Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
She stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Thank you. And I am sorry. For everything. Perhaps my plan does not make sense to you, but I only meant to spare you the danger…”
Because she supposedly loved him.
His heart urged him to believe her and take a leap of faith. His head told him she was a bad bet and to back off.
He couldn’t address her feelings—or his own—right now, but he could address her scheme. “Actually, your plan made a lot of sense. It was smart and well thought out…right up until you tried to tackle an entire cartel and a splinter faction on your own. You have knowledge of these people. I’ll give you that. But you’re not fucking trained for this.” And had she really needed to throw them under the bus to do it?
“I know.” She dropped her head.
Because she genuinely saw the error of her ways? Or because she was playing him?
Fuck, he was going to what-if himself into making a stupid mistake if he didn’t get the hell away from her and get a few minutes to think.
He merely nodded, then punched in the digits to open the door. “By the way, I’ve changed the code in and out of this room, so you won’t be leaving here until I say so.”
Trees climbed the stairs, made sure all the lights were on, then let himself out of the dungeon. He hadn’t dared to look at Laila again before he left. He couldn’t let himself be swayed. Or suckered by those hazel eyes he kept losing himself in. He had to figure out—once and for all—where her allegiances lay.
How the fuck are you going to do that?
Sighing, he headed for the shower. He needed to clear his head, and he thought better here. If he didn’t rid his thoughts of Laila—her scent, her taste, and that look in her eyes when desire overwhelmed her defenses and she finally moaned and spilled secrets from her lush lips—he’d get nowhere.
He turned on the water, undressed, then stepped under the pelting spray. Then he went through the motions—soaping up, then jacking off to a hollow orgasm he hoped would purge Laila from his thoughts. It didn’t. He sank to the tiled bench and hung his head with a sigh. He hadn’t managed to accomplish much in the last few minutes, except to fixate on Laila more.
God, this need for her had him so fucked up.
With a sigh, he cut off the shower and toweled off. After he yanked on some fresh clothes and padded out of his bedroom, he didn’t feel any better. Everything inside him wanted her to be innocent, but he was afraid the truth would crush him. Still, sticking his head in the sand wasn’t his speed. Lives were at stake, and he couldn’t let emotions cloud him.
Trees knew what he had to do, no matter how much it killed him.
After flipping on the coffeepot, he headed to the garage while his brew dripped and retrieved Laila’s belongings, which he’d gathered from her beach bungalow. After planting in the kitchen, he yanked open the duffel he’d shoved everything into, prowling around for anything useful. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much except a phone he’d never seen her carry. Since it showed some wear and tear, it obviously wasn’t new. The case around it was black and gray and geometric. Definitely masculine. He flipped it over and found initials: vmr.
Holy shit, was this Victor’s device? Why would Laila have it? Had she swiped the man’s phone…or had he given it to her in the hopes it wouldn’t fall into enemy hands?
Somewhere along the way, she’d turned the device off, so he powered it up. To his shock, he got right in, no password required. What the fuck? A man in Victor’s line of work should definitely have the protection of a secure password—at a minimum.
Quickly, Trees checked the device to ensure that every means of tracking was disabled. Wifi and cellular off. Ditto with location services. No roaming.
Time to take this bitch apart.
Before he could dive in, his own phone rang in his bedroom. He thought about ignoring it. There wasn’t anyone he wanted to talk to now.
Except Laila. You need the truth from her.
No, what he really needed was to get naked with her and avoid talking altogether, except with their bodies.
That was a bad idea.
Muttering a curse, Trees plucked the device off his bathroom counter, surprised to see Zy calling this late. “What’s up, buddy?”
“Checking in on you. Kane told me you brought Laila by to visit her family.”
“Yeah. She needed it.” There was a point to Zy’s call, and Trees just wanted to get to it. “What’s up?”
“Not much. How’s it going with her?”
“It’s going about like I expected. Everything with Laila is somewhere between a battle and a riddle. You?”