Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“An... gel...”
“That’s me.” I pressed a kiss so featherlight to his forehead. My lips burned for more reasons than one. “I’m here, Sunny. I won’t leave you.”
The warehouse door banged open.
“Sienna, thank goodness. What did you get? I think we have to call the doctor—”
“You don’t need a doctor, doll.”
My muscles went rigid.
“Not yet.”
I gently set Sunny down and scrambled to my feet. He was concealed by conveniently placed pillars and a stack of crates once used for the factory’s products. He’d be safe hidden here.
If I can lead him away.
Stepping out, my gaze locked on Digger.
“Hello, Luca. It’s been a while.” I edged closer to him, and away from Sunny. “Why didn’t you tell me you were stopping by? I would’ve cleaned up.”
Luca “Digger” Adams grinned, flashing that row of crooked teeth I once thought charming instead of flawed like his fucked-up personality. My knife-wielding friend from the park came in after him, tossing me a wink.
“You’re a hard woman to find, Blaine.” Luca tossed his head, sweeping his longish sable strands from his eyes. Another move I once thought adorable. “That is until you decided to take a morning stroll down Eighth Street today. What happened? You got tired of our little game of cat and mouse?”
“Fuck you.”
“No, thanks,” he breezed, “you had your chance. I do know a few gentlemen that would happily accept that offer, though. They got a thing for bony, desperate sluts.”
“Then drop your pants and put your ass up.”
Luca threw his head back, laughing. “You always did make me laugh, Mackenzie. Remember how we were together?” We circled each other, staring across the divide, daring the other to cross. “Remember how good I was to you?”
“What I remember is dating and falling for a man I thought was sweet and charming until one night, he shows up with a bloody nose and asks me to get him out of a debt by having sex with some random lurking at the end of the hallway. When I said no and kept saying no, the mask dropped and the true loathsome cockroach scuttled out.”
Blondie flipped his knife on his palm—waiting.
“You say loathsome cockroach, I say investor,” Luca replied, shrugging. “I put time, effort, and money into you, Mackenzie Blaine. I set you and your sister up in my building. I gave you food and money, and when the time came to show how much you loved me, you were too much of a stuck-up bitch to do me one little favor.”
“A favor?” I cried. “You manipulated me, Luca. You pretended to love me, so you could groom me into a love-sickened pet. Then when you thought you had me under the spell, you tried to pimp me out like you did all the women forced to work for you!”
“Who was forced?” That easy smile hung on his lips. “I told you that you had a choice between paying off your debt or working it off. Add all the dates, reduced rent, money, clothes, not to mention the emotional damage, that’s about ten grand I wasted on you. Either you and that tasty little sister of yours are working for me, or I walk out of here with my money. What’s it going to—?”
I bolted for the door. Blondie was on me in two bounds.
“Get off! Get off me!”
Lifting me off my feet, Blondie ran me at the wall. I thrashed in his iron hold, screaming as he ran full speed with no sign of slowing down. My skull bounced off the concrete, killing my screams in my throat. Head lolling, he twisted and shoved my back to the wall, holding me up since I could no longer do it myself. His blade cut a thin, red ribbon beneath my chin.
Through a haze of pain, Luca approached.
“No more running, Mackenzie. The game is over. By the look of you, you’re not going with option B, so option A, it is.” Satisfaction oozed off him in waves. “You’ll screw the first several johns for free to get back in my good graces. The next fifty, you’ll take an eighty-twenty cut—twenty for you. After that, we’ll discuss renegotiating your cut so you can buy yourself something nice every now and then. Never let it be said I’m not a generous boss.”
“It’ll never... happen,” I rasped. “I’ll bite off every dick that comes near my mouth. I’ll break every finger that touches me.”
Luca lightly lifted his shoulders. “That’s not the threat you think it is, doll. I have a select group of clients that love a woman who... fights.”
“You’re not hearing me, you limp piece of shit. I’m not going anywhere with—” I struck, punching Blondie in the gut. He doubled over, and I snatched the knife from his grasp. The blade glinted in the streaming beams of light, pouring from the holes in the roof, slicing through the gloom as I did—cutting a graceful arc in the air.