Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Ace didn’t hesitate. “Get the details.”
“Why?” Damian asked.
Ace exhaled slowly. “Because he’s in town, and I didn’t like May’s reaction when she saw him.” Or the jerk’s reaction to her.
Christian straightened. “The doc knows the senator?”
“Oh yeah,” Ace said grimly. “She knows him, and she wasn’t comfortable.”
“I don’t know much about her background,” Damian said. “The town hired her before I took over the security at the facility, and it’s not like they would’ve consulted me, anyway.”
Christian lifted his chin. “Still. She signed a three-year agreement when nobody else would. That says something. We’re not exactly a dream destination.”
Ace’s response came fast and defensive before he could stop it. “She likes it here.”
Christian glanced at him. “Yeah. We like her, too.” He clocked the room, his gaze landing on Amka and then returning. “But not many women run to the middle of nowhere without a reason.”
Ace stiffened. His brother wasn’t wrong.
Chapter Four
May checked the window in her kitchen again. It was securely locked with a bar in the sill. Plus, it was light outside twenty-four hours a day right now, so nobody could hide under the cover of darkness.
Not that she was paranoid or anything. She rolled her eyes at herself and returned to her sofa, snuggling beneath a plush blanket Amka had given her as a Christmas present. It was a light pink with a softness that felt comforting. Her gun, fully loaded, lay on the sofa table. She could reach it in a second, although was she really in danger? Her imagination had always been impressive, notwithstanding her fascination with science. Truth be told, most physicists she knew were romantics. They believed in solving the mysteries of the universe, so how could they not be?
She stared at the photograph hanging on the far wall that she’d taken of the town in the midst of a snowstorm. While she loved being a doctor, sometimes she needed a more creative outlet without any stress, and she’d been an amateur photographer for years.
If she ever got up the nerve, she wanted to ask the four Osprey brothers if she could photograph them. Probably in black and white, showing their handsome features.
She fell into an uneasy sleep plagued by snowstorms, Arctic monsters, and freezing rain. The dreams pressed heavy and cold, the kind that left her breath shallow even in rest. A knock on her door sliced through it.
She yelped, bolting upright, heart hammering. The room swam in that strange Alaskan half-light, neither day nor night. She shook her head, drowsy, sounding rough with sleep. “Wh-who’s there?”
“Sorry. It’s Ace.”
What the heck? She checked the clock on the mantle. Oh. Only ten. It was so weird to have night still look like a rainy day outside. Her pulse refused to slow. She reached automatically for the gun, then hesitated, her jaw tightening. With a quiet exhale, she slid the weapon into the drawer of the antique table beside the sofa. No need to greet him like that.
“You okay, May?” His voice came through, deep and low.
She brushed her hair back with restless fingers and padded to the door, still foggy, still tangled in dreams. When she yanked it open, her words came out more clipped than she intended. “Do not tell me you’re bleeding again.”
Ace looked down at her. A fresh bruise darkened his cheekbone, and a thin cut split his lower lip. He filled the doorway with his broad shoulders blocking the pale glow behind him. “Not really.”
Her irritation flared instantly. He’d gotten in another fight? “What is wrong with you?” She threw both hands up, then froze.
Because he was staring. His gaze slid slowly from her sleep-mussed hair to her bare feet, lingering in a way that sent heat creeping under her skin. It wasn’t leering. It was worse. Appreciative. Curious. Entirely aware. “Sorry,” he said quietly. “I woke you up.”
“Yeah. You did.”
“It’s ten at night on a Friday. You really need to get a life, Doc.”
“A life? Like hanging out at the tavern and waiting for someone to piss me off so I can hit them?” She pushed her wild hair out of her face.
He winced. “Touché.”
Whatever. She glared at the fully lit night outside. “When does it start getting dark again?”
Ace blinked, glancing briefly at the greyish sky before looking back at her. “You kind of forget about it once you’ve lived here a while.”
She tried not to notice how good he looked standing there. He’d changed into a light green T-shirt, faded and soft, that stretched across his torso. The color dragged her eyes straight to his. Those ridiculous, unfair eyes.
“Right around August we’ll have twilight again. Then September we get real darkness again. Northern lights, too.” He looked past her into her living room. “Do you have a minute?”
Yeah. Now she had all night, because she probably wouldn’t go back to sleep. “Sure. What the heck.” She slid aside, suddenly very aware of how close he was as he brushed by. The scent of him followed. Clean, warm, and unmistakably male. Her stomach flipped traitorously.