Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
“Isn’t it? They killed Ben and they killed your parents and they know that one more ‘incident’ is going to fuck them. I don’t work for some small-time newspaper, Tierney. I work for one of the biggest fucking papers in the country and every single one of us at the Chronicle is gunning for this guy. Don’t think for one second he doesn’t realize that. If one more reporter dies investigating this, it is a nail in his own fucking coffin. So don’t you worry about me. Okay?”
Heart racing, my whole body vibrating with adrenaline, I let out a shaky breath. “Okay.”
“Good. I’ll reach out when I return to New York. Adila is a setback, but it’s not the end of the world. We can still do this.”
“Okay. Thank you, Perri.”
“Talk soon.”
After we hung up, I stared around the tiny apartment suddenly feeling so restless it was claustrophobic.
I needed to get out.
I needed to expend the rage and fear and frustration building inside me.
In my mess of emotions, I didn’t even remember walking to the guesthouse. One minute I was in my rented apartment, the next I was letting myself into the dark building on the hill. There were solar lanterns at the front door. I picked one up and walked into the dining room. There was currently a wall between it and what was a sitting/leisure area. It was the room with access to the gardens and views of the harbor. I wanted people to see it from the dining room. However, the wall obstructing it was a supporting wall.
Quinn had told me they were putting temporary support braces in place today so they could take the wall down tomorrow.
I noted the braces at either end of the wall. And I noted the sledgehammers.
He’d invited me to be there since it was one of the changes I’d most been looking forward to.
Now it felt like if I didn’t take the wall down right this second, everything whirling inside would suck me into a black hole.
Roughly putting on a hard hat I’d found discarded in the shell of my B and B, I picked up the sledgehammer, surprised by the weight. Back in New York, I’d gone to the gym every other day. There was no gym on Leth Sholas, but I was a mere ferry ride to some of the best hiking trails in the country.
Still, I felt the weight of that sledgehammer in a way I wouldn’t have felt eight months ago. It was a good kind of heavy, though. The kind of ache I needed as I bashed the flat end of the tool into the wall with a forward motion rather than a swing. The impact juddered up my arms, satisfying my writhing rage. Mindless, I thrust the hammer again, watching the plaster work crumble and the brick beneath loosen, the dust irritating my eyes and throat.
But I didn’t care.
Sweat dampened my neck and underarms and my muscles ached as I expelled my burning wrath with each destructive blow. Suddenly, there was a gaping hole in the middle of the wall. But I wanted it all gone. Gone, gone, go—
A large hand wrapped around the sledgehammer, and it was suddenly yanked from my grip with such force, I stumbled backward.
Wiping the sweat and dust out of my eyes, I stared directly into a wide, muscular chest. My gaze moved upward and locked with Ramsay McRae’s. His pale eyes burned with anger and his knuckles were white around the sledgehammer I’d just wielded like a therapy tool.
My heart raced and I was a little out of breath. I could feel the ache in my shoulders and upper arms and knew I’d pay for it in the morning.
But it was worth it.
“What the fuck?” Ramsay bit out, his fury palpable.
Suddenly uneasy, I took a step back. “What are you doing here?”
“I left a tool I need, and it’s a bloody good thing I came to get it. Are you trying to bring this building down on top of you, woman?”
Confused, I looked at the wall that now had a hole in the middle of it. “Quinn braced it. He was going to let me do this in the morning, anyway, so I don’t see what the problem is.”
My attitude seemed to enrage Ramsay even more. “The problem is you are unqualified to take down a supporting wall. Propped braces can move, which they have done.” He pointed the sledgehammer at one of the steel braces. “You need a professional on hand throughout the whole process to make sure everyone is safe.” He stepped into my personal space, looming over me. “You don’t fucking whack at it like a demented banshee with no one else in the fucking building!”
“Stop yelling at me!” I shouted, my nerves snapping. The wall wasn’t enough. I wanted to claw and scream and tear something apart.