Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Oh boy. I forgot this will be difficult to eat in your position. I should have made you a protein shake.”
The fact that his captors hadn’t bothered to gag him suggested there would be no point in screaming. Arden’s breathing picked up, his mind calculating his options. Maybe she could become his ally if he played his cards right.
“You don’t want to be a part of this,” he said softly.
She placed the water and sandwich on a counter above two rows of shelves filled with soap and cleaning products, and applied some lip balm.
“I’m sorry, you’re getting this all wrong. You’re the boy Mike’s been sleeping with, right?”
Arden was no prude, but a flush still burned his cheeks. “And you are…? Wait. Are you Harlyn?”
She smiled, and while one of her canines protruded from the otherwise even, white teeth, it didn’t take anything from her attractiveness. “Yeah. I just wanted you to know I made my brothers promise they won’t hurt you. It’s not personal.”
That had to count for something, though it felt damn personal to him. “He doesn’t love you,” Arden said, trying to sound compassionate. He didn’t plan on slapping her on the face with that fact, since that much was obvious from Mike’s reluctance, but he needed to know where she stood on all this.
Harlyn pushed her long silky hair over the shoulder. “It doesn’t matter, okay? I need a way out of this dump. I want to be wild and free, and ride on the back of his bike with his name on my vest. Don’t take this the wrong way, but Mike likes girls. He’d lose interest in you sooner or later, so you’re really not losing anything, but I can have a new life. My family would cut ties with me if I ran off, so the only way I can have what I want is to marry him.”
Arden blinked several times, struck silent.
What. The. Fuck.
All this time, he’d thought—everyone did—that Harlyn was obsessed with Mike, but what she actually wanted was a different lifestyle and an excuse to have it while remaining in touch with her loved ones.
She smiled again, as if she hadn’t just told him the stupidest plan he’d ever heard and unwrapped half the packaging. “Sandwich?”
Arden shook his head.
“You sure? I could cut it into bite-sized pieces,” she suggested and smelled the food. “You could find yourself another biker, if you dig all that leather and motorcycles. We’d be like sisters,” she said, completely oblivious to the craziness of this suggestion.
Maybe you find yourself another biker, Arden thought in frustration, even though her words stung him to the core. Mike wasn’t his anymore.
His chest filled with stones, but that couldn’t kill his will to act. He and Mike might no longer be together, but their feelings for one another were strong, and Mike had to be going out of his mind with worry, especially given what had happened to Leah. That experience had been the reason for their parting, and now another person Mike loved was taken, turning his nightmares into reality.
Fuck.
The moment he was alone, he’d cut himself free and run.
Unaware of his thoughts, Harlyn went on, sipping water from the bottle she’d brought for Arden. “They have such a close-knit family, the Hellers. I met most of his brothers, and the ones who are married treat their old ladies like queens! I want that even if my marriage has a bumpy start.”
She blinked, freezing with the bottle at her mouth, and moments later Arden realized why. The roar of motorbikes used to stir no emotions in him yet now it proved that the cavalry was coming for him, and his heart fluttered.
Harlyn grinned. “You hear that, right? Don’t want to be too enthusiastic, but I can’t wait to feel those vibrations between my legs again,” she said, digging her teeth into her bottom lip as she gravitated farther away, to the single door, and poked her head out, letting in more of the noise.
This was Arden’s chance.
He turned the knife in his hand and put it to the rope holding his wrist, cutting, cutting, cutting even when his muscles ached from the unnatural position of his fingers. He kept peeking at Harlyn every now and then but he could sense the little threads in the rope breaking, and every passing second made him sweat with worry that he might end up discovered.
“I want a mini dress for my wedding. But with a long train at the back,” Harlyn said dreamily as the roar became ever louder. As did the beating of Arden’s heart.
The rope snapped and, taking advantage of Harlyn’s preoccupation with the noise, Arden freed his other hand. Lightheaded with fear that she might notice his escape and lock him in before he reached her, he got up, imagining himself as some kind of cross between a cobra and Liam Neeson, a creature who moved without making a single sound, leaving its victims ignorant to danger. He wouldn’t hurt Harlyn, of course, but he’d make her believe he would if necessary.