Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 64571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
I drag him down, twist his neck, and he drops. My own breathing is ragged, but I’m not slowing down. The fifth and sixth try to regroup, but Killian is already too close. It’s too late for them. He guts one and kicks the other’s knee backwards, then puts a bullet in his head. Their bodies thump to the grass, heavy and with finality.
Seven seconds. Six bodies. Not too bad.
I taste copper and adrenaline at the back of my mouth. The garden is silent except for the ringing in my ears. Paul’s men emerge, eyes wide and faces pale in the moonlight. I see one of them wipe his mouth, another kneel and retch. I’ll deal with them later.
I wipe my bloody hands on my shirt.
“Make sure everything is secure,” I order Paul.
He gives a stiff nod. “Yes, sir.” He’s still breathing hard and shaken up. He shouldn’t be. This is his fucking job.
Killian looks at me, a question in the angle of his chin. He wants to know if we’re done here or what our next move is.
I shake my head, scanning for the next threat. We’re never done.
We head toward the greenhouse, the cold air thick with gunpowder. I need eyes on Lily—I need to see her alive, unhurt, pissed off and furious at me if that’s what it takes. The next alert goes off, a shrill pulse in my earpiece. I pull out my phone and look at the screen and slow down. Killian does the same, both of us listening.
“They made it to the house, but the vault is still open,” I tell him.
Then a scream slices through the night, cutting right through me. It’s high, furious, and wrong. It’s also from inside the house.
I look up.
In the stained glass window on the second floor of the east wing, there are three silhouettes. Another scream rips through the night, and the window explodes outward, blue and gold glass splintering into the dark. Something heavy follows—someone—falling in a cascade of shards.
The scream cuts off as the body hits the hard, unforgiving ground.
We both take off on a dead run. My gun is still warm in my hand. My shirt’s wet with someone else’s blood. None of it matters. All I care about is getting to Lily, even if I have to die doing it. I’ll take all of them with me.
Chapter Thirty-Two
LILY
“Ladies.” Roland steps aside and gestures with his hand for us to pass by. “I’ll make sure the trash is taken care of.”
Sasha’s head snaps up, mascara-streaked eyes wide. “They’re here. Oh God, don’t leave me!” She jerks hard, trying to break free of the bindings attached to the chair.
The alarm screams through the estate again. “We need to get a new sound.” I nod in agreement with Teddy.
“Yes, maybe it should be calming, or you can’t help but sing and dance to it,” I suggest. You can’t be mad when some songs are playing.
“Just a small-town girl…” Teddy starts to sing Journey.
“Livin’ in a lonely world,” I join because how can you not?
“She took the midnight train, going to the vault,” Roland adds, gesturing for us to get a move on.
“Fine.” I grab Teddy’s arm and hurry up the stairs. Sasha is screaming from behind us, pleading for us to save her. She’s on their team. Why would we save her? Now she’s just being ridiculous.
We scramble up the greenhouse stairs, leaving Sasha’s pleading behind.
We need to haul ass before we get in trouble. We’ll never hear the end of it. Everything feels normal as we move toward the house, then a gunfight cracks through the air, making my stomach plummet. It’s a hard snap back to reality.
“That’s not a good sound,” Teddy says.
“Nope.” I grab her arm, pulling her faster. “Move.”
We run for the main house, almost busting our asses on the wet grass. We go in through the back patio into the kitchen. It’s the quickest way into the house, and there are a handful of directions you can go in.
The lights flicker a few times before going out, the house losing power. The sound of gunfire lights up again outside, this time in another direction. Everything goes dark except for the emergency lighting casting long shadows.
“It will come back on,” Teddy says, grabbing me by my wrist. “This way.”
We move fast, trying to keep quiet. All I can think about is Tristan and Killian and praying they are okay.
Tristan is out there. Fighting and possibly—the thought catches in my throat, but I shove it down. I can’t let that in right now. Vault first. I know the best thing we can do is be out of the way and let them know that we are safe so they can do what they need to do.
We’re almost to the library when the growl stops us both cold.