Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
The second I hear the handle stop from his manually rolling up the window, I chuck the towel to the floor and kick it as far away as possible.
I gag one more time, and Ivan wraps his hand around the back of my neck and squeezes. “Settle, Malyshka. It’s almost over.”
14
IVAN
I keep my eyes on the rearview mirror and don’t bother stopping my hands from running up her thigh.
She glances down but doesn’t react as I stall my hand mid-thigh and leave it there.
My nerves are shredded, and the fresh batch of drugs raging through me isn’t helping the adrenaline now slowly leaking out of me. I can’t think straight. The only thing in my head is getting inside her wet heat and losing myself.
I give her thigh a slight squeeze, using the softness of her skin to ground myself and pull me back from the edge. “We’re almost there.”
Her eyes dart to my face, and I keep my gaze bouncing from her, the road, and the rearview mirror. So far, no one is coming after us. It might not occur to them to track the cars of their employees. But I’d bet a lot of money that Cilla has some kind of tracker in her body. Her father is just bastard enough to want complete control over her life.
Adrian placed a tracker in Valentina, but it was to keep her safe. If Cilla has something, it’s all about fear and control, not safety and love.
“Where are we going?” Her voice is thin and quiet.
I turn slightly to see her eyes before facing the windshield again. “Did they give you more drugs before they shoved you into my cell?” I cup the back of her neck with the hand I had on her thigh.
Cilla shakes her head.
“Are you sure? They didn’t give you anything? Do you know if they placed a tracker in you? Something we need to remove before we’re safe?”
She jumps, and I squeeze the back of her neck a little tighter.
“It’s okay. Calm down. If there is a tracker, I’ll take care of it.”
“I don’t like the fact that I don’t know. That they could have done something to me while I was unconscious or under the influence of whatever my father gave me. You can remove it if there’s something inside me?”
I gently squeeze the back of her neck and keep my eyes locked on the little cul-de-sac streets until I spot the ones I’m hunting for. The suburbs make great places for safe houses, and this one, in particular, is perfect so I can dump this shitbag car in the nearby lake. Kai and I worked out a plan ages ago, just in case anyone needed to get rid of a vehicle quickly.
She’s shaking, and I release her only long enough to flip on the heat. The adrenaline must be crashing for her too, and she’s wearing little more than scraps of lace they’d forced her into to tempt me. They work, hell, she can just be standing in front of me breathing, and I’d pop a boner. She doesn’t need fancy lace or lingerie. Considering our circumstances, I’m hoping these thoughts are a side-effect of the drugs and nothing more. I don’t need a complication like her in my life.
I’ll get her to safety and set her up, but then I’m putting some distance between us while I hunt her father down like a rabid dog.
I pull up outside a little bungalow, put the car in park, and cut the engine. It takes a second to scan the mirrors, looking for any neighbors outside. I might be ignorable, but a half-naked blonde isn’t going to hide easily.
“Ready?” I whisper, grasping the door handle.
She grabs her door, bracing to shove it open. “Ready for what?”
I push the door and race toward the front of the house. She follows, close on my heels. It takes a few seconds to find the hidden key and unlock the door. I release a slow sigh once we are locked inside.
She takes a few short steps forward, surveying the house. It’s been meticulously kept and repaired. We keep all our safe houses stocked and ready to go. Kai even hired a housekeeper to remove the unused food each week and donate it to the local shelter before it goes bad. I couldn’t care less about it, but it seems important to him, so no one puts up a fuss.
I watch her explore the small living room. “Where are we?”
It takes effort to drag my eyes off the curve of her back, the way it leads into the fuckable full globes of her ass. “It’s a safe house. Don’t worry. I won’t let them capture you or me again.”
She turns to face me, her shoulders squared, chin high. “I need you to make sure they don’t have some kind of tracker in me. Do whatever you need to do, but if there’s something they can use to find me, I want it out now. Right now.”