Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
The world is moving too fast.
Trees blur past the windows in streaks of brown and green. The sky is bleeding from gray to pale pink, and I am in the back seat of an SUV with a man who just kidnapped me—and killed two freaking people and will probably kill me next!
“Ahhhhhh!” I scream again. And again. And again. And I don’t stop screaming until my sobs roll one into another.
“Blair,” he says. “It’s okay. I promise. You’re safe. I’m not going to hurt you. I’d never fucking hurt you.”
“Do not say my name like you know me!” I shout at the top of my lungs, tears flowing down my cheeks. “You don’t know me!”
“I do know you,” he says. “I fucking know you more than I know myself.”
“What does that even mean?” I shout. “Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Because I have to protect you.”
“Protect me?” I cry. “You kidnapped me!” I lean as far forward as the restraints allow. “You took me against my will!”
“I rescued you before they could take you.”
“What are you even talking about?!”
“I’m talking about fucking Holland. I’m talking about the fucking elites. I’m talking about Damien. I’m talking about what I just saved you from.”
My body stills, and I stare at him in the rearview mirror. His green eyes are just as recognizable as I thought they were when he first showed up in my driveway. “It is you! You were at the preview, weren’t you?” I yell at him. “You were there! I remember you!”
He doesn’t say anything.
“Why are you doing this?” I cry. “You didn’t even talk to me the other night, but now, you’re kidnapping me? This doesn’t make any sense. Is this some kind of game? Some kind of ego thing? A competition with Damien?”
“This has nothing to do with ego, Blair.”
“Stop saying my name like you know me!”
He doesn’t say anything after that. Instead, he keeps his eyes on the road, and I fight against the restraints in the back seat, trying everything I can to get out of them. My lungs scream out for help the entire time.
But when I look up, my eyes don’t miss the way light hits his face. The way his blond hair shimmers or the way his green eyes turn almost violet.
And I freeze.
Because I know that face.
The hair.
The jaw.
The eyes.
The blond vampire doll with the green-violet eyes that I love so much—live and in person.
I shove the thought away instantly, mentally chastising myself. Oh my God, Blair, this is clearly not that! This is a freaking kidnapping by a deranged psycho! He will probably murder you!
“W-why are you doing this?” I ask him again.
“Because those men aren’t who you think they are. Because they plan to destroy you.”
“Oh my God!” I shout out in frustration. “You think my family would send me somewhere unsafe? Are you for real right now?”
Silence.
“You think my mom doesn’t know what she’s doing?” I scream. “You really think she would put me in harm’s way?”
Still, silence.
He doesn’t look at me. And somehow, that makes it worse.
I stare at the side of his face instead, at the straight line of his nose and the tight set of his mouth. He doesn’t look wild. He doesn’t look unhinged. He looks completely in control, which is very confusing for someone who just got kidnapped by him.
“You think it’s a fairy tale,” he says, his voice low in a way that urges goose bumps to roll up my arms. “But it’s not.”
“You don’t know anything about what I think or don’t think.”
“I do.” His voice is so certain that it makes me angry.
“No, you do not! You don’t know anything about me!”
I look out the window, and a pit forms in my stomach as the road narrows and the trees grow denser and all signs of civilization begin to fade into forest.
“Where are we going?” I demand. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Somewhere safe? Somewhere safe?! I was at my house! I was safe until you freaking kidnapped me!”
He glances at me over his shoulder, and something in his eyes makes my stomach drop. “You weren’t safe,” he says. “You weren’t safe at all.”
I hate that my pulse stutters at the way he says it, like he knows something I don’t. Because there is no freaking way he knows anything about me or what the future holds for me. He clearly has no clue that he’s quite possibly ruined my entire life.
“You’re wrecking everything,” I whisper, tears burning unexpectedly behind my eyes. “You have no idea what you’ve done. What you’re keeping me away from.”
He looks forward again. “I know exactly what I’m keeping you away from.”
The quiet conviction in his voice is more terrifying than if he’d yelled.
I look away from him, but I can’t stop seeing it.