Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
“It’s fine.”
He slowly puts me down, and I do something stupid. I turn and run, but it’s like Demon tries to stop me. Maybe it’s just poor timing. He yelps and dashes in my way. I trip and grunt, seeing stars.
Jamie quickly rushes to me. I wave a hand at him. “I’m staying right here. Just open the bunker. We’re wasting time.”
“I’ll be back soon with your mother.” He wrenches open a metal shaft. “Give me your hand. It’s slippery down here.”
I sit up, rubbing my head. He studies me with concern, lacing those deep blue eyes, but he’s staying focused, too. He sees me as a task. Kidnap her. Imprison her. Or he’d call it keeping me safe. Either way, he’s not going to argue.
Standing, I take his hand.
“In an hour,” he says, gently touching my shoulder. “Just one hour.”
“Why do you have to lock it, then?”
“Because they might search the area.”
And he doesn’t trust me not to run after him or run after Mom. We walk down the slick steps, deeper and deeper underground.
“I meant it,” he says, looking at a metal door lit with an electric light just above it. “I want a family with you. I need it. I felt it the first time I saw you standing in the doorway with that shy, tough look on your face. I wanted a family with you then.”
“R-really?” I whisper. No time, no time.
“More than anything.”
I lick my lips. Wrong, again. Wrong. “I felt the same. I wanted you from day one.”
He groans, kisses me, and pulls me close. Then he pushes me away. “I need to enter the key code and set the timer. Then you can take Demon inside.”
I gesture to the dog, and he awkwardly wedges around Jamie. He has his head held high as if this is all beneath him.
“There’s a toilet, a bin for waste. Canned foods. It won’t be fun, but—”
“Just an hour,” I say, stroking Demon. “I get it. One hour, and you’ll be back with Mom.”
Then we can start our happily ever after, I almost say, but I don’t want to tempt fate. We’re almost at the end of all the craziness now. I know we are. We have to be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SEVERAL HOURS LATER
Jamie
My head is foggy, face pressed up against cold metal. I’m drifting in and out of consciousness, trying to make sense of the last few hours, leaving my woman in the bunker, and running away with a heavy heart through the forest.
I saw the garage and then thud. Something caught me right in the back. It felt like a pellet, not a bullet. Rubber maybe. It bruised my body. I spun, and several more caught me. I remember a glimpse of several armed men, all wearing masks.
Peeling my eyes open, I see we’re in the back of what must be a van, the walls metal. “J-Jamie?” Simone whispers from beside me, her voice small. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah.” My voice is hoarse, and I haven’t been asleep, exactly. It’s more like they’ve dosed me up with something. “Did they inject me when they put me in here?”
“Yes. You were going crazy.”
I vaguely remember thrashing around as four men grappled me toward the van. I threw one against it, thinking I might have a chance. I headbutted another so hard his black mask showed the crimson blood, but there were too many.
“Fuck,” I whisper, banging my head against the van wall, trying to think. There were… I think. I think hard. My head hurts, dammit. There were seven men or maybe eight. This goes beyond anything I understand. This can’t be Jack. It’s too elaborate. I’ve heard rumors about billionaire sadists who arrange complicated schemes like this. Could it be them, maybe?
“Fuck,” I say again, hitting my head against the wall again.
I was supposed to return with Simone. Then Simone would explain that we had never had a relationship. Then we’d live happily ever after. Hopefully, those men didn’t comb the lake house or find the trapdoor. If they missed it, Lena has a chance.
I clench my fists, thinking of what they’d do to her if they found her. Yet if I’d brought her with me, she’d be in this van with us now. It’s a lose goddamn lose. If she were here, I’d never be able to forgive myself either, goddamn it.
When I hit my head against the van again, it stops. I groggily climb to my knees, preparing to spring at the door. Every muscle is primed, but they’re clever. As soon as they open it, bright lights glare at me, and men roar, “We’re armed! We’re armed!”
I put my hands up. One is taller, the other’s a little wider, but they both wear balaclavas, dark combat fatigues. The taller one holds out a cell phone. “How are you doing, Jamie?” supposed Jack says in that gravelly voice. “I’ve got a proposition for you.”