Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
I glance at Wynd. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He rolls his shoulder. “Rattled my brain a little, but I’ll live.”
“All right. You need to get Bronco to a doctor. He’s definitely concussed. Could have internal injuries too.”
Wynd brushes glass off his pants. “I’m on your six.”
I stare at him. “Right, because I may need help checking out my penthouse.”
He rolls his eyes. “We didn’t think we’d get hit by a car today, now did we?”
“No. That’s fair.”
And they had shoved us into an alley to box us in clean.
I whistle at two of my men. “Get Bronco to the hospital. Keep me updated.”
They rush forward, taking him by the arms, steadying his bulk between them.
I turn to Wynd. “Secure us another vehicle.”
He glances at me. “Do you want to change clothes?”
“No. We don’t have time. Let’s go.”
When I find Ella, she’s going to learn that this isn’t a game, even though I suspect she feels it is. She better be safe.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Ella
“I know you’re good at this,” Wesley says to me, “but you seem familiar with this particular code. Have you, ah, seen it before?”
“It looks somewhat familiar, but I don’t know why.” I sit back as I lie to him. “I think I purged it from the system.”
He sits close beside me, glancing over his shoulder at the diamonds. They still glow with that sickly yellow tint, as if the sickness in the code has seeped into the stones themselves.
“I don’t think I can restore the stones,” I say.
He leans back, eyes flicking toward the sealed door. “We’re coming up on the two-hour deadline, and this place is airtight.”
“I know it is,” I murmur. “Hopefully she doesn’t want to kill us today.”
“I think she would love that,” he mutters.
I almost smile. “We didn’t save the diamonds now, did we?”
His gaze sharpens. “Did you do that on purpose?”
Of course I did it on purpose. I lie smoothly. “No. I can’t save the diamond. She’s going to need citrines if she wants my help with the energy.”
He appraises me. “Won’t that give you an in to the entire system?”
I shrug. “Not if she locks me out of the computer.”
The hum of the servers fills the pause. The room is colder than I first noticed, the air biting my skin the longer we sit. Rows of black towers line the walls, blinking in uneven rhythm, throwing off pulses of pale yellow light. It feels less like a server room and more like a machine breathing around us, steady, endless, watching.
He leans over, brushing his knuckles across my cheek. The touch is unexpected, and guilt stabs me hard. “So I’ve been thinking.”
Oh, crap. A pit drops in my stomach and I turn to focus on the stones. Away from him. The diamonds dominate the center, their jagged edges catching every glow from the monitors, shadows crawling across the floor in fractured patterns. The chill isn’t just from the air system. It’s from the energy itself—wrong, unstable, turning this place into a tomb.
He doesn’t take the hint. “Ella, I think it’s time for us to take the next step. I know you like all your safe houses and running around town, but would you consider moving in with me?”
My mouth is suddenly dry. He’s smart, he’s sexy, he’s tall, blond, brilliant. “I can’t.”
His eyebrows arch. “Is it because of Justice Beathach?”
I choke, coughing hard even though there’s nothing in my throat. I clear it fast and then sneeze. Twice. “Why would you say that?”
“Bless you. I saw you two dance together at Alana’s wedding.”
“Oh,” I say lamely. I had even forgotten he was there.
Wesley shakes his head. “You know he’s a killer, right?”
“I do know that.” I don’t know what else to say.
I like Wesley. I like him a lot. It has been fun dating him, and it could have been even more fun if I’d let it go farther. But with Justice, it’s different. Messy. Dangerous. Half the time I want to kill him, and the other half I’m tearing his clothes off. I ripped them off once already, and the memory makes my chest burn with guilt. Even worse, I’m enjoying this game we’re playing. My brain needs the challenge, and so does Justice.
I know there’s more to life than passion and sex. I know that. Wesley is hot. He’s steady. He’s brilliant. But he isn’t Justice.
“Why is it?” he asks.
I’ve been lost in my own head. “What?”
“That girls choose the bad boys. Not just the slightly reckless bad boys, but the bad, killer-monster-to-their-souls men beyond redemption.”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I’m not choosing Justice.” My body might have done that, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to end up together. We don’t get along that well.
“Then why not give us a chance?” Wesley asks. He’s so reasonable.
I don’t have an answer.
He studies me for several moments. I like his attentiveness. I always have. But even so, I can’t stop comparing him to Justice, to the way Justice looks at me, the way his gaze burns straight through me. Maybe there’s something seriously wrong with me.