Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Who is it?” a man yelled from inside.
“Sir, we’re responding to a power outage in your area and wanted to know if you’ve had any interruptions today,” Manny answered, sounding professional.
Mike heard the lock disengage, and the moment the front door cracked open, Manny barged through it with Mike and Score hot on his heels.
“What the hell are—”
Manny jabbed the edge of the clipboard into the man’s throat, making his head snap back from the force of the blow. He struggled to take in a breath of air, unable to voice his pain as he dropped down to his knees. His scream was caught in his battered throat as the rest of Mike’s guys exploded in through the back door.
“Outside is clear,” Score told him, his thick steel pipe resting on his right shoulder.
The man stayed on all fours, his breath coming in ragged gasps. “You… you got the wrong guy,” the man sputtered and gagged, his hands clamped together in front of him as if prayer had any chance of saving him.
“Where is he?” Mike slammed his boot into the man’s ribs, sending him hurtling backward into the television stand. He didn’t wait for an answer before he stormed across the dirty brown carpet in the living room and down the hall.
“Rayne!” he hollered.
“Mike. I’m in here. Last room on the left.” Rayne’s small voice locked behind that door had Mike seeing red as unchecked rage crept through him slowly.
Mike yanked at the padlock, but when it wouldn’t budge, he was about to kick the door down until Score appeared beside him with his pipe. One brutal swipe and the lock and doorknob were gone. Mike pushed the door open, and Rayne flew into his arms, burying his beautiful face in his throat.
“Thank you,” he breathed, his voice shaky and his hands trembling against Mike’s chest. “He wouldn’t let me out unless I…” Rayne almost gagged.
“That motherfucker,” Score grumbled and went back toward the living room, where Rayne’s uncle was still groveling for them not to hurt him.
Mike cupped Rayne’s cheeks and tilted his face up to his. “Are you all right? Did he touch you?”
“No. Not like… that. He just shoved me around,” Rayne confessed. “Please just get me out of here. My stuff is already in Trent’s truck. I just wanna go home and never see him again.”
A dark haze washed over Mike as the blood in his body turned to boiling oil. “Come on.” He took Rayne by the hand and led him to the front of the house.
It was time Rayne met the real him.
Chapter Twenty-five
Rayne
Rayne wasn’t expecting to see a house full of men with various weapons standing over his uncle.
“What the hell have you done, Rayne? Who are these—?”
Mike nodded to one of his guys, and he was fast to respond to the order, his ruthlessness difficult to watch. Rayne let out a startled gasp as a bald man with a flaming skull tatted on the back of his head punched his uncle square in his jaw, sending crimson blood spraying across the dingy floor. The sound of a leather-clad fist connecting with flesh made terror and exhilaration simmer in Rayne’s belly. Two other angry-looking men violently hefted his uncle off the carpet and tossed him into the recliner as Mike walked toward him.
“Don’t ever say his name again,” Mike growled with one arm still wrapped tight around Rayne’s waist. “I will kill you. Do you understand?”
His uncle nodded so fast his neck popped. Rayne shuddered at the calmness in Mike’s tone. At how easily he’d made that declaration, and Rayne could tell he’d meant every word.
“Please… I don’t want any trouble,” his uncle begged through bloody teeth, his body reeking of cheap bourbon, piss, and fear.
“You were asking for trouble, and now you’ve found it.” Mike nodded again, and his uncle was struck three more times. Rayne cringed and tucked his face into Mike’s neck at the sound of bones cracking, but he didn’t come to his uncle’s rescue. Not after all the bullshit and bullying he’d had to endure just to have a roof over his head.
“So what were you gonna do to him?” Mike asked. He released Rayne, and before he could protest, Manny and a man he didn’t recognize pulled him away and tucked him behind their large frames like two personal bodyguards.
Rayne could barely see around their bulk, but he caught a glint of something metal and shiny in Mike’s hand as he whipped it around in a circle. When he was finished, there was a long blade pressed against his uncle’s jugular. Oh shit. Was Mike really about to slash Robert’s throat like it was nothing? His uncle’s sobs became hysterical as he tried to squirm away, but too many men were holding him down.
“Please don’t. I have a wife and kids.”