Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 188966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 945(@200wpm)___ 756(@250wpm)___ 630(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 945(@200wpm)___ 756(@250wpm)___ 630(@300wpm)
I couldn’t catch a proper breath.
This was it.
All my struggles. All my desires. All that wasted time.
I’d never see Neri again. Never find happiness with her or learn how to hide from this soul-sucking shadow that hunted me.
I was dead, and there was nothing I—
“Evening.”
I jerked out of my bleak desolation and licked my dry lips. “Evening.” Splinters of self-preservation made me rush, “Eh, did I do something wrong, officer?”
“Why? Did you do something wrong?” The youngish cop cocked his head, his police issued baseball cap catching the blue and red flashing lights. He might be young, but he was shrewd, and he studied me intently.
The first frissons of fear wracked down my spine.
I’d dealt with police before.
I knew their mind games and tricks to make you trip.
I might be already dead, but I wouldn’t make it easy for him.
“Not at all. Just...just picking up a friend.”
“Have you been drinking tonight?”
“No.”
Holding up a black device with a tiny screen and funnel out the side, he commanded, “Count to ten directly into the breathalyser.”
My hands shook as my heart finally got the fucking memo that I was one wrong answer away from never seeing Neri again. It took all my control to keep my voice stable as I did as he commanded. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”
The many numbers I’d learned in different languages echoed in my head. Thanks to the app I’d been using, I’d mastered quite a few. But now it seemed I’d learned too many as my head swam with digits.
My mind felt crowded. Thick. Sick. Foggy.
Stark fear crawled through the blanket of my depression, feeding me images of Neri.
Of her smiling. Laughing. Swimming.
Of the way she used to touch me, watch me, want me.
My chest tightened. Agony lanced through my ribs.
I sucked in a thin breath as my heart stuttered and failed.
Could a twenty-one-year-old guy die of a heart attack?
If I ran from this cop before he could arrest me, was it better to die with a bullet in my back or die where Neri would never know what happened? Would Australia be a better tomb or Turkey?
The longer I sat there, the more I struggled with syrupy sadness and savage salvation.
I didn’t want to die.
I didn’t want to keep feeling this way.
I wanted to live.
I wanted Neri.
I want—
The little machine beeped, the cop glanced at it, then gave me a pleasant smile. “Have a good night. Safe travels.” Stepping away from my window, he marched toward the next car that’d been pulled aside.
As suddenly as it’d happened, it was over.
I blinked.
No request for licenses. No arrest. No deportation.
The ice in my veins suddenly turned into an inferno.
I burned up.
I gulped down air.
I swerved back onto the road with single-minded determination.
Neri.
I have to find her...
My dead heart smoked with life.
I was done wasting time.
I was through letting fear win.
Neri...
My heart began to race.
* * * * *
I spotted her the moment I stepped foot into the Craypot.
She stood at the lobster-carved bar, her chocolate hair darker than usual thanks to the rainy season and more intense schoolwork. Her last year of study meant she hadn’t been on The Fluke as much or spending as much time in the sun and salt.
My out-of-control heart raced even faster, burning through its shroud of decay, shocked alive thanks to the breath test and police.
I’d come face-to-face with law enforcement and was still free.
I’d been given a second chance.
A second chance to take what I wanted instead of lying and pushing it away.
I didn’t care she was with Joel.
I didn’t care that she’d chosen him over me.
I needed her.
Fuck, I needed her.
How long had it been since we’d been alone?
Since we’d talked? Truly talked?
The faintest stirrings of dark-shadowed happiness flickered in my belly. We would have time in the car. Just us. Away from eyes and ears and reality.
She’d be all mine, even if it was only ten minutes.
Marching toward her, I frowned as one of the guys beside her grabbed her elbow and pulled her into him. She struggled and shoved him away, shouting something I didn’t catch. The guy didn’t take no for an answer, touching her hair and laughing in her face.
I saw red.
Murderous fucking red.
My march became a jog, and I weaved through people drinking and mingling, coming to an explosive stop before them. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” My snarl ripped through the drone of voices, stilling the guy’s hand on Neri’s shoulder.
Her eyes shot to mine, shock making them wide but then relief making them hood. “Aslan.”
Shit, the way she said my name.
The way she looked at me.
It was a tsunami sweeping me off my feet.
But then...somehow, the heavy wave waked away. The depression I couldn’t survive parted like a miraculous sea and I stood on earth again.