Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
A crappy little car was parked with my handler inside. “Hey babe,” she said, false smile back in place.
Another car parked nearby caught my eye. Especially when the man got out and walked in my direction. Knowing what was coming, I stood still. It wasn’t like I didn’t deserve it.
David Royal didn’t waste time throwing a punch he’d been dreaming about the entire time I’d been in jail. He’d been at the courthouse, too. I expected this.
“You asshole,” he yelled.
I rubbed the ache. “That’s your only freebie,” I warned. “I did what I promised and now we are even.”
“No one told you to fuck her.”
I licked my lips, though I wanted to close my eyes and sigh. He would have tried to hit me again, which was probably his end goal. He wanted me back in jail and he was provoking a fight. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction because I needed to rescue his sister again.
“I’m sure she shared with you why that had to happen. No doubt based on your reaction, she isn’t speaking to you.” It was a calculated guess since it didn’t appear he knew she’d been taken again.
He pointed his finger an inch from my nose. “You touch her again and I’ll kill you. You Kings think you can have whatever you want.”
His feelings for Natalie hadn’t diminished since our last conversation. He was still smarting from losing her to Liam King.
“First of all, I’m not a King.”
“Who knows who the fuck you are? Your name isn’t Shawn. That much, I know. I will find out the rest. You can bank on that.”
I blew out a breath. “David, I’m not your enemy. I did what I had to do to protect your sister. Trust me, the other option was worse,” I said, trying to convince him.
“You should have called the police and told them where she was. You should have called me.”
I shook my head. “There was no way to know if the intel was good. I couldn’t spook the guy who had her by letting the cops swarm without confirmation. You may not like the outcome, but I got her out, just like I promised.”
What I should have done was throw in the fact that I’d paid millions for her return. I should have asked him to repay me. But for reasons I didn’t understand, I kept that to myself.
He stepped back, still pointing that finger at me. “You stay the fuck away from her, or you’ll be on the wrong end of a Royal. Kings be damned.” He stomped off, got back in his car, and pulled off.
I turned toward my handler. She laughed. Seconds later, before I made a move in her direction, a dark sedan pulled up in front of me. “Are you Shawn?” an attractive woman with brown skin and braids asked from the open passenger side window. “I’m the Uber you called.”
I glanced at my phone, and it was still dead. I nodded anyway and got in. That wasn’t the plan my handler and I discussed. But a manilla envelope with the name Griffin scrawled across it sat in the passenger seat.
Griffin was my sister’s husband’s brother’s best friend. Yeah, that was a mouthful. He’d also been half in love with my sister before she’d chosen Connor over him. But Griff was good people. A funny guy who acted like nothing in life mattered but life itself. There was more than met the eye. I hadn’t liked his best friend, Kalen, who’d stolen my sister’s best friend, Bailey, from me. Yet, I liked Connor, the man banging my sister, Griff was the brother I’d never had. He and I commiserated a lot about being the single half of my brother-in-arms pack. We’d come together with a cause, leaving our differences behind. It started when Kalen needed me to help him find Bailey. And it’s been the four of us ever since.
Clearly, my brother-in-arms was aware of my release. Not surprising, given he owned a security company, and he was likely following my situation at the same level or more than the FBI.
As we passed my handler, I gave her a two-finger salute as she lost that toothy grin she’d initially flashed my way.
“You work for Griffin?” I asked.
“Guilty,” she said with a glorious smile before telling me her name. “Kelsey.”
My boy was in trouble. She was the kind of distraction I would have wanted if my head wasn’t solely on Tayla. The fact that he’d sent this woman to retrieve me showed the level of trust he had with her.
At a stoplight, not far from the prison but far enough away from that and any traffic, she handed me the envelope. Inside, I found cash, a fake ID, and a burner phone.
“I’ll drop you off at a hotel. We didn’t reserve you a room so as not to leave an electronic record that could be followed. However, we did confirm that there is availability. There should be enough cash there to book a couple of nights.”