Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“I told you—”
“Don’t fuckin’ lie to me!” The roar of my voice would have been heard in the bar next door if not for the soundproofing. Miren cowers, which confirms my suspicions.
“Pres!” Suddenly, the door flies open, and Tye stalls all movement on the threshold of the room. His gaze flickers between Miren and me. He’s holdin’ onto pages that, I’m guessin’, contain the information I wanted.
“What is it?”
He looks concerned as he flicks his gaze between us. But I notice how he stares at Miren for a long moment, which sets me on edge. “I can come back.”
“What is it, Tye?” I enunciate each word slowly, but I don’t look at him, my focus is on the girl who’s trembling in the chair diagonally opposite me.
I turn my attention back to him, and I focus on the fact that he still hasn’t spoken up. I push to my feet and his stare turns to mine.
“I… Fuck…” He closes the distance and hands me the documents that, I’m assuming, he’s just printed from the computer. I pick them up and drop my gaze to the information. The moment I pick out why Tye is so nervous, I drop the pages to the desk and settle back in my chair.
“Cheers, Tye.”
“If you need—”
“I said, thank you, Tye,” I reiterate my statement.
He nods and offers one last look at the girl sitting across from me before he turns and leaves, shutting the door behind him. Silence hangs heavily in the room. There’s no doubt in my mind she would have picked up on the details because the pages aren’t far from where she’s seated.
“Monster,” she whispers my road name. The one I was given when I took over the club. It’s the one that everyone calls me. All my closest friends.
“Care to explain why you’ve been lying to me?” I say slowly. I haven’t yet told her about my connection to her father. Or her mother for that matter. The realisation that’s slowly dawning on me is that it was Miren’s mother who ordered the hit on my family, on my mother.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she tells me, but I can see the lies flickering in her pretty, stormy eyes.
I need to tamp down my anger because I want nothing more than to pin her to the wall and force her to tell me everything.
“If you lie to me once more,” I say, slowly, “I will bind you to the feckin’ chair and torture you until you tell me what I want to know.”
I push my chair out slowly, and the legs scrape along the wooden floor. Miren winces at the sound as it echoes in the room. I’ve been angry before, but that was all concentrated on my enemies. It seems, though, the wee lassie is one of those. She should be on the list of those I want to see dead.
“Please,” she pleads with me. Her wide eyes piercing mine as her lips tremble. “He was a stranger to me until a few weeks ago. I had never set foot in his house, and I never spoke to him before then.” She looks directly at me as she says this, and I see no lie in her gaze. “I’m not lying to you, Monster. You must believe me.”
I close the distance to where she’s seated. I grip the arms of the chair and lean in until I’m inches from her. The warmth of her quick breath fans over my face. Fear dances like flames in her eyes. The storm is raging, the blue turned completely grey, and the way her lower lip trembles only seems to wake the monster I keep deep inside.
FIFTEEN
MIREN
There is only darkness in his eyes. I thought I could talk to him, calm him down. I knew I should have come clean ages ago, but it’s been nice to have a place to belong. Just for a while. However, it seems my time has run out. The luck I had been riding has come to an end.
“So what brought you to his house?” His words are a whisper dripping in poison as they touch my lips. When I don’t reply, he wraps a hand around my neck. The pressure on my throat is intense, and he digs his fingers into the sides, stealing my air. “I have no qualms making you cry, wee fox,” he tells me. “Get up,” he orders, and even if I wanted to refuse him, I can’t because he lifts me with ease. The grip he has on me is strong, harsh. If he were to press any harder, I’d most probably pass out.
“I-I was kidnapped,” I choke out slowly. My voice raspy as I voice my response.
Monster tips his head to the side as he walks us back until I hit the wall with a soft thud. “And I’m meant to believe that?”