Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
“It’s, uh… it’s five in the morning.” His eyes darted around the room. No one else was drinking, given the early hour.
“Exactly,” Spec said. “Five o’clock. Drinking time.” He grabbed a shot off the bar and handed it to Oliver, eliminating the man’s choice.
“Well, okay. Thank you,” Oliver said, accepting it as though he wanted it. “Uh, cheers, I guess.” He glanced around the room once more before tipping his head back and letting the shot slide down his throat.
As Brenna watched, she tried to remember what she’d found attractive about him in the first place. Was it the perfectly coiffed blond hair? The sharp blue eyes? Maybe his lean, gym-honed muscles. His confident, bordering on arrogant, personality? What she’d considered attractive and appealing, she now found lacking in every way possible.
“Like you said, I believe you have something for me.” Spec held out a hand.
“Yes. Here you go.” He thrust the envelope forward.
“Thank you.” Spec snatched the packet and handed it off to Ty without looking. Ty immediately opened it and began counting while a heavy blanket of tension settled on the quiet room. Oliver fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable. Every so often, his gaze shifted to her, then back to Spec.
“All there,” Ty announced a few moments later.
“Okay, so I can take Brenna and go?”
Over my dead body.
Spec tsked. “Well, see, that’s where we have a problem, Ollie. You gave Brenna to us, and I’m not sure we’re ready to give her back just yet. She and my boy Lock, here, are getting on real nicely if you know what I mean.”
“Um…” Oliver blinked as though the words shocked him. “But I just, I mean, she was just…”
“What? Collateral? Ollie, I gotta ask what the fuck you were thinking, man? Acting like you had the right to trade a woman like that. Cuz I gotta tell you, my club doesn’t stand for that shit.”
“What?” He blinked again. “I mean, you guys…”
“What?” Spec lost the fake friendly tone as he approached Oliver. “We what?”
Oliver paled and stepped back, but Jinx had moved behind him, blocking any retreat. “You’re bikers. One-percenters.”
“Oh, I get what you’re saying. So, because of this patch here, you thought we’d be down with keeping a woman against her will.” He reached Oliver, who braced as though expecting a punch. “You know, you’re right, Ollie,” he said as he landed a hand on Oliver’s shoulder, giving a squeeze.
“I-I am?” Some of the color returned to Oliver’s face.
“You sure are. About one thing.”
Oliver visibly relaxed, but it didn’t last long. Lock stepped forward. Aggression and hatred wafted off him in waves, making Oliver’s eyes widen. Suddenly, Spec wasn’t the biggest threat in the room.
Shit, Lock was sexy like this. All fired up on her behalf.
“We are one-percenters.” His voice rumbled, low and full of menace. “But you were dead wrong when you assumed we’d keep an innocent woman prisoner. We’re not into hurting women, though we do love to make them scream.”
The comment almost had her choking on her saliva. She locked out her knees to keep them from buckling.
“Fuck you.” Oliver puffed up to his full height, which was around Lock’s six foot one. “You got your money. What else do you fucking want?”
“This isn’t about what I want. If it were, you’d already be bleeding out.” Lock took another step closer to Oliver. “But I think Brenna would like to see you cry, for starters. Maybe beg for mercy.”
A shitty grin turned Oliver’s face from smug to downright narcissistic. He shifted his gaze to her. “We’ll the bitch sure as fuck isn’t gonna get that.”
Rage surged through her. How dare he?
Lock lunged forward, but Spec stepped in front of him and propelled him back with a hand to the chest. “Why don’t we let Brenna have a say?”
Lock met her gaze. The same burning fury she felt in her chest flamed in his eyes. The moment she’d been imagining all night. How many ways had she envisioned herself blasting him with words that would cut worse than any damage Spec could inflict? This man she’d once thought she loved without knowing what a bastard he was—the monster that lurked beneath the polished exterior.
But as she stood toe to toe with him, her mind blanked, and she couldn’t think of a single thing to say to convey the magnitude of hurt and betrayal he’d caused.
Then he opened his stupid mouth. “You look like trash,” he said, shaking his head as he sneered. “Don’t know what you’re so upset about. Seems more like you should be thank—”
Fuck words. She cocked her fist and rammed it into his face in a move so lightning-quick it happened before her brain processed what her arm had planned.
Pain ricocheted up her arm through her knuckles, but she clenched her jaw to keep from crying out. Oliver didn’t deserve that satisfaction.