Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Fuck off,” I hissed, too angry and afraid to make any promises. If they hurt Baker, I won’t be able to stop myself from killing every damned one of them.
“Just fucking try,” he answered and then went silent.
There was one guard near the middle of the hallway, probably standing in front of the door that would lead to Baker, and he jerked around to look at me the minute I stepped through the entrance. Plastering a friendly smile on my face, I said, “Hey, man. Do you happen to know where the maintenance department is? I’m new, first day and all, and I’ve gotten myself lost.” I looked down at my watch as I kept walking in his direction. “If I don’t find it in the next four minutes, I’m going to be late on my first day. That won’t look good, will it?”
By the time I’d finished my story, I stood in front of him and knocked him out before he could tell me to get the fuck out of there. The best move would be to hide his body, but I couldn’t risk opening a door that might set off alarms or barge into a room filled with people. I settled for taking his gun and smashing his cell. The door in front of me had a lock alarm on it as well, so I had to get Landon to give me the code. It opened quietly—finally some luck— and I peered down the dark staircase. Unwilling to risk any type of light, I went into it dark and moved as carefully and silently as possible. Halfway down the stairs, the phone in my pocket vibrated, alerting me that the rest of the team was on site and right behind me. At the bottom of the stairs, there was yet another door with a lock alarm. When I pulled out my cell, the code flashed across my screen. If nothing else, Landon was efficient.
I might kill him when this was over, but at least we could add efficient to his headstone.
Drawing my gun, I punched in the code, and yanked the door open. The first thing I saw was Baker…suspended in the air by chains wrapped around his wrists. Welts and bruises already covered his torso, but he was goading them…laughing at them every time one of them punched him. For the briefest of seconds, his eyes locked with mine and the hugest smile spread across his face. After that, all hell broke loose because the rest of them saw me, too.
Oh well, these men taught about heaven and hell, at least their version of it, who was I to prevent one of them from getting there sooner than they’d expected? Paperwork, be damned.
“Jericho! It’s the other sodomite!” One of them screamed as I charged in his direction.
Seconds before I reached him, I noticed the taser he held in his right hand. Had he used that on Baker? When he thrust his arm in my direction, intent on trying to use his weapon on me, I caught his wrist in a tight grip and then used my body’s momentum to twist the motherfucker in a direction the bones weren’t supposed to go. His wail of pain and horror only lasted for the briefest of seconds because my other hand crashed against his skull, knocking him unconscious immediately.
Two more men, one being Jericho, remained in the room and they had their bodies positioned between me and Baker, their attention focused solely on me. Normally, I would have chosen Jericho to be the next to fall, since he was their “leader”, but the man standing next to him pulled a long, wicked blade from a holder attached to his belt. He waved it in front of him, a sinister smile on his face. Jericho might be their leader, but this man definitely enjoyed the job of hurting others.
“You sicken me!” he snarled in disgust and then spat in my direction.
“Well, you’re not doing a whole lot for me, either,” I answered. Yeah, Jericho would have to wait. I couldn’t risk that knife going anywhere near Baker’s body, so this man needed to be taken out.
“Don’t worry about me,” Baker said as blood oozed from a large cut to his upper lip. One eye was swollen shut, but he used the other to wink at me. “I’ll just hang here and babysit this one, so he doesn’t get in your way.” Before Jericho could even register what Baker had said, Baker grabbed his wounded hands around the chain that held him prisoner, and then lifted his legs to wrap tightly around Jericho’s neck. I watched in delight as the bastard responsible for hurting Baker struggled to escape…struggled to even breathe.
From the grimace of pain that crossed his face, I knew the movement had been difficult for Baker’s battered body. I needed to make short work of the fucker waving the knife in front of me. Delightful thoughts of just shooting him dead danced around in my head, but then that would be too fast and not nearly painful enough. When, without any fucking skill at all, he lunged in my direction, I twisted away at the last second, planted my elbow into his kidney, and then followed that motion with an uppercut that caused his head to snap back. While he was still trying to regain his footing, I grabbed the hand that held the deadly knife and raised my knee while lowering his arm, allowing them both to meet with enough momentum to snap his wrist. The knife dropped to the concrete floor, and I kicked it out of the way. After a quick look around to ensure that Baker was still clamped onto to Jericho but hadn’t killed him yet, I turned back to the man clutching his wrist as he tried to run toward the door. Fucking coward. Before he could get there, the door burst open, causing him to stumble backward and straight into my arms, as the rest of Landon’s men poured into the room.