Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“Lenore,” he growled, yanking his hand from my grip and placing both of his big hands on my face. “What the fuck?”
My knees buckled.
“Mother fucker,” he growled. “Goddammit. Mig, go get the fuckin’ door.”
The moment his foot stepped onto the dock I passed out.
And then it was just the darkness of sweet nothingness.
***
“You didn’t have to kidnap her,” a deep voice growled.
“I didn’t fuckin’ kidnap her. She was fine until we pulled into the parking lot,” Griffin said defensively.
“She’s going to think we’re a bunch of thugs who kill people,” another added.
“We do.”
I didn’t want to touch that one.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes, and immediately squeaked in surprise when I saw Griffin’s face nearly touching my own.
His eyes were lined up with mine, and I was breathing in the air he was exhaling.
“You okay?” He asked.
“Y-yeah,” I croaked. “What happened?”
His brows rose. “You passed out when we pulled into the parking lot.”
Then the realization of what I’d done dawned.
“Shit,” I groaned. “I’m sorry.”
“What was that all about,” he asked, holding his hand out for me to sit up.
I took his offered hand and sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the couch and took in the room.
We were in a huge, open floor plan house.
I was sitting on a couch in the middle of the living room, and directly in front of me was the kitchen.
I knew I would find an open window that would look out onto the lake, so I stayed directly where I was, not moving a muscle.
“Are there blinds on that window behind me?” I asked, staring at four men standing at the kitchen counter.
“Mig, hit the blinds,” Griffin said, not waiting to see why he had to close the blinds.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard them close in the next instant.
I finally started to take in the room once I realized it was safe.
There were five men and one woman spread sporadically around the room now, and I was rendered breathless when I took the men in.
Every one of them was handsome.
Every. Single. One.
Even the older one with all the tattoos with the woman standing at his side.
They were standing closest to the door, and watching me with varied expressions on their faces.
Sorrow.
Annoyance.
Understanding.
Anger.
Indifference.
Griffin, though, looked like I’d killed his pet bunny.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked worriedly.
“I’m not going to fucking kill you.”
I raised a brow at his tone.
“I never said you were,” I countered.
His eyes narrowed. “Then why are you passing out at the thought of coming here?”
I laughed in his face.
And he didn’t like it if the way his face darkened was any indication.
“I’m not scared of you, or your big…f-friends,” I said, looking around the room at the men who didn’t hide the fact that they were listening to our conversation. “I’m scared shitless of the lake. Which you have me on. Literally on. Can’t stand the lake. It gives me heart palpitations.”
Griffin’s brows lowered. “You were just at the lake with me at the diner.”
I knew he was thinking I was lying, but I wasn’t.
“First off, that was the daytime. I could see exactly where I was. Secondly, I couldn’t see the lake. Big – no huge – difference,” I informed him.
His brows rose. “Really? You’re that scared of the lake? Why?”
“How long have you been in Uncertain?” I asked him.
That was probably something one should know if they were sleeping with the man, but I didn’t. We’d never got to many personal questions.
And it was embarrassing to ask that in front of his friends.
“Year or so,” he answered.
I nodded, turning to the other men.
“How about you?” I asked Mr. Pissy in the corner.
He was really pissy looking, too.
What had I done to him?
But he answered. “Year or so.”
I nodded, turning to the next man, Mr. Indifference. “You?”
“Two.”
Moving to the next man, Mr. Sleepy who looked like he wasn’t affected by anything, ever, I asked. “You?”
“Six,” he said with a yawn.
I nodded and moved on to Mr. Sorrow.
“Five,” he answered without me asking.
Finally, I settled on Mr. Understanding.
“You?” I asked softly.
“Twelve.”
He was the oldest.
And he was also the only one with a woman at his side.
“Ahh,” I said. “Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner! You know who I am, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I knew the moment he brought you inside.”
Most did if they lived around here.
I was the girl who killed the largest alligator on record in Caddo’s history, an almost fifteen-foot, nine-hundred-eighty-two-point-four-pound monster.
Out of self-defense, of course.
“What are you talking about, Peek?” Griffin asked, finally standing up to face the man by the door.
The woman patted his arm and walked to a computer in the corner, typing as fast as she could.
Her fingers were a whirlwind as she typed, and I jumped when a screen started to lower from the ceiling directly in front of me.
“Whoa,” I breathed.
Then I winced when I saw the picture.
It was awful.
I looked like a big pile of shit.
My hair was sporting dirt and twigs. I had dirt smudged on my face. My jeans. My white shirt. I’d smelled god awful that day, too.
And directly behind me was the most massive alligator I’d ever seen in my life.
She was being hoisted in the air by a forklift.
Her massive jaws were clamped shut with about two thousand feet of duct tape.
Her beady, black, dead eyes were staring off directly at the camera as I stood with the gun slung over my shoulder.
“What the fuck. You killed that?” Mr. Pissy asked.
I looked over to him.
“Yeah,” I croaked, turning away from the screen.
And in doing so, I caught a fantastic glimpse of Griffin’s ass.
His jeans were really tight.
And I could see the gun at his back very clearly, even though I was sure it was supposed to be concealed.
“That’s gotta be a record, huh?” He asked.
“You don’t even know the half of it, Mig,” the man Griffin had called Peek, said.
No, that was right.
He didn’t.
“So enlighten us,” another voice ordered.
This one from the other side of Griffin.
Mr. Sleepy who didn’t look very sleepy anymore.