Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
I didn’t say a word to that as the man slowly let me go.
“The plan was to keep him distracted by you to get to the girl,” the man said as he taped my wrists. “The girl was who we wanted all along. But the girl is smart. She’s never alone. She is so aware of her surroundings that it’s insane. Almost as if she was looking for us. The first time, we should’ve known that you weren’t her. You looked older and had more curves. You also weren’t ghost white. But…the boys got a little excited, thinking that it was really easy. But…it wasn’t. Got a few of them in trouble, but little tight ass Beatrice paid for their bail with the boss’s money, allowing us to finish the job. Just didn’t realize that you were so resourceful…or that you would have the girl covered. It’s unfortunate that you got here today. Otherwise it would’ve been her and not you…but you’ll have to do at this point. Hopefully the big boss won’t care. He said only a young white girl would do—Beatrice’s girl. Hopefully he won’t notice you’re not all that white. I’m not going in there empty-handed. He said this was our last chance.”
It wasn’t just a tan.
Not even fuckin’ close.
I consistently had this ‘tan’ for 365 days a year. I could thank my father’s heritage for my beautiful skin.
Unlucky for boss man.
Plus, I would not be leaving this place with him.
No sir-ree.
The tape on my hands tightened, and I tested the strength.
It was tight, but not unbearable.
I could lift my arms under my legs and have my arms in front of me pretty easily if the man left me alone for a few seconds, and then I could bite the tape off.
But then the man, as if reading my thoughts, turned me around and covered my mouth with a piece of tape.
I glared.
It was the man I’d stabbed in the throat with a screwdriver.
Fucker.
I should’ve stabbed him in the heart.
The man practically took the thought right out of my brain.
“Yeah, you remember me, don’t you?” he asked.
I didn’t bother to nod my head.
I’d remember him forever, now.
“Let me tell you something,” he said. “You should have done it right the first time.”
Then I was being pushed through the stairwell door and forced to walk up the stairs.
We made it to the last level before he shoved me into the corner near the fire hose at the top.
“Put your hands there,” he ordered.
I wrapped them around the wheel that was used to wind the hose back up, and he taped me to it.
“I’ll be back, sweetheart.”
He turned to leave, and something overcame me.
Something big.
A voice in my head said kick him and, not one to ever argue with my inner superhero, I leveraged myself up using the wheel between my hands, lifted both of my feet off the ground, and braced my shoulder against the wall.
When he took a step forward, I let them fly, straight into his lower back.
He went awkwardly forward, falling face first down the stairs.
And I closed my eyes the moment I heard the audible snap of a bone breaking.
Then I leaned over and swallowed bile just as the man’s body hit the landing below the one I was on.
Closing my eyes, I started counting to ten.
Then fifteen. Then a hundred.
I didn’t stop counting until somebody found me over thirty minutes later.
***
Frankie
I wasn’t too sure how I ended up in this man’s arms, but I wasn’t complaining.
I’d never, not once, been held like this by someone that wasn’t my father.
I never knew what I was missing.
Holy shit, but the man was beautiful, and I wasn’t quite sure where he fit into all of this in the grand scheme of things.
What I did know was that it took all of three seconds for me to see him and fall for him, despite my life swirling down the drain around me.
And now, hours after first seeing the man, I was in his arms.
“Let me go!” my mother screamed so loudly that my already battered head started to pound.
Then she started to thrash. “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.”
One second, I was on the ground with the man’s arms around my shoulders, and the next I was being lifted and taken away.
I started to shiver.
“Where are you taking me?” I breathed into the man’s chest.
“Down the hall to where my sister is,” came the man’s reply.
“I don’t remember your name.”
Such lies. I knew his name. Hell, it was burned in my memory.
“Luca.”
Chapter 27
I’m polite, but I’m also an asshole. I’ll hold the door for you. While you’re thinking that I’m nice, I’m thinking that you need to hurry the fuck up, stupid.
-Cora to Coke
Coke
I didn’t know what to do with it.
I was standing in the middle of the parking lot, staring at the purse, my heart hammering.