breath as his forearm flexes. I jump as the glass in his hand explodes. “I’ll kill him for even thinking about hurting you.”
I drop my eyes, watching the ice cubes slide on the wooden deck as the drink and mint leaves disappear through the cracks.
“I must be too dangerous to him,” I say, more to myself than to Ethan. “I was his secretary. I knew everything. Appointment times, dates, who he met with, who he sent money too. I mailed the checks.”
Ethan stomps back toward the door. “I’m going to make a call.”
“To who?”
“A friend in town,” he says as he grabs the sliding door and rips it open. “Sheriff Austin Peters. Maybe he can find this guy so I can end his life.”
He storms into the house and I just stare at the calm lake as my insides churn. This is not good. I don’t want Ethan going up against Mr. Kirk. What if he gets hurt? Or worse?
God, I can’t even think about it. I close my eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.
When it does nothing to calm me, I open my eyes and gasp when I see an enormous grey bird in the sky.
I narrow my eyes on it and watch in confusion as it plummets out of the sky in the distance, getting bigger by the second.
“Ethan!” I call out to him as the nerves in my belly start to go nuts. “Come see this bird. It’s huge!”
Ethan rushes out a second later and wraps his protective arms around me when he sees it.
“That’s no bird,” he says as he pulls me inside. “That’s a dragon.”
My mouth drops.
“A what?!?”
Chapter Thirteen
Ethan
My bear gets ready to rock as the grey dragon comes swooping down over the lake. My grizzly charges to the surface, snarling and snapping his teeth, and for once I’m happy I have a fierce grumpy bastard of a bear inside me.
Chloe looks pale and terrified as I shove her inside the house and slam the door closed. I want to take her in my arms and tell her she’s safe. Tell her that I won’t let anyone or anything ever hurt her, but I have bigger dragons to fry.