Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 123672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 495(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 495(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
I swallow hard, and when no response comes, I try it again. “Is someone there? Viper, is that you?”
Again, I’m met with silence, and as I try to convince myself that it’s all in my head, the fear only gets worse. The creak comes again, and it’s all I can take before completely losing my shit and racing from the bathroom. I sprint to the front door of my apartment, not daring to look back in fear of what I might find.
“FUCK. FUCK. FUCK,” I panic, my wet hand slipping on the door handle, certain I’m about to be slaughtered like cattle. After all, it’s always the dumb bitch who can’t work a door handle who gets killed first in all the horror movies.
Then finally, I get leverage on the handle and yank the door open, and with my towel clutched tightly around my dripping-wet body, I race out into the hallway, slamming the door behind me.
22
ALEX
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A heavy pounding sounds at my front door, and I hurry toward it, wearing nothing but a pair of pants after standing in a cold shower and trying to work Kyah out of my system.
Fuck. She was delicious, my new favorite snack, and the way she smelled . . . God. I need to have her again.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The pounding sounds again, this time more forceful, and coming with a desperate panic, and I pick up my pace, my brow furrowed. It’s well after midnight, and despite having sent Ky home to bed, the likelihood that it’s her has me moving faster. Nobody knocks on a door like that unless it’s an emergency, which means over the space of the last eight minutes, something must have gone very wrong.
“Alex, please,” Kyah cries quietly from the other side, yet even through the door, the sound somehow speaks directly to my soul.
I all but leap the last step, my hand diving for the handle, and I barely get a chance to tear the door open before Kyah shoves past me, her eyes wide and filled with terror as she grabs the door and quickly slams it closed. Her chest heaves beneath her towel, her body dripping wet, and I immediately move into her, my eyes darting around as if searching for a threat, my military training keeping me on edge.
“What’s wrong?” I demand, my hand clutching her wet upper arms, fear shining through her big blue eyes.
Kyah visibly swallows, holding my stare as though silently begging me to be her knight in shining armor, and fuck, at this point, I’ll be absolutely anything she needs me to be. “There’s . . . there’s someone in my apartment.”
My eyes widen, my gaze snapping up toward my door as if expecting someone to come barging through it. “The fuck?” I grunt, my fingers digging into her soft skin, searching her terrified gaze. There’s only a handful of things someone waiting in a woman’s apartment would want with her, and every single one of those things sends me into a blind rage. “Are you okay? Did he touch you?”
She shakes her head, her hands visibly shaking as she reaches for my chest, her fingers digging in as if clutching me like a physical lifeline. “No, I . . . I didn’t see him. I could just hear him moving through my apartment,” she says, still heavily panting, unable to calm herself, “and I just . . . I ran.”
I pull her into me, crushing her chest against mine as I wrap my arms around her. “Shhh,” I murmur, desperately trying to soothe her as I listen intently to any noises coming from outside my apartment. “You’re safe with me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Kyah reluctantly nods her head against my chest as if not sure just how fiercely I could protect her from this, and from what I’ve learned of her so far, I’m sure she’s warring with herself over asking me for help in the first place. She’s so independent, never asking anyone for handouts, not that she needs them, but this is different. I know she’s strong and can handle herself, but having someone in her apartment isn’t the same as dealing with some loser catcalling on the sidewalk.
This is different.
Pulling my hands back to her shoulders, I gently push her back to meet her eye. “I need to go and check it out,” I tell her. “Stay here.”
She nods, her eyes still so wide and it fucking kills me.
Hell, how could I have sent her in there without checking it out first? It’s not as though I haven’t noticed Viper and his men tailing her for the past week. Everywhere she goes, they’re always watching, and considering how Viper cares for her, that could only mean he believes there’s some kind of threat she needs to be protected from.