Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
I mulled it over for a minute, then sighed. “Fine. Can you get me that shit today?”
“Yeah, it’s standard stuff. Won’t take me long.”
We hung up, and I glanced at the clock, irritated as fuck to see that I only had ten minutes before my next client.
I needed to calm down, and I knew hearing Ellery’s voice would take the edge off.
“Hey, you,” she greeted softly, making me smile.
“Hi, baby. How’re my girls doin’?”
“Great. We’re headed to the library for story time.”
“Jake followin’ you?” I was never gladder that I had someone watching over my girls all the time.
“Yes.” She giggled, and my lips tipped up at the corners in response. “As tempting as it is to earn a spanking, I won’t risk our safety.”
“Plenty of other ways to earn a red ass, baby,” I growled, shifting in my seat because my pants had become uncomfortably tight. “Not really a punishment if you’re begging for it, though.”
Ellery gasped. “I don’t beg,” she protested.
I laughed. “Baby, that was absolutely the wrong thing to say.”
“Why?”
“'Cause now I’m gonna have to prove you wrong.”
“What time are you done tonight?”
I grinned at her eager voice, and my swollen cock became painfully hard.
“Two more appointments, then I’m coming home to my girls. Shouldn’t be more than two hours, tops.”
“Great. We should be home long before that, so I’ll get dinner ready.”
“Thanks, baby. See you later.”
“I lo—um—I’ll see you later,” she fumbled over her words.
I was about to call her on what she’d been about to say when Dahlia rapped on my doorjamb and jerked her head toward my station. Now wasn’t the time to get into that discussion anyway. I nodded and said goodbye to Ellery before greeting my client and getting to work.
I was just about to start on my last client a little over an hour later when Molly came rushing around the small wall separating the tattoo stations. She was holding her phone to her ear but pulled it away and handed it to me when I looked up. “It’s Jake. You need to take this. Something happened to Ellery and Corinne.”
My heart lodged itself in my throat, but I snatched the phone and croaked, “What happened?”
“Ellery is okay, but someone took Corinne.”
A roar of fury exploded from my chest, and I jumped to my feet, running to my office to grab my keys while still getting the details from Jake. He gave me the intersection where Ellery was waiting. “I’m on my way back. Fucking lost the asshole around a sharp corner.”
Molly had followed me outside, and once I hung up, I tossed the phone to her before riding out of there like a bat out of hell.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the worst-case scenarios. Living without either of my girls was not an option.
It was most likely Kenny, and it scared me even more that he had her and was probably high as a fucking kite. When I got my hands on him, he was gonna beg me to kill him before I was through.
12
ELLERY
Isat slumped over the wheel of the SUV until I heard the familiar roar of Zane’s motorcycle. Then I scrambled out of the vehicle, almost crashing to the ground because my knees buckled. But he jumped off his bike and caught me before I went down.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he promised, a thread of steel in his voice.
I shook my head, tears starting to fall now that some of the shock had worn off. “It’s all my fault.”
“You’re not to blame, baby,” he reassured. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know you’d never do anything to put Corinne at risk.”
I was relieved that he didn’t think that I was responsible for Corinne’s kidnapping, but it didn’t ease my feeling of guilt. “He took her from the SUV while I was driving.”
“Tell me, any details you can remember will help,” he urged.
I took a few deep breaths and nodded. “It all happened so fast. I had just pulled over to wait for the prospect to catch up to me. Corinne was sleeping, and I twisted around in my seat to watch the light because I would pull out onto the street again when it turned green. I heard a noise in the back but didn’t realize what it was at first. By the time I turned around, the man was already popping the baby carrier out of its base. I couldn’t unbuckle my belt and get out of the vehicle fast enough to stop him from taking her. He just tossed her into the passenger seat of his car and took off. Without even bothering to buckle her in, and an airbag only inches from our precious little girl.”
“You were parked here when he took her?” he asked.
I pressed my hands against his chest to try to stop my trembling. “Yeah. That’s how he got the door open.” I wasn’t happy about the feature that automatically unlocked the car when it was put in park. I’d been so focused on watching for the prospect that I’d forgotten to lock it again. After this, we either needed to find a way to disable it or get a new freaking car.