Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
But it was there.
Suffocating.
As thick as the fear that saturated my spirit.
I told her I’d protect her. I couldn’t fucking fail her the way I’d failed everyone else.
I gripped the butt of the gun in both hands, finger trembling on the trigger.
Sweat dripped down my back.
I cut my attention to the right. To where I knew Styx would be in position, in the line of sight between us and the guys at the front.
Our eyes and ears for both teams.
I watched as five Crows came hustling up from out of nowhere, three parting to the front door and two coming up behind me and Trevan.
I gave the count.
Three ticks of my chin.
Then Styx gave the signal to the guys at the front as soon as I did.
We all busted in at the same time, my crew piling into the office and poised for a fight.
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach when I took in the scene.
That motherfucker was in the middle of the room on this side of the counter.
Brinley’s back pinned to his chest and a knife to her throat.
My ribs squeezed around my hemorrhaging heart.
“Stay the fuck away or she’s done,” he snarled, spinning a fraction as he hauled her back in the direction of the door.
Every eye in the place flashed toward me, my crew looking to me for the next move.
Wondering how I wanted them to handle this.
Safe.
I just wanted her safe.
If it was only us, this would be a bloodbath.
But not when an innocent’s life was on the line.
An innocent whose face was so full of terror it knocked my fucking knees.
Bile climbed my throat as that protectiveness bound up my insides in a ball of aggression.
I wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt her.
I promised her.
Fucking promised her.
“I mean it!” he shouted. The tip of that gleaming blade dug deeper into the delicate flesh of Brinley’s throat.
A droplet of blood dripped from the wound.
“Everyone out of my fucking way, or she dies.”
Rage screamed, and my blood ran hot.
The group of my guys at the front wavered, never ones to stand down, before they split apart, unwilling to take the chance that he wouldn’t drive that knife deeper if they didn’t let him through.
The piece of shit grinned at me from over her shoulder.
Agony licked across my insides.
A howl of misery and determination.
“Drop the fucking knife,” I growled, swiveling a step farther into the room.
Dude was a fool for coming here like this.
A dead man walking.
No question, he was nothing but an expendable messenger.
Kent Ellison didn’t exactly have a reputation for cherishing the sanctity of life.
Which was why I couldn’t fucking wait to end his.
The lowlife in front of me paid no heed, just kept yanking Brinley backward toward the main door.
Every cell in my being writhed, the thirst for vengeance coating my tongue.
Brinley was stiff in his clutches, those eyes that were pinned on me a hurricane of desperation.
Pleading.
A stir of hate and obstinacy rolled through me, and I willed myself not to charge in their direction.
Instead trying to convey to her with my eyes that she was going to be okay.
I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.
“Stop right there or you’re dead.” Violence was carved into my words.
He already was. The fuckwit had to know it.
But maybe he was stupid enough to think he was going to get away with this because he chuckled a low sound and pressed the knife deeper against her throat.
Blood trickled from the tiny gash.
I couldn’t fucking swallow, my pulse thundering, a fucking freight train of urgency that barreled through my veins.
“Nah. Don’t think so. I’m going to walk right out of here and you’re going to let me,” he sneered.
“And how do you suppose? You’re surrounded.” I said it casually. Like the result had already been exposed.
“Because I have what you want.”
I scoffed and tried to play it off. “And what’s that?”
“Her.”
He was right. Utterly, completely right. And for all the fucking wrong reasons.
“Let her go, and I might let you live.”
He smirked. “It’s funny that you think you’re the one in control here. The one calling the shots. Kent asked that I leave a little message for you.”
I huffed like I didn’t give a shit what that prick had to say, all while my finger itched on the trigger, waiting for a clear shot.
Ready to take it the second I had it.
“He wants you to know that you have one more chance.” Deviant sneered it. “He’ll forgive you for that little stunt you pulled with your sister, but when you come crawling back, you know you’re his and you bring Elena with you. He said to consider it part of your debt.”
Rage hit me so hard it was blinding.
Disgust and hate and the truth that I would never let anyone get to my sister again.
“I’m going to take this one with me as a little extra bonus.”