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)
Lux Valen.
Picking up the final Polaroid, I wipe the blood off it, smearing it across the image before slipping it back into my pocket. I could have walked away from all of this and been content with just Aria, but not now. Not after she was attacked for the second time. This ends now.
Two minutes later, we stand at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at the hell we’re about to walk into. Between the two of us, we’ve got two guns, one with two bullets, the other with four, three blades, including one that’s already sticky with blood, and a plan to get out of here. Though I can’t lie, it wasn’t a blast yanking the third blade out of Nico’s spine, but it was what I needed to confirm that the motherfucker was dead.
“There was a padlock on the door,” she murmurs as we hover at the bottom, both of us terrified that this might be the last time we ever see each other. “I doubt it’s locked but, you know . . . just in case.”
I nod. A padlock isn’t going to hold me back. “You ready?” I ask. Having second thoughts, I take the gun back from her, pull the bullets from mine, and put all six into hers. “Anyone even looks at you wrong, you shoot. Protect yourself. You worry about you. Don’t even think about what I’m doing. Understood?”
“But you—”
“I can handle me, Menace, but unless I know that I can trust you to keep focused, I’ll be too fucking worried about keeping you alive.”
“Okay,” she finally says. “I shoot my way out—”
“And?”
“And if you’re not there in three minutes, I take off.”
“Good,” I say, taking her chin and lifting before brushing my lips over hers in a swift kiss. “I will come for you, Aria. If we ever get separated, I will always come for you.”
She kisses me again before letting out a shaky breath. “I know,” she finally says, “but I’ll be coming for you first.”
A grin tears across my face. “Unlikely.”
She laughs and starts pumping herself up, bouncing her shoulders as though she’s about to step into a ring on fight night, but I see the slight cringe as her movement reminds her just how sore she really is. “Let’s fuck shit up.”
“Okay, Mike Tyson, keep your panties on.”
She scoffs and arches a brow. “I haven’t had any since you tore them off me in the farmhouse, remember?”
“Oh, I more than remember. I think about it constantly,” I laugh, taking her hand and leading her toward the stairs. “Let’s do this. And remember, your ass sticks right on mine until you have a clear shot at the door, and then you run like the devil just clocked in for overtime.”
She lets out quick, shaky breaths, psyching herself up to step right out of her comfort zone and into a war that she should never have been brought into, and as we slowly creep up the stairs, I feel her nerves radiating out of her like static before a lightning strike.
Reaching the top of the stairs, I inch over to the side and gently curl my fingers around the handle before carefully pushing down and releasing the latch. Pushing it open just an inch, I peer out into the room to find that Aria was right. It’s definitely an old restaurant that’s seen much better days.
A quick scan tells me there are at least ten men in the main dining hall of the restaurant, but there’s no telling who else could be stashed away in here.
There are bricks of cocaine piled up on the table and an older man with glasses, madly typing into a calculator. From the sweat coating his forehead and dripping down the side of his face, my guess is that he didn’t come here voluntarily, and from the numbers he’s running, he doesn’t have good news for the Bone Reapers.
I don’t see Lux anywhere, and that pisses me off. This is probably going to be the only shot I have at ending his life, but just because I don’t see him here, doesn’t mean that he’s not about to meet his maker. I need to be alert, need to make sure she gets out, even if it’s the last thing I do.
Reaching back, I curl my hand around Aria’s wrist, grasping her tight. “Ready, baby?”
“No, but it’s now or never.”
“That’s the fucking spirit,” I tell her, and with that, I silently push the door open before springing into the room, pulling Aria along with me and keeping her at my back as I angle us toward the door.
Heads snap up, searching for the threat, but I’m already on them, releasing Aria and grabbing the head of the man sitting directly in front of me. I snap it with ease as the asshole next to him reacts a second too late, giving me the chance to grasp the back of his head and slam it down against the table, knocking him out cold.