Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Because if they didn’t, and he woke back up, I was dead.
Or wishing I were dead.
Chet reared back as his hands grabbed at mine, trying to move away from me.
So I dug my nails in harder, holding on with every bit of strength in me as he reared back, then landed on his ass, his mouth opening and closing like a fish suddenly finding itself on land.
So I pushed harder, sinking the zip tie in deeper, folding him backward until he was the one flat on his back, my knees pinning his hips.
I watched him, those horror-filled, yet familiar eyes, knowing I should have been disgusted at watching them fade to black as unconsciousness took him.
But if one of us was walking out of there, it was going to be me, damnit.
I pressed for another couple of seconds, not sure if he was faking it or not.
When I was satisfied, I jumped off of him, turning, and running.
There was no exit to the back, so I flew forward, running blindly in the dark.
But then there it was.
A door.
I had horrific visions of reaching for the doorknob, pulling it open, only to have a hand slam down on it, locking me in, then dragging me back to hell.
But that didn’t happen.
The knob turned.
I pulled it open.
Then I flew out onto the street.
I took all of two seconds to look around, to gain my bearings.
I was on Main Street.
But at the very end. Leading out of town.
I needed to get in the other direction.
There was nothing on this end that was open this late.
I had to get back toward the pool hall or the bar.
Someone there would save me.
Decision made, I started to run, feeling my side scream at the effort, making a cold sweat break out over my skin, nausea move up through my stomach and into my throat, and desperate tears flood my eyes, making everything blurry.
So blurry that I almost missed the figures far up on the sidewalk.
But I knew it.
I knew even without being able to see him clearly who it was.
“Strauss!” I screamed, making him turn, seeing me rushing toward him.
I didn’t stop.
I didn’t think.
I just threw my bound wrists up over his head, slamming into him, and completely collapsing.
“Fuck. Baby. Fuck. Okay. You’re okay. It’s going to be okay,” he said, wrapping his arms around me.
And, I knew, it would be.
Because he would make sure of it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Slash
It was dramatic as fuck, but I was worried as shit about her after she went into work.
It didn’t matter how much I reminded myself that she was safe with the Murphys. Knowing she was out of my sight had me uneasy.
Which was fucking ridiculous, so I tried to distract myself.
And there was plenty to distract myself with. I’d been so wrapped up in my alone time with Nyx, with our time spent with our found family, that I honestly hadn’t done jack-shit with trying to figure out what was going on with her situation.
I hadn’t heard from the Novikoff brothers yet, and I knew it wasn’t a good move to show up again and demand to know what they knew.
So that left me with… what?
Fucking nothing, really.
Until I got a text message that had my gut tensing.
The new guy at my apartment building was the one who took the… packages.
The new guy at her apartment building.
She hadn’t mentioned him.
Was it just an oversight?
What made her think it was him?
I shot her back a text, but I was already making my way to my bike, and driving in the direction of her apartment, ready to act on whatever information she sent over while I drove.
I didn’t think anything of it when the text didn’t come.
She was at work.
I’d been to The Bog often enough to know that shit got busy sometimes. Busy enough that she barely had time to catch her breath, let alone shoot off a text.
So I just sat there, watching the goings on around the apartment complex.
A couple was having some sort of argument over how much money he’d spent on online porn. He came back with a lame argument about how much she spent on her nails.
“The difference is I’m not fantasizing about fucking my nail tech, you asshole!” was the last of the argument I heard before they took the rest of their fight inside.
A woman came outside with her cat on a leash.
I actually did a double-take, sure it must have been some sort of dog. But, nope. It was a fucking tabby cat on a harness. And she was taking it for a walk.
Fucking weird, man, I decided, shaking my head.
It was right then, though, that I saw someone climbing out of a black car.
A tall, strong, dark-haired figure that I didn’t see the face of at first, but something had me climbing off my bike, and pulling off my helmet.