Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“None of us suspected they’d do something like that.”
“But we should have. They’ve done far worse and far riskier shit. Like they get off on riding that edge between life and death.” Most especially Sebastian, from what Isaiah had gathered.
“This isn’t just risky, it’s reckless. There are all sorts of variables. They can’t know that you and Quinley aren’t bonded. They can’t be sure she wouldn’t receive a visitor, who’d then likely spot them. They can’t be certain you wouldn’t return early. Yet, they made this move regardless. They’re never careless, but this? Yeah, this is careless.”
“Careless” was a good word for it. “Arrogant” would be another. As Isaiah saw it, the only people who’d blindly ignore the variables that Evander had mentioned were people who’d be desperate for vengeance. Which brought to mind the surviving Vercetti brothers.
Sebastian seemed to call a lot of the shots, so he was likely the main person behind this plot. For him to take so many risks … it was as if the death of Samuele, the disappearance of Tommaso, and the pack’s subsequent failures to come after the pride had chipped away at his feelings of power and control—things a person with his upbringing might crave; things he’d feel unsteady without—and, thus, somehow destabilized his thought processes or something.
“If they do catch her, they’ll sense the partial imprint bond,” said Isaiah. “They’ll know then that they’re not flying under our pride’s radar.”
“They won’t know for sure that we’ll be aware she’s in danger, because a partial bond means you don’t feel everything your mate is feeling,” Evander pointed out. “What do you plan to do once we get to your house?”
The only thing that Isaiah really could do. “Walk in there like I don’t know she has company.”
Evander flicked him a sharp look as his brows snapped together. “They could shoot you dead the second you enter.”
“No, I don’t think they’ll do that. They’d want me to first watch Quinley die.”
“You could be wrong.”
Isaiah raised his shoulders. “What other choice do I have? Someone needs to be able to get into that house to help her. If the pack sees others, they’ll fire without hesitation and maybe panic that their game is up. Me? They’d like that I was there.” And neither he nor his cat were prepared to sit safely outside the house while their mate was inside without backup.
It struck him then just how difficult it must have been for Quinley to agree to stay home while he and the others waltzed into a dangerous situation. If only he’d taken her along, or if he’d just stayed with her …
Evander sighed. “Maybe don’t go in alone, then. Maybe take just one person with you. Three against three is better odds.” He paused. “It’d need to be someone as hard to kill as a black-foot.”
Isaiah twisted his lips. “I can think of someone.”
“I say we just leave,” declared Davide, his face lined with pain.
Sebastian stiffened. “What?”
His brother sighed, his shoulders drooping. “Seb, my back is shredded. So is Wattie’s Achilles tendon. The scratches on your face are deep, and your eye needs seeing to.”
As if Sebastian needed the latter reminder. His eyeball still blazed like someone had shoved a boiling hot chunk of coal in the socket. His vision was fucked.
No way was he leaving without doing what he’d come to do, though. Besides, he owed that little bitch. He was going to stab her eye with his goddamn claw before he killed her. “We can go to a healer once we’re finished here.”
“Let’s consider the job done,” Davide pushed. “The place is wired to blow. She won’t survive the explosion.”
Sebastian cast him a hard glare. “Wasn’t it you who earlier insisted it would take more than that to wipe out a black-foot?”
Davide spluttered. “Yes but, on second thought, I’m pretty sure I’m wrong.”
Lying asshole. “You want to admit defeat to a goddamn tabby?”
“What else are we supposed to do? None of us can catch her. She’s too fast. The longer we’re here, the more we risk detection. Let’s just do what Wattie suggested earlier and cut our losses.”
“I vote for that,” said the hyena from the armchair.
Ignoring that, Sebastian arched a brow at Davide. “Thought you wanted Hale to suffer?”
“I do, but we wouldn’t be letting him get away with what he did to Samuele,” said Davide. “We’d just be putting a pin in it. We can come back at another time when he won’t be expecting it.”
“And what about Tommaso? I thought you wanted answers about our brother.”
“Again, I do. But he wouldn’t blame us for regrouping if it meant we survived. As I said, we could return later. We can kidnap a random pride member and demand Tommaso in exchange for their life. What we clearly can’t do is catch that bastard cat.”