Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 58163 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58163 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
The man has a hell of a right arm.
He sighs and shakes his head.
“It’s too much money for you not to know where it is,” he insists. “So, we’re going to have to get a little rougher.”
He reaches over to a table and retrieves a pair of needle-nose pliers and bolt cutters.
“It would be a shame to start removing fingers from those dainty little hands.”
“I. Don’t. Know. Anything.”
“I. Don’t. Fucking. Believe. You.”
He leans in and almost touches my nose with his. I can see light flecks of gold in his green eyes. And something starts to spread through me.
Not just anger. Not just fear and frustration.
Determination.
“I’m going to take off your fingers and then your toes. And if that still doesn’t make you talk, I’m going to poke those pretty blue eyes out.”
“There’s one thing you didn’t think of,” I reply evenly. His eyes narrow just a bit, and I smile widely. “You forgot to tie my feet.”
And with that, I pull my knees to my chest and kick out with all my might, plowing the soles of my feet right into this asshole’s gut, sending him flying backward.
His arms flail, and he trips on a broken floorboard.
And then, as if in slow motion, he hits his head on the corner of a table and falls to the ground, blood gushing from his head.
His eyes are empty.
He’s not breathing.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, staring at him in horror. “Oh, shit. Shit shit shit. I killed him.”
I look around at the plain walls and the single door behind me that must lead to the outside.
But I can’t move. My hands are not tied to the chair, they’re tethered to the floor, the rope through a metal ring. So it’s not even like I can scooch my way over to the door and make noise.
I’m stuck.
I knew I was going to die in this room. Even if I’d told him what he wanted to know, even if I could, he would have killed me as soon as I did. I knew I wasn’t leaving here alive.
But now I have to die by starvation and without water? I would have rather he put a bullet in my head.
I sigh and stare at the man. I don’t know him. I have no idea what his name is, or how he knew my father. Obviously, my father double-crossed him on some deal. He mentioned his colleagues.
Who are they?
I don’t even know how long my father’s been dead. When this guy told me that he couldn’t make my dad pay before he died, it was the first I’d heard of his demise.
I’m not surprised. He would have only been in his mid-to-late fifties, but he’d lived a hard, dangerous life.
For me, he died when I was fifteen, and I ran out of that horrible place in New York.
“I’m going to have to sit here and watch him decompose,” I whisper in horror. “He’s going to smell and get disgusting. Jesus, why do I have to be so clumsy? Leave it to me to send his head into the corner of a table just right.”
I try to stand and attempt to work my way around so I can untie my hands, but I only succeed in almost dislocating my shoulder.
That won’t help anything.
“Did he say his associates would be here soon? Oh, hell, I am going to die here. They’re going to kill me.”
I bite my lip. My heart starts to race. I haven’t had a panic attack in a long time, but I’m on the verge now.
I’m stuck with a corpse, and bad men are on their way to kill me.
I’m a sitting duck.
“I didn’t even get to tell Annika that I love her,” I wail, feeling horribly sorry for myself. “Or have sex with Shane. Or even just spend time with him! I’m halfway to falling in love with him already, and now I’ll never get to finish. I won’t get to see the sun or eat raspberries in ice cream or go to the ocean.”
Now, tears well up in my eyes. I thought I was safe. My cover was iron-clad. How did this asshole find me?
I hear rustling on the other side of the door and freeze.
This is it. This is how it ends.
But I won’t go down without a fight, damn it.
I hear the door open, and then everything happens so fast. I lash out, kicking and yelling.
“I won’t make this easy on you, motherfucker! You may kill me, but I’ll kick your ass first.”
“Hey, hey, hey.” The voice is soothing, and when I open the eyes I didn’t realize I’d closed, I see Shane standing in front of me, then kneeling to look me in the eyes. “It’s us.”
“Us?”
I glance around to see Shane’s brothers and Nadia, one of my very best friends in the world.