Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
She tried to jerk away from him, but he pushed the gun harder against her temple and she went still.
Good girl, I thought, begging her with my eyes to just stay still.
“Take me. You know you want it. And you know the second you kill her, you’re a dead man.”
“Like I said, it’s an interesting proposition, Derek.”
He let up on her a little and I immediately had to wonder why. What was he up to?
“But what are you going to offer me for this one?”
A woman tumbled out of the car, followed by a big, burly hulk of a man. How he’d even fit in the damn car, I didn’t know.
But the woman. Her eyes weren’t empty like the last time I’d seen them. Red hair. Her face older, but so similar to Scar’s.
Alicia.
What the fuck was Lopez doing with Alicia Ramos?
“He’s good at finding things,” Michael’s hoarse voice spoke from somewhere behind me. “That’s what you’re renowned for, isn’t it? Anything in the world, Mateo Lopez can find.”
“When it serves my interests. Unfortunately, when you came to me, Michael, finding your wife wasn’t worth my while.”
Michael growled, but his eyes were fixed on Alicia. There was a good chance he wasn’t thinking clearly—not that I could blame him.
“After seeing Derek’s little pet though, well, I’ve always been a collector of sorts. It’s really too bad Garcia had arranged the car accident that killed your pet’s mother, Derek. What a collection that would have been, wouldn’t you say?”
Scar was looking at me, but she wasn’t just looking. She was trying to tell me something. Her eyes met mine, then dropped to the ground in front of her, then back to me. Then again. Yeah, I got the message. She was incredible. Now, I just had to do my part.
I took a menacing step forward to draw Lopez back to his current predicament. His grip on Scar tightened and he smiled menacingly.
I took another step.
“That’s far enough. I think you’ll have a fine view right there.”
He lifted his hand and pressed down on Scar’s shoulder. “On your knees, slave. You have three murdered men to atone for, and you’re going to start right now.”
She struggled, but I could tell it was fake, and eventually, she went down to the ground. Lopez lowered his gun long enough to unzip his fly, but it was all I needed. I took aim and fired a bullet right through the wrist of the hand holding the gun. Even when he fired reflexively, his gun was pointed away from Scar.
At the same time, she reached for the gun he had concealed at his ankle and fired into his knee without hesitation. Fucking incredible.
He stumbled back against the car at the same time I shot the man holding Alicia, straight into his head. It was unnecessary though. A bullet from Michael’s gun lodged into the man’s chest, straight through his heart, and he fell to the ground, lifeless.
Scar scrambled away from Lopez, toward Alicia. Michael was there with them a second later, but this wasn’t finished.
I reached for the long, menacing knife between my shoulder blades. I envisioned cutting Lopez up into tiny pieces, starting with the pieces that wouldn’t kill him right away and working toward his vital organs. But the thirst for blood didn’t compete with the need to hold her, to feel her in my arms and know that she was finally, truly safe.
Lopez was trying to scramble back and up into the car as I approached, but he was too slow—not that it would have mattered anyway. I reached down when I loomed over him, lifted him up by his hair, and slashed the knife across his neck. Blood spurted and he made a gurgling noise in his throat. And then, in the blink of an eye, he was dead.
It was over. She was safe.
I dropped the knife, turned toward her, and then she was in my arms. Alive. Safe. A sob wracked my chest, but I forced it down and focused on the warmth of her body, her heart beating against my chest and the softness of her lips beneath mine.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to help. I couldn’t let you die,” she whimpered against my lips. “I couldn’t let you die.”
I remembered what Lopez had said about the three men he’d planted here ahead of time. Foolish or not, I hadn’t been expecting them. And that made me wonder…had she saved my life?
She’d already saved me in so many ways. How the hell was I supposed to repay that debt? I had no clue, but I was going to spend the rest of my life trying.
“Where have you been, mi querida?” I heard Michael whispering to Alicia.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “The man who took me, he said you were dead. He said he killed you, and I believed him.”