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 fuck is wrong with her? She’s heading right for them now.
My hands go out wide, ready to throw myself out the fucking window as I watch their interaction. One of the guys points around the corner, and Aria glances back, following his lead. She nods and smiles, and just like that, she turns on her heel and heads back the way she came.
“What in the ever-loving fuck is she doing?” I mutter to myself, pacing in front of the window as I watch her disappear around the corner.
Anxiety eats at me, and I count the seconds. One minute. Two. Three and four.
What the hell is this woman doing to me? Does she have any idea how insane she makes me, or is she doing this on purpose?
Fuck!
Almost seven minutes go by, and I start to turn on my heel, ready to go after her, when a wave of flaming auburn hair appears from around the corner on the sidewalk, pillows and blankets shoved under her arms and a proud-as-fuck smirk on her face. She glances up toward the window, knowing damn sure that I’ve been watching her, and as her cool, calm, collected stare collides with my wild one, she laughs. She actually fucking laughs.
Fuck me. She’s going to get the attitude fucked right out of her.
With every step she takes, bringing her perfect ass back to me, my body starts to relax. She more than pushed my limits by heading into that store. I was about ready to lose it, but I should have known better. The Riley I grew up with was always testing limits. She didn’t care as long as she was having a good time.
As she approaches the main entrance of the apartment complex, my gaze sweeps across the street, taking in the lingering people and making sure that nobody is taking too much notice of her, but from the look of it, everyone is too caught up in what they’re doing to pay attention to the fiery redhead walking through the street with pillows. All but one.
A man in a black hoodie stands across the street, watching every step Aria takes, and as she slips inside the apartment complex, he reaches for something at his shoulder before pulling it to his mouth. A radio maybe? He’s too far away to be sure, but there’s no denying he’s carrying some serious heat. The way his hoodie sits tells me there’s a bulletproof vest under there, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s a fed.
His gaze sweeps up the length of the complex, and I discreetly fade back out of the window.
Fuck. Not good.
Inching back toward the window, I peer down just in time to see the man push away from the street, cut between parked cars, and head toward us. As he slips inside the building, following far too closely after Aria, he pulls a blade, preparing for a fight.
Okay, so not a fed. Hitman maybe? Contract killer? He walks like a fed though, and that puts me on edge, but a fed wouldn’t walk in here without backup, and he would have reached for his gun, not a blade.
Either way, this shit isn’t about to go down on my watch, at least, not the way he thinks it’s about to go down. He thinks he’s got the element of surprise, but he’s about to learn a very hard lesson.
I spare another quick glance down at the street, making sure the fucker is alone, and when there’s no other movement, I silently slip out of the apartment and race down the long corridor toward the stairwell. Maybe I made a mistake bringing her here. We should have laid low longer. Waited out the feds until they moved on to their next biggest target.
Soft humming fills the stairwell, and I silently curse her for taking her sweet time, but the moment she clears the landing, I reach out and grip her arm, pulling her into me as I press my hand against her mouth.
Aria’s eyes go wide, but she relaxes as she sees it’s just me. “Someone’s following you,” I whisper, pulling her right in against me. “Run to the apartment. Lock the deadbolt behind you and hide in the closet. Understood?”
She frantically nods, and I reluctantly release her, wishing I could keep her right here where I can keep an eye on her and make sure she’s safe, but I don’t know this fucker that’s coming up the stairs. I don’t know what he wants or what his skill level is. Am I his target, or is it both of us? Do the feds know that she’s no longer a hostage? On top of that, what the fuck was said into that radio? Was our location given up? Are we no longer safe here? Either way, this motherfucker will die today. He set his sights on my girl and followed her into the building with a blade, and that’s more than enough to have signed his own death certificate.