Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
“Good. I’m going to head out, see if I can pick up anything along the drive. We’re going to find this bastard.” He reached out and squeezed my arm. “Promise you.”
“I know.”
“Text Charleigh. She’s beside herself. She wanted to come to make sure you were okay, but we thought it best not to bring Nolan over here until we knew the area was safe.”
“I will.”
“Can’t stand for you to be goin’ through this.” He pulled me into a tight hug. “Love you so damn much. Need you to be safe.”
“I won’t let anything happen to me because I know you need me here with you,” I whispered back, a semblance of the promise he had always made to me.
His chuckle was deep and sorrowful. “Only thing I ever wanted in this life was to take care of you.”
“And you have, and now it’s time for you to let part of that go.”
He nodded against my head, and I had to wipe away the tears that blurred my eyes when we both pulled back. “Now look what you did…you made me cry.”
“You deserve it after the way I panicked on my way over here,” he razzed, and I let go of a soggy laugh as we wandered back out to the rest of the group.
Otto, Theo, and Kane were speaking in hushed tones while Cash leaned against a workstation that sat along the wall, pretty much mute the way he usually was. Always outside the conversation. But I swore, there was something extra keen about him. The way he watched like he was decoding the situation.
A tiny drop of worry flooded my bloodstream when he lifted his chin as I approached. Immediately, his gaze flicked toward Otto and his expression hardened.
Was he on to us?
What we’d done?
Okay, it was ridiculous to even label it an us.
There was no us.
Otto had made it clear that it had been a one-time thing. I needed to stop getting my hopes up, but I wasn’t sure I could keep it at bay.
This buzz that hummed just below the surface of my skin.
Theo and Kane each gave me a hug and murmured that they were going to take care of things, then proceeded to go to Otto to give him encouragement of the same.
Cash hung back until Theo, Kane, and River had slipped out the garage door.
He didn’t hug me, not that I expected him to, he just angled in close as he passed by and muttered, “Both of you had better be fuckin’ careful. Don’t want your blood on my hands. Care too much for you both, just like the rest of them do, so don’t be fuckin’ stupid.”
Shock pinned my feet to the spot, and I swiveled my body at the waist to watch him lumber across the garage and push out into the bright sunlight that had taken to the sky.
What the hell was that about?
It wasn’t until I heard their motorcycles roar up the drive that I finally tore my attention from the door they all had disappeared through.
No doubt, shock marred my expression when I turned to look at Otto.
But something else entirely took me over when I saw what was written all over him.
Fury and desire.
Fear and desperation.
Hunger and rage.
And he was coming straight for me.
THIRTY-FIVE
OTTO
The second the discordant brawl of engines roared into the distance, there was no stopping what came over me.
The overpowering rush of protectiveness and possession.
A need so fierce there was no way to deny it.
I let go of the foul words scrawled across the paper as I stalked Raven’s way and took her stunning face in my hands.
The paper littered with the threat fluttered to the ground, and I gripped her by the sides of the head, my fingers delving into the soft locks of her hair as I urged her to look up at me.
Ink-stained eyes blinked at me in surprise, her breaths coming in short, jagged puffs.
That intoxicating moonflower scent invaded.
“Who’s after you?” I basically croaked the words, unable to keep the desperation from bleeding into them.
She struggled to inhale, to breathe through the heat that flamed around us.
A circle of fire that kept us trapped.
“I truly don’t know.”
“What about someone else you’ve dated the last couple years?” The question was shards.
I was barely able to tolerate thinking about someone else having their hands on her. Except I didn’t have to contend with that any longer. The truth that she’d never let anyone get close enough to actually touch her the way I’d been dreaming of doing. The way she’d let me do last night.
This fuckin’ fierce, innocent, beautiful girl who was nothing but a light in the middle of the darkness.
And some motherfucker was trying to drag her back into it.
I could see her process through each one, calculating their risk.
The faintest line dented between her brows when she whispered, “None of them were really anything. A couple dates here and there. A kiss on the cheek. Most of them got bored and stopped texting when they realized I moved way too slow for their tastes.”