Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“Magnus, wait.” She got to her feet. “Please—”
I closed the door and bolted it shut.
Her voice sounded through the door. “It was real…”
I stilled at her words, flashbacks coming into my mind, images from the two passionate nights we’d shared. I could still hear the raindrops hit her bedroom window. I could still taste the sweat in the valley between her tits. I could still feel her nails in my back, the pressure nearly breaking my skin. But I also remembered the nights when we just stared at each other, the conversations that unfolded even in the direst circumstances. Beautiful women came and went in my life, but moments like those…never did.
I did my job and kept to myself.
The women worked longer hours because of the increased amount of daylight. The days were getting warmer, the vegetation growing bigger, and the wilderness came to life with green leaves, flowers, and creatures from the forest. Sometimes coyotes would howl to the moon in the middle of the night.
I didn’t have a single ally in that camp because they’d all turned against me.
But still…I didn’t snitch.
I had too much pride to make a single complaint.
But I could never drop my guard because the knife was constantly at my throat. My eyes were always in the back of my head. The guard must have told the others that Raven had been freed from her noose because the hostility was even worse than before.
I ignored it.
I went to the communal cabin to do my checks, and I instantly knew something was off. The guys weren’t seated at the table as usual. There was no one there, all the lights off. But it was too early for them to be in their cabins.
I could feel it.
Then the footsteps sounded behind me.
I quickly ducked then threw my body hard into Alix’s frame, knowing exactly where he stood based on the slight creak of the floorboards. He fell back and rolled down the stairs, groaning as his back thudded against the hardness.
The other guards emerged from the room behind me because it was an ambush.
“Get that piece of shit!” Alix pushed to his feet.
I ran down the steps then kicked him in the face before I jumped over him.
Alix spat out blood then got to his feet, facing me with a whole new level of ferocity. He pulled a knife from his pocket and spun it in his palm. “Get him.” He spun the knife again. “And I’ll cut off the other half of your sac.”
Eric, Karl, and Nathan came toward me, their hoods down, all carrying blades like they were going to slice me into little pieces.
I pulled out my own knife and held my ground. I didn’t turn and run because that would result in a knife in the back. If I was going to die, I’d do it on my own two feet. But I wasn’t going to die. If it were them or me…it would be them.
“You let your little girlfriend go.” Alix stepped toward me, moving over the grass, stalking toward me like a lion in the savanna.
“She’s not supposed to be killed.”
“And she wouldn’t die,” he said. “If she just stayed on the box.” He chuckled.
The rest of the guys chuckled too.
“If I die, Fender will hang all of you.”
“Who said anything about dying?” Alix took another step forward. “We just think you aren’t man enough to have any balls at all, not even one.” He rushed me, his heavy mass sprinting.
I ducked under the knife and kneed him in the balls like last time. Then I tripped him over my knee, making him fly through the air and land on his head, knocked out at the collision. Eric came at me next, and I redirected his knife into his thigh, making him cry out loud, the blood dripping down his leg to his boot. He collapsed and yanked the knife out by the hilt.
Karl hesitated and backed up. He lowered his knife.
Nathan did the same.
I walked toward them, wanting to carve their mouths off their faces because I was furious.
They backed away farther, tripping over their own feet in their hurry to scurry away.
Eric continued to howl loudly, his teeth clenched tightly together as he gripped his flesh wound. Blood dripped onto the dirt.
I walked back to them, taking my time as I stood over them.
Eric looked up at me, nostrils flared, breathing through the pain.
“You should get to the infirmary if you don’t want to bleed out.” I extended my hand to help him up.
He hesitated before he took it.
I pulled him to his feet.
Then I punched him so hard in the stomach he lost his entire breath. “Don’t.” I hit him again. “Fuck.” Again. “With.” Again. “Me.”
He fell to his knees, breathing through the pain I’d just caused.
Alix had woken up with a jolt, and he quickly climbed to his feet.