Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
“Don’t try to stop me. You don’t understand what’s going on.” Pure panic threatened. All Tucker had to do was shout out and Brody might hear him. There was no way she could outrun Tucker.
He stared at her for a moment. “You drugged the coffee.”
“You didn’t drink the mug I brought you.” She’d handed him a mug after making sure it had the ton of sugar he seemed to require. He’d thanked her with a smile. She hadn’t thought to watch him drink it.
“I didn’t trust you,” he admitted. “I don’t know why, but it felt odd for you to do that. Your hand was shaking when you passed the mug to me. Not much, but enough to make me curious. I wanted to see what you were doing. Now I realize you could have killed Shane and Dec. At the time it only occurred to me that you were going to attempt to run away, but I should have thought about more nefarious purposes. Please tell me you didn’t kill them. That would make it my fault, too. Brody says I never think. He was right. How will I go back home and explain that I let men die because I thought you wouldn’t really hurt them?”
“I didn’t kill anyone. It was a sedative. They’ll sleep a nice eight to ten hours and they’ll be fine in the morning. Please, Tucker. You have to let me go.” Why hadn’t she thought about the gate? How was she going to get out of here? She had minutes to get to the car that would be waiting for her. Minutes before she would hear it drive away and the decision would be made.
She could put her baby into hiding, but how could they fight the entire Ukrainian syndicate? All they needed to do was get lucky once and she would lose everything. Was that any way to live a life? Always running and hiding.
She couldn’t breathe. It was like someone was sitting on her chest. In her logical mind, she understood that she was having a panic attack, but her heart was seizing.
“Why? Why are you doing this?” Tucker asked.
“Because they’ll kill my baby if I don’t. They’ll kill Brody. They’ll hurt everyone I love. I have to.”
“That’s what he was saying to you.” Tucker sounded perfectly calm. “Again, I should have read that better. I’m not good at reading body language. I thought something bad was going on when he was talking to you by the window. But then you smiled and I thought it was okay. You’re an excellent liar.”
She doubted it. “Please let me go. I have to do what they want or they’ll hurt my son.”
How long did she have left? How much time was there? Tucker was close, so close he could reach out and grab her. She didn’t have anywhere to run.
“Tucker, you don’t remember the people you loved, but can you imagine that you did love someone? You know what it means to empathize, right? Think about how it would feel to love someone with your whole heart. What if the only way you could save that person is to sacrifice yourself? Would you do it? Could you live with yourself if you didn’t?”
He moved to the gate and for a moment she was afraid he would reach for her and haul her back to the house.
His hand moved over the electronic lock and it popped open. He shoved the key card back into the pocket of his jeans. “I suppose I couldn’t. I’ll probably get in trouble for this. I need a good cover story or they’ll kill me.”
“They won’t kill you. They’ll understand.” She wasn’t as sure, but she knew Brody wouldn’t truly hurt this young man. She took a deep breath and put a hand on his face. He was taller than she was, a good half a foot, but he seemed so much younger than she. Oh, she knew he was likely in his mid- to late-twenties, but there was something about the openness of his handsome face that made him seem almost innocent. “Thank you. You can’t know how much you’ve done for me. Please give me a few minutes before you wake Brody.”
“I won’t. He’s extremely cranky when he doesn’t get his sleep.” Tucker stepped back, allowing her access to the now open gate.
She chuckled but knew that was a lie. As soon as he could, he would run to wake everyone and they would be after her. “Tell them you saw me leave but couldn’t catch up. Tell them anything you need to in order to keep yourself safe.”
“Why would I do that?”
She barely heard his whispered question as she turned and ran down the sidewalk, her feet pounding against the pavement. Fast, she had to move fast and pray she wasn’t too late. One block and then she turned. Right or left? Left. He’d said left. The neighborhood was affluent, with big, sprawling homes and plenty of old trees. No one was out at this time of the night. The whole world seemed dark and peaceful, perfectly quiet save for the sound of crickets chirping. She could hear her own heart beating as she tried to make it to the meet-up point.