Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Not anymore.
Sawyer and I were only just beginning. He’d been going through a lot with his father’s execution and learning about his sister’s betrayal, and while he kept me at arm’s length, I felt those barriers starting to break between us, and I know without a doubt that I was starting to fall for him.
Easton though, there was something exotic and dangerous about him. His silence was the biggest turn-on I’d ever experienced, but it had nothing on that deadly stare of his. The way his gaze would leave me breathless is something I will never forget, and every day of the rest of my life, I will crave that kind of intensity. He was different from anyone I’ve ever known, and I hate that he’s gone. Just like Sawyer, the walls were starting to crumble, and the more time I spent with Easton, the clearer it became—he owned a piece of my heart.
Once all the dust settles and it’s safe, I’m going to have to get back to Zade’s penthouse at some point. I don’t know much about snakes, but I can’t leave Venom alone. She will grieve Easton just as much as I will, if not more. Their bond was unbreakable.
I have mixed feelings about Zade. Nobody has ever confused me the way he did. The push and pull between us was exhausting. One minute he was telling me how he would plunge his hand into my chest and tear my heart right out of my body for his sick ritual, and the next, he was holding me while I slept, keeping me safer than I’d ever been in his warm arms. Half of me despised him, while the other half was quickly falling for the devil.
It’s for the best. With the boys out of the picture, I can move on from this. I can get out of here, find somewhere safe to go, somewhere I can try to have some kind of semblance of a life. Perhaps make a new name to be able to finish school and get a job while flying under the radar. Maybe I might even find it in me to love again. Though, how will anything ever compare to what I had with the boys?
Wiping the tears off my face, I force myself to breathe through the sobs, desperately trying to regain control of myself. The boys might be dead, but that doesn’t mean my fight is over yet. It’s only just beginning. I can’t fall apart yet.
My aching feet slam against the asphalt in my broken heels, but I don’t dare stop. My chest heaves, desperately sucking in the smoke-filled air, refusing to look back at the raging fire behind me.
I only have a short window before Empire starts to regroup, and I need to be long gone before that happens. Or hell, maybe I shouldn’t. I am the heir of Empire, the real blood heir, right after my father.
With Zade now out of the way, we could rise up and claim what is rightfully ours. I don’t really know the man my father is after being apart from him for so long, but from those few short hours talking with him down in Empire’s cells, I know the idea will spark something in him. But at the same time, he would want me to flee. He always told me to run. Run as far as I could and never look back.
Ironic, seeing as though that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. Only I’m not running away from Empire, I’m running right into the heart of it.
My chest heaves, quickly running out of breath as my muscles scream for sweet relief, but I don’t dare stop until I’m cowering at the opening of the old train tunnels, sirens blaring through the city. My heart races, though I can’t tell if it’s fear from even thinking about doing this or the marathon I just ran through the city.
Fuck, this really is stupid. The last time I voluntarily walked through the doors of Empire, I ran into Nikolai Thorne and was almost slaughtered in the creepy murder dungeon. If it hadn’t been for Zade . . . shit. I don’t even want to think about it.
But this is too important.
I vowed that I would save my father, no matter what it took. He’s been rotting in Empire’s cells for over twelve long years, and today, while Empire burns to ashes around me, he will get his freedom.
Swallowing over the lump in my throat, I will myself to calm down, my heavy panting sounding like some kind of stalker hiding in a woman’s closet. Then putting one foot in front of the other, I slip into the darkness of the old train tunnels, knowing I could be potentially handing myself over.
With every step I take, I try to remember what I know of the inside of this shitshow. The blueprints I found in Zade’s office would have been helpful if I knew what the fuck I was looking at. It was impossible to decipher between the old tunnels that lead down to the cells and the new modernized areas with the fancy Italian marble and conference rooms.