Total pages in book: 213
Estimated words: 202770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1014(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 676(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 202770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1014(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 676(@300wpm)
He blanches. “What? You were naked?”
“Yes, Chance. I was naked. Did your hired-hand take more than you offered? I know you did this. You’re afraid of Jax. You tried to make me afraid of Jax, and when that didn’t work, you just paid off someone at the castle to get me to you and here I am.” I press my hand to my forehead. “I woke up naked, Chance,” I whisper it this time, far more shaken by that fact than I’ve allowed myself to admit up until now. “Naked and drugged.” My voice lifts again, vibrating with my anger. “What do you think happened while I was drugged?”
He scrubs his jaw and presses his hands to the desk. “I didn’t do this, Emma. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”
“And yet, you threatened me.” I don’t give him time to lie and deny again. “I know you know about Hunter.”
“What about Hunter, Emma?”
“I know you know that he was our half-brother. I know you know, Chance.”
The phone on his desk starts ringing. I ignore it and keep talking. “Someone left me a note with a DNA test. The test said he was dad’s son. The note pointed out that you and Jax had the most motivation to kill Hunter. Randall was there when I got the note.” I think of Savage’s theory and add, “There’s a valid reason to think that he left that note and test.”
“Randall wouldn’t accuse me of killing Hunter.”
“Did you kill Hunter?”
“Did you really just ask me that, Emma?”
“Did you—”
“No, I did not kill Hunter,” he bites out, “and I can’t believe I had to answer that question. I can’t believe you don’t know me better than that.”
His cellphone starts ringing, and he growls with irritation and pulls it from his pocket. He answers the line. “Whatever it is can wait.” He listens a minute and grimaces before he hangs up. “We’re about to have company.”
It’s in that moment that the door bursts open, and I turn as Jax explodes into the room. I have the briefest of stunned moments, time standing still. And then everything comes back in focus and there is just Jax, standing there in the doorway in black jeans and a black sweater, his blond hair mussed up, so damn beautifully male. My hero who has come to save me. “Emma,” he breathes out, his eyes landing on me, relief spreading across his handsome face as if the call didn’t convince him I was okay. He needed to see me.
“Jax,” I whisper, my heart swelling with emotion, and the next thing I know, I’m being dragged into his arms. We wrap ourselves around each other, and when his hand comes down on the back of my head and he kisses me, he kisses me like a man who feared he would never kiss me again.
“Enough already,” Chance snaps. “Enough!”
He wouldn’t say enough if he’d been kidnapped. If he’d woken up naked and had no idea who undressed him. Suddenly angry all over again, I twist away from Jax’s kiss and turn in his arms, but I don’t step away from him. He doesn’t step away from me either but to my side. “It is enough, Chance. What happened to me is too much. You went too far.”
“I had nothing to do with this,” Chance growls. “I was worried sick over you. Do you know me at all, Emma? Do you really think I’d do that and to what end? Pissing you off and sending you right back to Jax? That’s what would have happened. That’s what is happening. I would know that. How is this even logical to think I’d do something that stupid or hurtful?”
“We all know Hunter was dad’s son,” I say. “We all know he was negotiating with dad to become a part of our operation.”
“What I know is that this asshole,” Chance points angrily at Jax as he rounds his desk to stand almost directly in front of him, “is turning you against me.” He looks Jax in the eyes. “You’re fucking her to fuck me.” He then turns his gaze to me. “He’s the problem here, not me. He probably did this himself to turn you against me. Taking your clothes off was for added effect.”
Chance barely gets those words out before the two of them are moving toward each other. My heart jackhammers, and I race to catch Jax, stepping between them, pressing a hand to both of their chests. “Stop. Stop now. Both of you. Don’t do this. Tell him you didn’t kill Hunter, Chance. Tell him now.”
“He knows I didn’t kill Hunter. He’s full of shit, Emma. He’s using you.”
“You bastard,” Jax growls. “You are truly a piece of work.”
“Yeah?” Chance says. “Come show me.”
“Jax,” I plead, my voice shaky. “Jax, please.”
His eyes lower to mine, and the anger, the pain, the hate in their depths cut through me. I see everything in his stare. He wants to hurt Chance. He thinks he killed Hunter. He feared I was dead. His lashes lower, and he turns away, scrubbing his jaw and turning back to us.