Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 108709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 544(@200wpm)___ 435(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
The door at the top of the stairs crashes open so hard it breaks right off its hinges, clattering to the ground at the bottom of the stairs. Every eye snaps toward the man at the top, his whole body vibrating with intense rage.
“FUCK,” someone grunts as Stone launches over the railing and drops straight down into the basement.
“STONE!” I cry as half the men release me, reaching for weapons and going after Stone. The others are still grabbing at my clothes, but I don’t stop fighting, pushing, kicking. I scream so fucking loud I taste blood in the back of my throat.
Blood splatters across the basement, pouring across the ground as everything blurs, but all that matters right now is getting these assholes off me.
I hear the faint sound of sirens in the distance, but it doesn’t keep the men from coming for me, and as I’m forced onto my stomach, someone’s hand digs into the waistband of my pants and tears them down my legs. “NO,” I cry out, trying anything in my power to get these assholes off me.
A sudden wave of heat roars through the room, burning my skin as bright orange flames spread throughout the basement.
“MENACE,” Stone calls, the agonizing terror in his tone like nothing I’ve ever heard as I frantically search the chaotic room. My lungs burn and spasm as the last hands are pulled away, but the smoke becomes so thick, I can barely see through it.
“STONE?” I yell, my chest heaving as I drag my pants back into place and frantically try to get to my feet. “STONE?”
He appears through the smoke, and relief pounds through my veins, but as he steps toward me and I see clearer through the thick haze, I realize it’s not Stone at all. It’s Ash.
He grins at me, and before I even get a chance to scream, he grabs the back of my head once again, slams me hard against the concrete wall, and I crumble.
“MENACE.” Stone’s fearful tone cuts through the darkness as hands grip my shoulders, violently shaking me. “MENACE.”
“NO. NO, NO! DON’T TOUCH ME.”
“MENACE, IT’S ME. MENACE!”
Consciousness roars back.
“Menace, wake up. It’s just a dream. You’re okay. I’ve got you now.”
My eyes spring open to the sunshine pouring in through the Firebird’s windows, and Stone is frantically trying to wake me, his face hovering mere inches above mine.
My horrified stare locks onto his, and my whole body trembles with fear as I gasp for air like my lungs are still filled with smoke. I’m okay. It was just a dream. I’m okay.
I reach for Stone, gripping his arms, digging my nails into his skin, but I can’t let go, and as he stares back at me, all I can do is replay the images in my mind. Is that what happened to me? Is that the fire I was in? Was that a flashback of my old life, of the hell Stone told me we survived together, or was it just some fucked-up dream?
“What is it?” Stone asks as I distantly realize that he’s pulled off the road and is barely in his seat anymore.
I take a shaky breath, staring into his dark eyes, and as I truly take him in, I realize that wasn’t just a dream. No made-up nightmare could conjure eyes that familiar, that detailed. Those eyes . . . They’re the reason for the scar on the back of my head, the reason my thighs and stomach are covered in burns, the very reason I spent almost a year alone in a hospital, desperately trying to regain any semblance of a life. Those eyes took my only family away from me. They’re the reason Stone spent seven years behind bars. The reason the one man who always had my back believed that I’d betrayed him.
“I . . . I think I remember Ash,” I tell Stone.
He closes his eyes and pulls away from me, his hand dropping from my shoulder. “Fuck,” he breathes.
“He was your brother, and my—”
“FUCK!” Stone roars, pushing out of the Firebird and into the deserted country road. He begins to pace, the heaviness of his brother clearly weighing on his mind. He drags his hand down his face, trying to regain composure.
He told me earlier that his brother was dead. But if that was the night of the fire and the night Stone was arrested, then that means that out of the six men he killed that night, one of them was his brother, and he killed him in an attempt to save me. Only I slipped into a coma. I wasn’t there to have his back when he was arrested. I wasn’t there when he was put on trial. I didn’t come forward and save him the way he risked it all to save me.