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)
Thorin flashes a condescending smile. “If it were that easy to kill Isaac, we would have done it by now.”
“It’s been ten years. Do you even know if he’s still alive? A man like that has to have enemies. Also, karma. Also, what he’s doing to people is incredibly illegal. Who’s to say he’s not in prison by now?”
“He’s not,” Khalil confirms. When I give him an inquisitive look, he matches Thorin’s condescending look. “You really think we’d let ourselves stay in one place for so long without keeping tabs on him?”
“How?”
“A friend from back home. Someone Isaac would have no reason to connect us to.”
“So call him. Get the four-one-one so we can one-eight-seven his ass.”
“It doesn’t work like that. Quentin will only send us a message if we have a problem. No message, no problem. It’s safer this way.”
It’s quiet for a while, and then I let my intrusive thoughts win. “What if Quentin’s dead?”
Khalil gives me a blank look. “Then someone he trusts will let us know.”
“Right, okay, sure. I still think murder is the only way.” Thorin, Khalil, and Zeke visibly clench their teeth, and I spot at least one twitchy palm.
“Aurelia may be right,” Zeke says, weighing in for the first time. “We’re too exposed here now.”
“There is another solution. We can leave,” Thorin says with his dominating gaze locked on mine. It’s all I can do not to squirm and agree to whatever he says. “Disappear again.”
“Like…forever?”
“I wouldn’t mind somewhere warm and tropical this time,” Thorin says as he tips his warm beer to his lips and takes a swig. “Aruba, maybe.”
“But like…forever?”
The three of them stare at me, but Khalil is the first one to break the stony silence. “You agreed to this, Aurelia.”
“No. I agreed to a life with you. I’m just trying to offer an alternate reality of what that looks like. You have more reason to go back than any of us. Don’t you want to see your family again?” It was a redundant question because I’d glimpsed Khalil’s sadness when he thought no one was looking. Of the three, he had given up the most, leaving his old life behind—a rising career, a chance at marriage and kids with someone not in love with his best friends, and his family.
“Of course I do,” he snaps back. “But I’m not willing to risk any of you to make it happen.”
“It doesn’t have to be your burden alone. If we could just be on the same page for once, we could do this together. Share the risk together. We wouldn’t have to spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders. We could be free.”
“And is this what you need?” Zeke asks. I turn in the water to face him, and for a moment my focus is locked on the troubled pinch between his brows. “To be happy…with us?”
“No,” I answer easily, and the furrow clears. “Killing my uncle and your brother will just be the cherry on top. I think it’s what we all need to finally feel safe, and I don’t think we should have to choose between one or the other. We can and should have both.”
“Okay,” Thorin says and I’m turning again with my wide eyes shifting between the three of them.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Khalil says and then downs the rest of his beer and tosses it onto the shore. I frown at that and make a mental note to make him pick it up later. This place is too beautiful for him to litter. “If that’s what you want, then fuck it. We’ll kill them all for you, baby.”
I only just remember not to smile like a loon at that and choose to appear responsibly grim about taking a human life instead.
KHALIL
Ugh, my feet hurt,” Aurelia whines for the second time in ten minutes. We’re finally heading back to the cabin after spending a couple of days camping by the falls, rather than leaving the next morning as planned.
I stop walking and wait for her to pass me before I scoop her spoiled ass up since I know it’s what she wants. We’re not far from the ATVs anyway, and I’m tired of damn near breaking my neck to make sure she’s still behind me every time she rolls an ankle or falls a little too quiet for my liking.
“Aww, thank you, my big, strong man. That’s why you’re my fave.” She pats my cheek.
Thorin damn near trips over his feet and I smirk at the instant jealousy flooding his blue eyes when he turns around. “Wait, what? Why is he your fave?”
Aurelia hoods her eyes and raises her nose like the princess Zeke proclaims her to be. “Because both of you pretended not to hear me. That’s why.”
Thorin looks at me in complete confusion. “Hear what?”
I could explain to Aurelia that he really hadn’t heard her complaints because he was deep in thought figuring out how to deliver her uncle’s head to her on a platter, but I’m not willing to give up my spot as number one, so I leave his ass out to dry. “No clue.”