Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 123155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Time passed so slowly that I started absentmindedly picking at my lips, unable to stop the urge. After what felt like an hour later, but must’ve only been a few minutes, I raised my eyes to the ceiling when I heard someone walking upstairs.
“Forrest,” Dragon said without looking at me. “He’s in Charlie’s room.”
“Why?” I asked automatically.
“Keepin’ watch,” Dragon replied, then paused. “The fuck?”
Sitting where I couldn’t see what was happening was agony. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like I’d run a mile and the muscles of my shoulders were so tense, they were practically up around my ears.
“Someone’s drivin’ a fuckin’ Hummer up the road,” he said, his voice emotionless.
“They’re not trying to sneak?” I asked in disbelief. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay in position. I needed to see what was happening. My family was out there.
“Only one reason a man thinks he doesn’t have to sneak,” Dragon said grimly, pulling a handgun out of the back of his pants to methodically check the magazine. As he pressed it back into the grip, he looked at me. “He thinks he holds all the cards. Stay here.”
He passed me, moving easily as he opened the front door and stepped out onto the front porch.
Crawling on my hands and knees, I made my way to the window, peeking my head up above the sill. I felt like an idiot. Like a kid playing hide-and-seek. But what I saw outside made everything inside me go cold.
Drake Warren was casually climbing out of the passenger seat with a small smile on his face as he paused. Behind him, someone was opening the back of the dark SUV. I held my breath as the person came into view, dragging a body.
I couldn’t see the top half, but an uncomprehending moan escaped my throat as soon as I saw the lower half. Bloody, ripped to shred denim. One black motorcycle boot. One white sock stained almost completely red.
As the man dropped the body and stepped back, I covered my mouth with my hand to keep myself from screaming.
Leo’s cut was almost completely ripped at the seam along his side.
“A trade,” Drake said cheerfully.
“Fuck you,” Dragon replied from the porch.
Drake smiled, making my skin crawl. He lifted his hand and pointed a pistol at Leo’s prone body. He glanced around, and I knew without being able to see them that my dad and the boys had all drawn their own weapons.
“You’re at a distinct disadvantage,” my dad called out, his voice ringing with the high-class accent that he’d picked up in private school. I sucked in a sharp breath at the sound. I hadn’t heard him speak like that in years—not since my last parent-teacher conference. My dad was called Casper for more reasons than I probably knew about, but the most well known was his ability to fit in anywhere.
“About that,” Drake said with a shrug. With a slight nod of his head, men came from the trees. Ten that I could count, and my view was blocked on one side by the moving truck.
I looked at Leo. Was he breathing? I couldn’t tell. If he was alive, he was in really bad shape. He hadn’t shifted at all from where he’d fallen.
“We don’t trade,” my dad said in disgust.
“Perhaps it’s not your decision,” Drake countered. His eyes shifted to the left. “I’m growing impatient.”
I knew he was looking at Dragon. I knew it, and my stomach twisted so hard that I almost gagged. He was making him choose. Me or Leo. Me, or his only living son.
I was barely aware of getting to my feet and crossing the room, gaining speed as I rounded the wall to the kitchen and headed for the door to the side of the house. I was outside in seconds, and I gulped as I saw the five men I hadn’t counted on the other side of the truck. Without thinking, I strode forward, keeping the truck between me and the men I knew would never let me pass.
I heard the first curse as I rounded the back of the truck and came into view.
“I’ll go,” I said to Drake, holding my shoulders straight and lifting my chin as he stared at me.
I glanced down at Leo and had to swallow back the bile in my throat. What I’d seen from the window was a thousand times worse up close. His clothes were shredded, and from the short time he’d been laying in the gravel, little pools of blood had formed.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Drake said.
“Goddamn it, Cecilia,” Mark roared behind me.
I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t look at any of them. I couldn’t let the fear on my face be the last memory they had of me.
Drake waved his hand for me to move forward.