Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 116(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
“I thought you and I were friends?”
“No offense, sweetheart, but our friendship is not worth several million dollars and a place at the table.”
“A place at the table.” Ella laughed. “You do realize that Mateo will kill you? He will kill all of you.”
“No, he won’t.”
She couldn’t help laughing, but it wasn’t an entertaining sound. She was in a state of shock. “Do you even know why the mafia is the way it is today? Why it doesn’t have a name? Why it has reduced members?”
He still held onto the gun and had it trained right at her.
“Because he killed them all. They took his mom away from him, and he killed them. You can kill me and everyone in this house, but you won’t get far.”
Ella looked at him and wondered what the hell she should do. She didn’t have anything to defend herself, so all she could do was run. She stared at him for what felt like the longest time, and without a second thought, she ran across the room.
The gun fired, and she didn’t know if she felt it, or if the bullets were even close to her. She kept running.
Fear raced down her spine, and she was able to get out of the main sitting room, and silently thanked Mateo for having a house with so many freaking doors. When she first moved in and explored his house, she had gotten lost with all the doors leading somewhere, but now she knew where every door led, and that was exactly where she ran to make her escape.
Running across the hallway, she couldn’t help but scream as she heard the bullet whizz past her head. She let out a scream and quickly took the stairs, hearing more bullets ring out.
Ella went straight to Terry’s room, grabbing the young girl in her arms, and running her toward one of the other bedrooms. She went to the en-suite bathroom and flicked the lock with Terry inside. She quickly ran back to the main door and locked it.
Looking around the spare bedroom, she went into the closet where there appeared to be a baseball bat. She didn’t care why in a random bedroom there was a baseball bat. Grabbing it, she moved toward the main door as she heard him advancing.
He tried the doorknob, and Ella stood there, heart pounding, feeling like she was going to throw up, holding a baseball bat. It had been a long time since she held a baseball bat. Wrapping her hands around the base, she held it tightly, and he kicked the door over and over again. He didn’t seem to stop, but the door was not giving in, even though she saw it moving beneath his onslaught.
Mateo had gotten some good doors for this house. If this was any other kind of situation, she would have been laughing, but right now she couldn’t think. All she could do was react as the door suddenly sprung open, and Ella started swinging. She knew she was hitting his flesh, but she also couldn’t stop. She had to keep hitting him, to find the strength to overpower him. She didn’t care where she hit, as long as she connected with his flesh.
At first, she thought she might actually be winning, but then he grabbed the bat as if he had a burst of strength. It was pried out of her hands, and Ella didn’t have time to react as she felt the burning pain spread across her cheek as he hit her.
Chapter Ten
Mateo had never felt fear before in his life. He had no reason to feel fear because he was used to taking anything that was thrown his way. He won every fight. He wasn’t afraid of dying, because that was part of life.
He’d killed a lot of people in his time, and yet driving back home, knowing there was a chance Lewis was there, ready to kill his woman, he couldn’t handle it. These feelings were not something he was used to.
He’d left Ella and Terry alone with these people because he was convinced they were good people, loyal to him. He was never going to make that mistake again. Mateo tried to press down harder on the gas, but there was no room for him to move. He was down as far as he could possibly go. Gritting his teeth, he felt an anger, a rage he had never felt before.
It was then that he had no choice but to acknowledge what was driving him, and it was a fear of never having the chance to see Ella again. From the moment her free spirit had walked into his bar, he’d been smitten. She was the reason he had stayed at that freaking bar, refusing to leave. She was every reason he didn’t want to leave for a single second. She was everything.