Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Yeah. I was fucked sideways. To hell and back.
Chapter Three
Olivia
I was so fucked. Not only was I alone in a house with the scariest man I’d ever seen, but I was crazy attracted to him. And he would likely kill me when he figured out what I was doing, because that’s what he did. He was a straight-up killer. I wouldn’t blame him either. I was sacrificing these men and women to save myself.
OK, so that wasn’t exactly true. I was sacrificing them to save my father, even though he didn’t deserve saving. Especially not at the expense of these people. People who went out of their way to help a perfect stranger because she’d indicated she was in danger. Mr. Black had been right. He was the one who’d told me all I had to do was play the damsel in distress, and this bunch would bring out the big guns. Grim Road had certainly gone way the hell out of their way to help me. I tried to cling to what Black had told me about them. That they’d basically killed villages of people, multiple villages, in countries where no one cared, just because they could.
Water sluiced off my skin under the cascade in the shower. He was right that I wanted to freshen up, but it wasn’t to wash off my day. It was to wash off his scent. The longer I smelled him, the more under his spell I fell. I wanted to trust him, to tell him anything he wanted to know, which wasn’t like me. I’d learned early on to keep my head down and my mouth shut. All because of my father.
I shivered. They’d threatened my father, and my father had threatened me if I didn’t do as they asked. While I might want to leave him, to tell this group of warriors everything and hope they’d save me, his threat that someone worse than the feds would turn their sights to me was what I was worried about most. I knew my father was into bad shit and I’d said nothing, helping him run the company because he knew my brain would serve his business better than my body would serve his associates. My mother hadn’t been so lucky. If I betrayed Black and ended up here with the people I’d intended to spy on… was that the “something worse” my father had been alluding to? There was no doubt in my mind once they found the extent of what I was doing, leading Mr. Black and his associates straight to them, they’d make me suffer.
I took my time in the shower, not really washing so much as letting the water fall over me. I hadn’t looked through the duffel yet. There wasn’t any soap or shower gel in here anyway. Besides, I didn’t really want to wash off Bear’s scent. Not like I should want to, anyway. No. This was my one time to feel sorry for myself before I had to suck it up again. I could do this. This would not break me. The situation wouldn’t anyway. But the resulting guilt and self-loathing might. These people didn’t deserve my betrayal, and I had no idea how I was going to follow through. Maybe it was time to consider my options. Maybe I could find a way out before I did something unforgivable.
With a sigh, I turned off the water and snagged the towel I’d thrown over the top of the shower. With the door open, I wasn’t getting out without covering up. Despite my attraction to him and how safe I’d felt in his arms before, the fact was I didn’t know this man. I didn’t think Apple would have told me to call a group of men who’d hurt me when I was already in trouble, but who really knew?
I stepped out of the shower and peeked around. Bear wasn’t in sight, so I poked my head out the door of the bathroom to the main bedroom. Not there either. This might be my one chance to do what I was supposed to before they took my phone. And I knew they’d take it eventually. If they did, it would all be over. My life would change forever, but maybe Grim Road wouldn’t be affected. That would take the pressure off me, take the decision out of my hands.
My clothes were still in the bathroom where I’d removed them. There was an app I was supposed to activate when I got to the clubhouse, but it looked like I wasn’t gonna make it there. So I activated it now. It was supposed to give the men who had my father access to anything electronic that used Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cell service. I had no idea how it worked. They’d had to give me a special phone, but it had been my only instruction. They didn’t care if I got out of the compound or not. Only that I gave them access to it and its location.