Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Finn walks beside me as we make our way from the building and into the night. I shiver, and he rests his coat around my shoulders like a man on a date, not someone taking his glorified sex-slave back to his remote cabin in the woods. Fear and trepidation consume me, and my knees feel like they could go out from beneath me. My breathing is labored, and Finn’s hand, which suddenly grips my elbow, is the only thing that keeps me from falling.
West unlocks a truck that reminds me too much of Carter’s, causing slick dread to slide down my spine, but I don’t have time to think before Finn opens the rear door and firmly helps me inside.
The interior is illuminated by a small light that casts the back of Jack and West in an eerie yellow glow. Their oversized frames fill the front seat, their plaid-covered shoulders almost touching across the space between their seats. Finn rounds the vehicle and slides in next to me, his eyes trailing my face and body as I fasten my seatbelt and pull the coat closer around me. The truck rumbles to life, and through the window, I watch as the places I’m familiar with pass in a blur.
“We’re going to go to a store to buy you what you need.” West’s voice breaks through the silence, making me jump.
My instinct is to tell him that they don’t have to spend their money on me, but I can’t live in this one outfit for a year. I could apologize for leaving all my worldly possessions behind, but then I’d have to explain what I’m running from, and that isn’t something I’m prepared to confide.
I rest my head against the car and close my eyes, too overwhelmed to face the future that’s rushing towards me like a swinging ax. I focus on my breathing and the whooshing of blood in my ears until everything around me fades to black.
The next time I come to my senses, I’m lying down against the rough fabric of the seat. Voices skitter on the edge of my consciousness. “She’s literally got nothing, man,” Finn says.
“She doesn’t need much,” Jack says. “It’s not like she’s going anywhere.”
I swallow against the tight constriction of my throat.
“I have some shirts she can have,” Finn says.
“They’ll swamp her.” West makes a gravelly sound in his throat. “Have you seen how small she is?”
“Small enough to break.”
Finn stiffens next to me at Jack’s comment. “She’s brave, Jack. So damned brave to do what she did. The rest of those girls didn’t have a choice but Skye…she chose to be there.”
“Brave?” It’s a word accompanied by a scoff. “Stupid, more like.”
“Yeah, well. We don’t know her story.”
“And we don’t need to know. This whole thing…I told you it wouldn’t end well. It hasn’t even begun well. But you need to make sure you keep boundaries in place. She’s not your girlfriend. She’s not a friend. She’s an employee at best, and she’s going to work for her money. Don’t go thinking you can treat her kindly because that’s fucked up…giving the poor girl false hope and expectations you’re never going to fulfill.”
West must signal because the truck makes a ticking sound and then slows to a stop.
“Is she awake?” he asks Finn.
“She’s sleeping.”
West mutters something and then throws the door open, closing it as quietly as he can. Finn exits the vehicle as well, leaving me trapped in a truck with a man as angry as Carter was when I told him I was leaving. The look in his eyes was as dark as the depths of the underworld.
I lay totally still, keeping my breathing even, praying Jack doesn’t realize I’m awake. Minutes that feel like hours stretch tight around me. My legs ache from being cramped, and my face itches, but I fight the urge to do anything about either.
After what I think must be fifteen minutes, a rumble of motorbike engines surrounds us, vibrating the truck and the air around me. Pretending to sleep amid such overwhelming noise would be stupid and potentially make Jack doubt my honesty in the future. I open my eyes and uncurl so I can see what’s happening. Jack lowers his window.
The motorcycle engines cut, and five leather-clad men remain seated on their vehicles as they remove their helmets and rest them on the handlebars of their bikes.
Their ragged beards and hair are more unruly than the lumberjacks, and a couple of them sport large bellies which hang over their belted leather pants. The others look as toned and muscular as the lumberjacks, covered with ink and wearing leather cuts that read Shadow Outlaws around a sinister-looking insignia.
Finn approaches confidently and embraces one of the biker men warmly. They clearly know each other and there is no threat that I can sense. “Hey, cuz,” he says, clapping the man on the shoulder. The resemblance between them becomes clear.