Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“But what reputable place will let us rent a room without an ID?” she asked.
“What’d he get you for? He got fifty out of me for the room number.”
“Gee. Glad my safety was worth a whole fifty bucks,” she grumbled, then let out a sigh as she finally pulled away. “A hundred.”
“Not too awful. Alright. Let me think,” I said, reaching down to pet Storm’s head. “He was ready to rip a throat out for you.”
“He’s a good boy,” she said, giving him a soft smile. “Definitely deserves a steak. What?” she asked, head tipped to the side as she looked at me.
“Just trying to think back to the area around your cabin,” he said.
“Why?”
“To see if there is somewhere up there where I could stash you.”
“Why?”
Because the only end to this was an end to Neeley and his men. An ambush would be the easiest way to accomplish that. And by doing it at the woods, it would make the whole getting rid of the bodies thing a fuckuva lot easier.
How could you possibly tell the woman you were starting to have some pretty fucking intense feelings for, though, that you wanted to go to the cabin to kill a bunch of fuckers?
“Oh,” she said, lips pursing a bit. “I see. No.”
“No?” I asked.
“No, you’re not stashing me somewhere while you, what? Shoot Neeley and his men?” she asked.
“That… was the plan,” I admitted. I mean, what was the fucking point of lying? This involved her. Any killing that would be happening would be because of, technically, her old man. Not me.
Some part of me was scared shitless, though, that if she knew what I was capable of, what I was willing and capable of doing, her feelings for me might change.
“You’re not doing that alone.”
“You mean you?” I balked.
“Don’t scoff at me,” she snapped, eyes narrowing.
“Mills, it’s definitely a scoffable fucking comment. No way am I getting your ass in the middle of all of this. You’re who they want. I’m in the way, but won’t be subjected to whatever torture they have in store for you.”
“I’m not letting you put yourself at risk for me.”
“The fuck you think this has been?” I asked, waving an arm out. “From the second I stuck you in my car, bleeding and bruised to fucking hell, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. Didn’t stop me from taking you home with me. There’s been a risk from the jump. I’ve been willing to deal with that should it come up.”
I mean, I guess we’d been working so hard at not talking about all this shit. So I didn’t get a chance to explain how I was strapped any time I left the house. How I was always scanning the streets when we took a walk, gaze looking for the man I knew as Neeley. Because I’d researched him. Because I’d looked into his business.
And while, yeah, he might have been a big fish in a small fucking pond, someone who controlled his area with an iron fist, he wasn’t fucking intimidating to me. Not with my Family. Not with the kinds of crews I was used to rubbing shoulders with.
In fact, I doubted there would be much of a crew left if I took out the ones who’d tossed my place.
“But—“ she started, but I decided to change tack.
“How many men did you see?” I asked.
“Oh, uh, three or four? Definitely three, but there might have been a fourth.”
Those odds weren’t bad. Not if I had the advantage of knowing they were coming, of lying in wait.
“Alright. Let’s get on the road,” I said, decision made, a tentative plan playing out across my mind.
“To the cabin?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “At least you know you have the shit you need for Storm there,” I said. “And yourself,” I added.
I wouldn’t have shit there.
But I didn’t need it.
I didn’t plan for this shit to take longer than a day or two max.
Then it would be over.
For good.
No more worries moving forward.
I opened the door for Millie, who was doing some favoring of her bad side, likely from the run down the streets with those bastards in pursuit.
Well, this was the last fucking time they’d get a chance to hurt her in any way.
As I slid behind the wheel of Neo’s car, Storm’s head wedged between my and Millie’s shoulders from the backseat, I had a thought that made my stomach drop.
What if, when I finished this for her, she wanted to go back to her old life?
It was a possibility.
Whether I liked admitting that or not.
But it damn sure wasn’t a reason not to do it.
It was like breaking a fucking bird’s wings, then being happy when it didn’t fly away.
It fucking couldn’t.
So I had to do this.
Then say a little prayer that Millie was at least feeling some of the same toward me as I was toward her.