Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
The guy twitched toward me, and I settled instinctively into my fighting stance. Talking was officially over. Ignoring every warning I’d given, the idiot made the first move. He swung at me, but I ducked it easily, then caught him with a powerful uppercut. He wobbled on his feet but didn’t fall, which surprised me enough to let him land a sloppy but hard kick to my stomach. It knocked the breath out of me, but I couldn’t let a little thing like the inability to breathe stop me. Instead I used the fear I felt for Jamie, the hatred of the two men who were trying to take him from me, and the anger toward myself for ever letting him out of my sight. I took all of that emotion and channeled it into my fist as I blasted the man’s temple. He crumpled to the floor, and I didn’t hesitate. I mounted him and bashed his face over and over with my fists, a mindless slave to the blood thirst, until Jason finally pulled me off of him.
The other guy had released Jamie and was cowering instinctively away from me. “You’re smarter than your friend,” Jason told him. “This didn’t have to happen. He tried to walk away.”
The guy nodded, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
I couldn’t speak for myself. I crossed that line, and I was doing my best to reel my emotions back in. My breaths were coming strong and heavy, not because I was out of shape, but because I was just that mad.
I turned toward the door and found Jamie, Jason, and Steve all staring at me, waiting to see if my tantrum was over. It was. It was also time for us to get the hell out of that club before anything else could happen. I motioned for them to follow me, and we escaped through the front door and into the night.
CHAPTER 8
(JAMIE)
So my plan to get Kage’s attention hadn’t gone quite as I’d hoped. Or I suppose a better way to say it is that I hadn’t gotten past the initial idea phase of the plan, and the entire night had backfired right in my face. As we left the club and made our way quickly down the street, no one mentioned a word about what had just gone down. No one had to, I guess. We were all there, and we’d all been traumatized by it, some of us worse than others. I could still feel that man’s fingers pressed against my lips.
Once we were standing in front of a parking garage a safe distance away from the club, Kage swiped his hood off his head and snatching the beanie from Jason’s head. “All clear,” he told him. “Here’s the valet ticket. You and Steve take my car back to the hotel. There’s no backseat, so Jamie and I will walk.”
“You sure about that?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Guess I need to get a new ride if I’m gonna do this friend thing.” He looked over at Steve, who had wandered off to lean against the exterior wall of the garage. “He doesn’t need to be walking. Take him to my place and tuck him into the guest room, then drive my car back to camp. You can come pick me up in the morning. Or you can spend the night, I don’t care.” He handed Jason a keycard. “Here’s my spare key. Use this to get the elevator to go all the way up to the penthouse floor.”
“I know,” Jason said with a subtle wink. “It’s been a while, but I haven’t forgotten.”
Jealousy flared up inside me at the thought of Jason ever having been in Kage’s apartment. I must have been glaring hard, because when I glanced over at Kage, he was smirking at me like he knew exactly what I was thinking. The problem was, Jason wasn’t done yet.
He pulled a credit card out of his back pocket and showed it to Kage, holding it up between two fingers. “You’ve got to walk past that drug store right down from the Alcazar. Could you pick me up something?”
“Sure, man. What do you need?”
Jason leaned in and whispered his order into Kage’s ear. Then he wrapped an arm around Kage’s waist and slipped the card into his back pocket. He didn’t just drop it in, though. He deliberately slid his fingers all the way down into the pocket of Kage’s jeans, and there was full palm-to-ass contact. I know, because I was standing behind Kage, and I watched the whole thing play out in slow motion. The bastard made eye contact with me the whole time he was doing it, challenging me.
I reacted without thinking, shoving Jason’s shoulder hard enough to dislodge his hand from Kage’s pocket. “Keep your fucking hands off,” I said.