Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
What if he took her? There was talk he was going to have her moved to Ocala. She’d be safer there. Thinking about it was making me crazy. She trusted me. It was me that she wanted to stay with. I would keep her safe. She would be scared if he made her leave. She wouldn’t know anyone. There was no Maeme there.
There was no me there.
But she was never meant to be mine. No one was.
The door to the lounge room opened, and I looked up from the cup of coffee in my hand to see Thatcher walking in, followed by Storm and Sedona. They hadn’t brought her here to fuck. I knew without them saying it why she was here, even before I noticed Storm’s Glock pressed against her back.
Setting my cup down, I stood up from the sofa and looked at her. She wasn’t the one I’d expected. The airheaded blonde thing had thrown me off. I wouldn’t have guessed she could pull anything off like this or that she had the balls to try.
“I can explain,” she said, staring at me with tearful eyes and terror on her face.
“Not sure he cares, but we need to know before I let him kill you,” Thatcher replied, pulling out a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it up.
“You put trackers on them?” I said to Thatcher.
He nodded and let out smoke through his nose. “Yeah. This one left here and went straight to the Insantos’ compound. It’s always the stupid ones.”
“I didn’t know who they were. Who Falcon was. He came into the club and tossed a lot of money my way. I was in too deep with him before I knew it. They’re dangerous,” she blubbered as tears rolled down her face.
Thatcher let out a dark, maniacal laugh. “They’re dangerous,” he repeated, then laughed again.
She had done it. She was who had led them to Rumor.
Stalking toward her, I tried to get control of the fury rolling through me. Rumor had been shot at because of me. I’d brought Sedona here, and Rumor was now in danger because of it.
Storm dropped his gun from her and stepped back, grinning. “You’re gonna wish I had shot you instead,” he drawled just before I got to her.
She started to back up frantically, shaking her head and pleading with me to believe her. When she hit the wall, I was there. My hand wrapped around her throat.
“What did you tell them?” I asked her, flexing my fingers that ached to dig in. Make her pay for what she’d done.
“He asked me to look for her. Showed me a picture,” she rasped as I tightened my hold on her neck.
“Might want to get all the info before you kill her,” Thatcher called out from across the room.
“I can’t…” she gasped, trying to breathe.
I eased my grip just enough so she could talk. Thatcher was right. We needed all the information she could give us.
“Uh, Rumor, you need to go back upstairs, yeah,” Sebastian said behind me, causing me to swing my head around to see her standing there.
Fucking hell.
• thirty-seven •
“He had managed to reach my soul and wrap it around his finger.”
Rumor
I heard Sebastian’s voice, but I was frozen. Unable to look away from King. My chest hurt in ways I’d never experienced. It was hard to breathe. It didn’t matter that we were friends. Because it was more than that to me now. How could it not be? King had been…was…everything to me. He’d been my savior, then my friend, now my lover. How was I not supposed to feel more?
Seeing him with her. Again. Knowing what he liked to do with her and other women like her tore through me like a knife. The pain was almost unbearable. The truth sank in like a brick in my stomach…I’d let myself fall in love with this man. A man who would never be more than what we were. He would always want women like her. Need them.
King’s blue eyes were almost black as he stared at me. I’d caught him in a moment of his twisted sexual passion. I could see the way his pupils had almost taken over the color I had come to adore. I was so stupid. Last night, I had let myself believe he wanted me like I did him.
“Go back to the room, Rumor,” he demanded.
Really? That was what he was going to say? He had just been inside of me four hours ago, screwing me like he couldn’t get deep enough.
“Rumor! GO!” he shouted this time.
I couldn’t breathe. His words were equivalent to a boulder being slammed into my chest. I backed up slowly, not looking to see who else was in the room. I knew Sebastian was there, but I didn’t want to see his face. See the pity there. I was crumbling, and I needed to do it alone. Find a way to pull myself back together.