Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Her attacker cursed and released her. She took another swing at his upper body and connected with his forearm as he blocked the strike.
“Fuck you for picking on a woman,” she exploded.
Jumping back, she turned her back and struck off.
“Jasmine!”
She’d not been called that in so long it took longer than it should have to process. Sad, considering it was nothing more than one word. Even on her stolen calls to her sister, her twin, she wasn’t called that. There were no names, just all-too-short conversations.
All of her well-honed survival instincts screamed for her to jet. Bolt away from the hottie man she’d just whipped with her ASP, and yet that deep voice pulled at her, refusing to allow her feet to gain any momentum. Snapping the ASP out once more, she turned back and watched him warily as he pushed to his feet.
There was something very familiar about him but she couldn’t place it. Her brain couldn’t connect what she saw with anything from her memory banks.
“You have thirty seconds to tell me who the fuck you are and why you’re trying to get my attention after attacking me.”
His ball cap, while askew, hadn’t been knocked free, so she was still unable to see his full features. There was a sexy layer of scruff lining his face and while it was nice to see, it only hindered her further from identifying this person. She wasn’t a fan of not being able to see all his features but kept her cool. At least until two other men, large ones, turned the corner of the alley.
Fuck. Exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. She didn’t want to be on anyone’s radar. But she had made it her personal mission to know the names of the players around. Her safety depended on it.
“What happened, Lance? I see this bitch beat you. I think I may need a piece of that.”
Michel Jankovic. Fucking scum but she knew who he was. Again, survival had dictated she know. She flexed her fingers around the ASP against her back leg, aware they couldn’t see it. Taking on the son of Dusan Jankovic would be a death sentence but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Not like I haven’t had that sentence over my head before.
Then there was the other man. The one she’d attacked. Michel had called him Lance.
Again a frustrating tingle of recognition teased her without mercy, but she still couldn’t place him. She’d known a few Lances in her time. Some good, some most definitely bad. Others just running the middle.
Whoever he was, he moved closer to her, keeping up with the forward progression of Michel and his bodyguard. That one would be the one who had to get put down first.
“Just a bit of a disagreement between me and my woman. She’s pissed I haven’t been by in a while.”
His woman? Did this fucker just lay claim to me? Why does that make parts of me that have been untouched for far too long sit up and take notice?
No accent to speak of in that delicious voice and damn it all, she was fucking intrigued. She didn’t move away, instead moving closer to him. She didn’t know who he was, but she was sure that he wouldn’t attack her until he got what he needed from her.
Fairly certain.
Hopeful.
“She doesn’t know her place then, if she doesn’t think a man can go after all the whores he wants.” Even though she couldn’t see him, Michel’s voice was unmistakeable.
The stranger shifted smoothly before her, blocking her view of either man. She narrowed her eyes at his back. Protection wasn’t anything she had counted on from a man for a long time. “I didn’t say she was a whore. I said she was my woman.”
“Same thing.”
He reached back and took hold of her arm. “Not to me. You’re always so curious as to why I turn down the women you toss in my direction. This is why. I have a woman. I have pussy at home, so I don’t need to go out and beg or pay for it.”
Surely she had to be hearing things because it sounded to her like this man, one she didn’t know, had just declared her his woman. Guess my earlier thought was spot-on. And he still held her like he meant it. She was pressed up against him and he’d wrapped his arm around her, settling it on her ass as if she’d not just beat him with her ASP and as if he had the right to touch her in such a manner.
Strange thing was, she was intrigued and didn’t argue with him. While she didn’t completely relax into him, she didn’t fight him on the personal touching or his outrageous claim either.
“We don’t like surprises,” Michel barked.