Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
“You think she’s waiting for us at the cabin?”
Khalil risks turning his head to meet my gaze briefly before gripping the steering wheel tighter and accelerating. “Only one way to find out.”
“Yeah, assuming we get there alive.” Zeke scoffs.
“We really need to revisit our decision against giving her a radio,” I say as I lean through the gap in the front seats to stare through the windshield. This mystery would have been so much simpler to solve if she had a radio.
Up ahead the path widens slightly. The rock wall of the mountain on our right becomes shorter until it gives way to trees once again.
We’re nearly there.
Come on, come on, come on.
We drive for another mile before spotting our cabin up ahead at the edge of the cliff.
“The fuck?” Zeke mutters when we reach the clearing. Khalil stomps on the brakes, halting the truck abruptly when we notice the smoke coming out of the chimney.
Despite it being early May, it’s a little chilly today, especially this high up, so a fire makes sense. And there’s only one person who could have lit it.
Khalil, Zeke, and I stare at each other in the space of time it takes for us to all come to the same conclusion before the three of us rush out of the truck and to the front door. We reach it at the same time, and I’m not sure who throws it open, but it doesn’t matter as none of us slow down long enough to file through one at a time. Our large bodies become wedged inside the too-narrow frame and after a lot of grunting, shoving, and wiggling, we finally burst through, collapsing into a pile in the foyer in an embarrassing display.
Aurelia, having a front seat to it all, pauses painting her toenails and looks up from her perch in the loft with her brows raised. She’s freshly showered and dressed in Zeke’s robe, and I can tell it doesn’t go unnoticed by him when his nostrils flare. He looks away, biting back whatever vitriol is on the tip of his tongue when I shove him.
This side of Zeke is uncomfortably new—like navigating unknown terrain while constantly on the lookout for danger. He’s been angry before, sure, but he’s never been mean.
Tatum might haunt him, but I’ll be damned if Aurelia pays the price for that bitch’s treachery.
“Were you being chased?” she asks casually.
Khalil is the first to untangle his limbs from ours and climb to his feet. Instead of barreling for her like he did the entire drive here, he approaches her cautiously as if he fears—just as we all do—that she might change her mind about staying.
“You’re here,” he says once he reaches the edge of the living room, where he has to crane his neck to see her from her high perch.
Aurelia studies him for a moment before nodding once and echoing softly, “I’m here.”
Khalil grabs her ankle and lifts her leg to kiss the bottom of her foot repeatedly in gratitude while staring at her through relieved eyes. “Why didn’t you wait for us?”
Aurelia bites into her bottom lip before reclaiming her foot and shrugging. She glances at Zeke and me before going back to painting her toes with the red polish.
None of us quite know what to say or do since her body language is clearly screaming to give her some fucking space.
So we do.
I go into my room to shower while Khalil and Zeke disappear into the basement to do the same.
We can discuss what the fuck went down between her and the sheriff later.
EZEKIEL
My lungs and thighs burn as I push up the final hill, over the crest, and into the clearing. The snow is long gone, so our glade is green once again, and I can even smell the dew in the air. The air is still cool this high up, but it’s a balm against my hot skin as I wipe the sweat from my brow.
When I see the cabin door, I slow my jogging pace until I’m walking and panting to catch my breath. I usually run every day—sometimes twice a day—but Seth didn’t keep up my routine because I barely made it three miles before turning back.
I’m passing by the woodshed, where the framework of the unfinished bed Khalil’s been building and the small garden that earns a glare from me sits unfinished, when I hear voices and stop walking as if I was caught somewhere I shouldn’t be.
“Where does it go?” I hear Thorin’s rough voice ask.
“Inside me.”
A thud from the shed is followed by a high-pitched inhale in response.
“Where?”
“Inside me, Thorin. Please. I’ve been a good girl,” she pleads in a voice that’s too sweet for the thorns she wears like a crown. “Give it to me.”
My jaw tightens when I hear Thorin’s telling groan coming from the shed where he stores his kills. Losing control, he picks up his pace, the rhythmic pounding of their bodies colliding with complete abandon mingles with their cries, turning our clearing into some kind of salacious Eden.