Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
He started to run but wondered if it might not be time to stop.
* * * *
Every part of her body hurt. The trip from the bedroom to the kitchen shouldn’t be such a terrible journey. Normally she skipped her way in when she woke up and smelled the coffee brewing because she’d bought a smart coffeemaker and always remembered to set it before she went to bed.
Except this time. She knew damn well she hadn’t set the coffeemaker, so it had to be her new—unwanted—roommate.
Then there was the fact that she wasn’t actually in her own house.
Sean and Grace Taggart had a pool house with a small bedroom and living area. She’d been told they used it as a guesthouse many times.
Now it was her recovery room.
“Careful,” Kyle said as she walked into the living room where he was set up on the fold-out couch despite the fact that his mother had argued there was an extra bedroom for him. Grace had wanted her son in the main house, but Kyle was a stubborn asshole.
It had been three days since they’d been released from the hospital after the devastating night when Jessica Layne had used her to come after Noelle LaVigne.
That had also been the night she’d been absolutely sure Kyle Hawthorne was everything he claimed to be. He was dangerous. He was deadly.
He’d risked his life for her.
When Jessica Layne had told MaeBe she was going to use her to get inside Sanctum, she’d laughed—that had hurt like hell because they’d worked her over by then—and told the woman no one would trade her for Noelle LaVigne. She’d known damn well Hutch wouldn’t. Hutch was in love with Noelle. She’d been certain Kyle would do what he could to save her, but he wouldn’t put the mission at risk.
She didn’t think she would ever forget that moment when he’d opened the doors to Sanctum and walked out. It hadn’t even taken long. There had been mere moments from the time Kyle had answered his phone to when he walked out. Like he’d run. She would definitely never forget the moment when that asshole had shot him.
She’d known in that moment that she was hopelessly in love with him and he was going to die. She’d crawled across the concrete to get to him and just as she was almost there, Layne’s malicious guards had hauled her up with no thought to how much pain she was in.
“Let me get it for you.” Somehow Kyle moved with grace though he was the one who’d gone through surgery. Both he and Hutch had taken fire during the op, but Noelle had come out unscathed and now Layne’s company would be gone over by the Feds and sold to another big tech guru. She and Hutch should be able to prove that Layne had been selling early research to companies that wanted to squash the progress.
Layne had been willing to kill them all to keep her secrets. Now she was the one who was dead, and MaeBe had to deal with the fact that life was fragile and she was practically alone.
Her dad hadn’t come to the hospital. He’d sent some flowers, but he was on a business trip, and naturally her stepmom couldn’t be bothered to come see her. She didn’t have anyone to take care of her outside of her work friends. She’d pretty much had the choice to stay in the hospital or go home with someone. Noelle and Hutch had offered, but Hutch was hurt, too.
Kyle hadn’t allowed her to say no when his mom and stepdad offered to take her in.
“Hey, you went pale.” Kyle had been acting like a mother hen since they’d been dropped off the night before. Grace Taggart had driven them over. She and Carys had tried to take care of her.
Kyle had pretty much chased everyone away.
“I’m fine. I didn’t sleep. I need some coffee.”
“Or you need to figure out how to get some rest.” He loomed over her. “You’re having bad dreams. I heard you crying last night but you didn’t open the door when I knocked. Can we please talk about it?”
“About how I got my ass kicked? I went over all of this in the debrief. I brought Noelle some clothes when Big Tag put her and Hutch in lockdown at the club. They followed me. I suspect they put someone on me when the alarms went off. I wish we knew who stole Noelle’s research.”
It was the remaining mystery. Someone had set off those alarms, and it hadn’t been her and Hutch. It had been a woman who’d worn some strange tech that made her face undefinable by the CCTV cams.
“You’ll figure it out. But you didn’t get your ass kicked. Someone brutalized you, and it wasn’t your fault.” He was so gorgeous standing over her. His hands came up to gently cup her shoulders. “None of this was your fault.”