Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 145088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Dex’s heart pumped as he moved out from behind the bush like an assassin in a computer game, gun firmly in his hand. To think that Ryker was making this so easy for him by turning his back on the woods. He’d be like a shadow, and once he struck, Ryker wouldn’t even know what hit him.
The flat roof of the shed started beyond the top of the little cliff where Dex had been hiding, so he took a deep breath and stepped onto the wooden structure at snail’s pace to minimize the noise. Blood pumped in his head, warning that the longer he took, the greater was the chance of Ryker spotting him. And when the bastard swayed his shoulders, as if he were about to turn, Dex leapt to the ground with adrenaline in his veins instead of blood.
The gun sat firm in his ungloved hand, but as he landed, about to take action, something shifted under his boot. A long wooden handle burst out from under the snow, and struck him on the forehead so hard the air around him filled with stars.
Chapter 25 – Hammer
A gunshot resonated over the white landscape, making Hammer stiffen. His first instinct was to duck behind a thick oak, but the sound came from too far to be aimed at him.
Hearing a rifle or shotgun go off in the woods wouldn’t have been that unusual, but the bang he’d heard sounded more like the discharge from a pistol, very much in fact like the model Hammer had left with Dex at the fucking cabin. It could have been Ryker and his guests shooting at some target, but a man shouldn’t act on conjectures.
His throat tightened, and his brain pulsed as if his skull was starting to bear down on it, but as he looked ahead, down the path of messy tracks he and Dex had left earlier, it became clear that if the kid had been captured, he had no time to go all the way to where they’d left the motorcycle. Not just because of worries for Dex’s safety, but also because by the time he got back, Ryker or any of his buddies would have tracked him.
He could not risk it.
Fuck.
His heartbeat quickened, making focus difficult to achieve, and his palm became sweaty on the sledgehammer. He usually had no trouble keeping his nerves in check, and dealing with several enemies didn't frighten him in the slightest, but this time he'd been dealt a wild card—Dex.
Who must have made some stupid mistake, since he shouldn't have had trouble hiding where Hammer had left him. Why the hell would his gun go off, and only once at that? He wouldn't have played with it out of boredom, would he? While irresponsible at times, Dex seemed to have gun safety drilled into him so deeply an accidental discharge didn’t seem plausible.
But as he made all those considerations, his feet were already moving, because the risk of losing Dex made his insides twist like two snakes in a container too small for them both.
Despite knowing that he might put himself at unnecessary risk by following the same path he’d just walked, he stormed uphill. Each second wasted on sneaking around might endanger Dex, and he could not fucking lose him on their first job together.
Blood rushed in his ears when he heard voices, but as he reached the bush that had earlier offered them the first glimpse of the cabin, Ryker’s smooth baritone cut through the crisp air like a hot knife through butter.
“Hammer!”
Double fuck.
How on earth had Dex messed this up? Had one of Ryker’s companions snuck up on him?
Hammer’s head pounded with a mix of fear and fury. He was a bear woken up from hibernation too soon and hated every second of it. But that meant he had lots of angry energy to rip into the bastards holding Dex.
At least he hoped they were holding him, because that would remain uncertain until he heard Dex or saw him. Fueled by the desire to assess the situation better, he made his way toward their earlier hiding spot, making sure to remain on the other side of the slope to keep his position undiscovered. His breath hitched when he imagined reaching that damn bush to discover blood on the snow and Dex’s eyes looking up at him lifelessly, but if Ryker or anyone else put as much as a scratch on Dex, they’d be nailed to trees on five sides of the cabin, and Hammer would wait around to see them mauled by bears.
He could have sworn he’d vaguely heard Dex’s voice through the thudding of blood in his head, but he only spotted him after crawling back to the spot he and the kid had watched the cabin from earlier. The snow made his knees and hands cool rapidly, but Hammer’s attention settled on Ryker, who paced around with a shotgun in hand, breathing out an excessive amount of vapor. Dex lay on the ground, getting cuffed by one of the bastard’s buddies. A large bruise stained his forehead, but he was alive, and that was the only thing that mattered.