Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
“You all right?”
I glance up. Stone’s watching me with that guarded look again. Probably because I’m terrified and not hiding it well.
But everything I say might be picked up by the microphone in my wig. So I have to be careful.
Swallowing hard, I curl my finger so that he bends his head closer. I go up on my tiptoes, my mouth near his ear. “I’m just overwhelmed by all the people. Do you think there’s a back way out of here?”
He nods and changes direction, heading for the bar. I keep searching for Victor or Hotel, or any of the Iron Blood that I might recognize—but I’m not tall enough to see beyond my immediate surroundings. But Stone is so big that anyone watching him must be able to follow his route easily.
Shit. Heart thundering, I cling to his arm as he pushes through a swinging door and into a brightly lit kitchen that smells of grease and onions. Almost immediately, it’s easier to breathe, easier to hear. A harassed-looking man in a hairnet calls out that we can’t be back here, but Stone simply continues on, his stride long and easygoing.
Too easygoing. We don’t have any time to lose. Gripping his hand, I begin moving faster, getting ahead of Stone and pulling him along.
He grins. “In a hurry?”
That grin dissolves when I rip off my wig and toss it aside. “Come on. Come on, come on.”
“Hold up.”
We can’t. “Where’s the exit?”
Even as I ask, I see it. Stone doesn’t put up any resistance when I drag him in that direction, but something in him is changing. Or something hidden in him is emerging. Something sharp and deadly.
“What’s going on, Cherry? Who are you running from? Is someone after you?”
The steel in his voice tells me that if I don’t give an answer quickly, he’s not taking many more steps.
“They’re after you,” I tell him, then ease open the exit door. The back lot is empty, deserted. A huge dumpster sits to the left. “I’m supposed to drug you and then hand you over to some guys who will make you fight to the death.”
“Are you talking about the Cage?”
I glance back at him in shock that he knows about it—and am even more stunned when I see his broad grin. As if he’s glad to be targeted. “You know it?”
“Yeah, I know it.” He laughs before his eyes narrow. “Who the hell sent you in here after me? The fucker you called your boss?”
“Yes, but he’s not in charge. He’s just a guard.” And is probably looking for me right now. I pull on Stone’s hand. “We have to go. We have to run.”
This time he pulls back, shaking his head. “Nah. We need to head back inside, rope my brother into this, and hole up somewhere while you tell us everything.”
“We can’t go back in.” Desperately I haul on his wrist, trying to get him outside with me. “Your brother was the one who set you up. He pointed the Iron Blood in your—”
One second I’m pulling on him. The next, my back is shoved up against a wall and Stone looms over me, his hazel eyes burning with fury, his face a lethal mask.
Terror closes my throat. Because this man…this man isn’t the one who kissed me at the bar. This is someone who might kill me in an instant.
“Don’t you even suggest that Gunner did this,” he snarls. “Not for one fucking second. That man has saved my life a million goddamn different ways. So give me a choice between him and you, and it’s him every fucking time. You understand?”
Mutely I nod.
His burning eyes watch me for another long second as I tremble wildly and desperately try to keep myself from crying. Because I’m not mistaken. Who could forget a face like that man has? But if what Stone says is true, of course he’d believe his brother over me. Just like I’d believe Matt over everyone else, too.
And Matt is why I have to keep trying. No matter what the cost.
“Please,” I whisper brokenly. “Don’t go back in there. I don’t know him, so maybe there’s something I don’t understand. But please don’t go back in there.”
His gaze softens and he sighs. “All right. We’ll head out, get you somewhere safe. Then I’ll send him a message and we’ll...”
He blinks. Then blinks again, pulling back away from me, and I can’t stop my cry of dismay when I see who’s standing behind him.
Victor. With a hypodermic needle that he tosses aside, his gaze on Stone as the biker turns…stumbling a little.
“Ah, shit,” Stone says, slurring.
Oh god. Whatever Victor injected the big man with is moving fast through his system. And I’ll never be able to carry him. There’s just one decision left to make—to run. As fast as I can. To find a phone, to get help, anything. With a sob, I fly through the exit.