Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Nicolette cringes and looks at Fabien, who gives her an impassive look.
Oh, lovely.
“Can I have a word with my sister?” I ask.
Thayer growls but nods. “Yes, of course. Take it in there.” He jerks his chin to the glass-paneled room.
“Thank you,” I whisper. I take the tablet with me.
“Hey,” I say warmly to her after I close the door.
She looks at me with concern. “You okay?”
“Of course. I’m fine. I just wanted to talk to you about something.”
“What’s that?”
I look over my shoulder and head to the bathroom. I sit on the side of the huge tub and cross my arms. “Can you… tell me…” I look over my shoulder and listen. Thayer’s in deep conversation with Lyam and neither are paying any attention to me. On the other side of the tablet, Fabien’s left the room. “Why do they call him Le Sauvage?” I whisper.
“I’ll tell you what I know if you answer me an honest question,” she retorts. I grumble but nod.
“Okay, fine.”
Please don’t ask me about sex, please don’t ask me about sex.
“Are you two a couple? Or are you… keeping things just… friendly?” She squirms uncomfortably. Then we’ll get right down to it.
“Couple. Anything else?”
Nicolette’s eyes widen. “Oh, God. Are you serious?”
“Nicolette,” I say seriously. “Listen, we don’t have time to talk about this, but I just want to remind you I’m an adult, okay?”
Cringing, she blows out a breath. “Okay. Alright, yes, yes, I know, you’re an adult. And I love Thayer like a brother, it’s just that—well, like you said. They call him The Savage.”
I look over my shoulder to see if he’s there, but it looks as if he’s given us privacy. I ask her in a rush of words, “Tell me what you know.”
She bites her lip. “Okay, alright, so… lemme think. Well, they say he’s the first to show loyalty and bravery in a showdown. Like he will take the side of whoever’s cause he supports no matter the consequences.”
So that sounds commendable, not damnable.
She continues. “He’s been known to outwit police officers in a high-speed chase. He drives like a damn demon.”
I nod. Haven’t seen him drive yet but I’ve seen the demon-thing alright.
But none of those things are savage.
She speaks in a hushed whisper all in a rush, trying to tell me quickly.
“He once firebombed an enemy’s private property. The crime? Sex trafficking.”
Almost heroic, if you ask me—
Her voice gets even quieter. “He’ll ruthlessly punish
people he thinks deserve it.”
My belly clenches. You don’t say?
“He once… tortured someone to death and left him tied to a flagpole outside an enemy hideout as a warning. The guy he punished was a rapist.”
Now we’re getting into some savagery.
“He drowned an early recruit who betrayed his family in the Seine. And once, when someone came into Le Luxe without permission, with the apparent intent to harm one of his girls? He violently interrogated him. I didn’t see it, but I… heard it.” She shudders.
I have to ignore the surge of jealousy at the phrase one of his girls, but it almost makes me gloss over the whole violently interrogated thing.
“You forgot throwing the trafficker off the roof,” says a deep, not very amused voice, behind me. “I’ve also kidnapped various people for ransom, and once set a car on fire when the motherfucker who double-crossed my mother was still inside. Hmm. What am I forgetting?”
Nicolette squeals. “She asked, Thayer, and you be nice to her!”
Thayer shakes his head. “Jesus, Nicolette. I’ve had enough of this.” He crosses the room to me and shuts off the tablet. “Conversation over.” He tosses the tablet across the room. It crashes against the wall and shatters.
“Thayer!”
I stare at him, not sure what to say. My heart beats so fast I feel faint.
Without a word, he grabs my hand and yanks me to the other room. Lyam’s gone.
I’m alone with the man called The Savage.
FIFTEEN
Savannah
This time, I don’t take in every beautiful, elegant, stunning detail of the club.
This time, I only notice the way the people here look at him.
When we walk through Le Luxe with my hand in his—not held like a lover’s stroll or two companions, but like prison cuffs on an inmate—they give him wide berth.
Where my word is law and my command absolute.
Uniformed staff quietly fades into the periphery like Thayer’s made of fire and they don’t want to be scorched. I note every set of wide eyes, the whispered voices, the way they slip out of the way and carefully leave his path.
I remember the way his mother told me she can’t control him, that he doesn’t listen to her. I’ve heard the way Fabien treats him with kid gloves, like he’s a bomb about to detonate. I’ve even seen fearless, ballsy Lyam retreat and give him space when he needs it.
Like… now.
And here I am, hidden in a club that may as well be his lair, falling for a man who’s tortured, maimed, and killed people in the name of loyalty and justice. Everyone with half a brain fears him, and yet I’ve jumped into the man’s bed.