Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
He sensed Joss’s tenseness. She should shut up now before she signed her death warrant.
“There are others … quite unique.” She leaned closer, her breath fanning over his wrist. “You care about them deeply. Their fate is in your hands. I can see their faces, hear their names.”
Bono closed his eyes for a second. Don’t say it.
His silent plea was futile, because she rattled the names off like a chant. “Maya, Lann, Sean, Clelia, Ivan, Sahara… Cain Jones.” Her lips parted in a silent gasp. “They’re here, in Amsterdam. You’re all in danger.”
Fuck. No.
Joss clenched his right hand into a fist around the ring with the contractible spike, a weapon designed to slip through a search. A puncture in her jugular vein and a flick of his wrist was all it would take to put out the sad fire in those expressive eyes. One code word spoken into the communication system of his wrist pad, and the people whose names she’d recited would descend on the club. They’d make sure Joss and Bono got out alive, pull the plug on Doumar’s operation, and take down the Dutchman. These were all good things, but her life seemed too high a price to pay.
Bono tightened his fingers around hers in silent warning, trying to shut her up, but it was too late.
“Your enemy…” She paused. “He’s close. He’s going to…”
Joss inched back his chair, his body like a coiled spring. Before he could act, she jerked away from them as if their hands had caught fire.
With a gasp, she jumped up, knocking down her chair. “You have to go.”
Joss was on his feet in a second. He grabbed her wrist as she tried to back up, his words coming like a growl through tight lips. “What did you see?”
With his wild hair and eyes, Joss was a frightening bastard, but she didn’t wilt or fight his hold. Instead, she met his gaze and squared her shoulders. “You don’t want to know.”
Joss shook her non-too gently. “What did you see?”
Bono stood and laid a hand on his boss’s arm. “Joss.”
Joss opened his fingers one by one, allowing her to pull free, but he wouldn’t let the question go. “I won’t ask you again.”
“Believe me, you’re better off with ignorance.”
“Ignorance?” Joss gave a wry chuckle. “In my line of business, never a good choice.”
“Please, go.”
“Not before you tell me what you saw.”
She cast a gaze toward the corner of the ceiling again. “Doumar’s men are on their way.”
“Then they die here today, and so do you.”
Despite the calm she feigned, her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths.
“Tell him,” Bono urged. “He won’t ask if he can’t handle it, and he won’t leave until you do.”
She looked between Bono and Joss. “Have it your way. I hope you’re right. I hope you can handle the truth.”
“Spit it out,” Joss hissed. “What did you see when you recited those names?”
Clenching her jaw, she said, “You’re all going to die.”
Chapter 2
Whatever Sky was going to say, Bono knew he wouldn’t like it, but this prediction made his skin crawl.
“Are you telling the truth?” Joss asked.
“I never lie about the future.”
Joss gripped her wrist and squeezed until her fingers were splayed wide, at the same time releasing the spike in the ring on his other hand.
Fear finally crept into her pretty eyes. “Please.”
Joss’s big hand on her delicate arm didn’t look right. In a reflexive move, Bono stepped forward to shield her.
Joss gave a slight shake of his head, indicating he wasn’t going to harm the woman. At least, not yet.
“It’s all right, Miss Val,” Joss said. “I just want to taste you.”
Her lips parted, either in protest or shock, but Joss pricked her index finger with the spike before she had a chance to utter a word. Catching the drop of blood with his thumb, he brought it to his mouth.
She frowned. “You’re not a vampire.”
“Thank you for your honesty,” Joss replied. “And for your blood.”
From Joss’s morbid expression, Bono gathered she hadn’t lied. Joss could tell almost anything about a person by tasting their blood. It was a unique ability, one Bono still found as weird as hell even after working for Joss for several years.
The door flung open. Three men dressed in club T-shirts and carrying guns stood on the threshold.
“Is there a problem, Miss Val?” the man in the front asked.
“These customers were just leaving. You can show them out.”
Bono waited for Joss’s cue to see if they’d be fighting or going. Thankfully, his boss turned for the door. As Bono followed, Sky’s fingers skimmed over his upper arm.
“Did you get what you came for?” she asked when he looked back at her.
He took in those haunted blue eyes. It wasn’t an easy question to answer, because they’d come for her.
“No,” he said.
She slipped a business card into his hand. “Then you better come back.”