Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
“Fun guy,” she quipped, though her adrenaline was already up. She kind of wished Coop was. Up, that was. Shouldn’t he have, like, felt the danger or something? Shouldn’t all that great sex have given them a psychic connection? Romance novels had not properly prepared her. “Who the hell are you?”
She didn’t have to ask what her parents had done. Probably killed someone. It didn’t matter.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Kala shook her head. “Yes, that’s why I asked.”
“I have no idea why people consider you dangerous,” Lena shot back.
“I could show you,” Kala offered. “But right now I want to know who you are.”
“My father was a CIA operative,” she announced. “Your parents killed him.”
Eve gasped. “Eli Nelson was your father? He didn’t have any children.”
“He had me,” Lena practically shouted. “He just didn’t know it. And I didn’t get the chance to meet him because your father murdered him.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She was here for this? This? “First off, my father didn’t kill yours. That was my mother, and she blew his lying, murderous ass all over the Arabian sea and…”
She’d been ready to explain the world to Lena when the woman nodded to one of the men and a shot blasted through the space. Devi went white and started toward the floor, but the other guard caught her, so the ploy didn’t work. It merely allowed Lena some freedom as she passed Devi off.
At first Kala thought she was dead. She’d been shot before, and sometimes adrenaline played tricks on a mind.
Then Eve fell, her body twisting toward the floor as blood stained her silk shirt.
Kala dropped to her knees, unable to stop the panic now. Her chest. How close was the bullet to her heart? Eve’s eyes were still open, but she was a pasty white.
“I can finish the bitch off or you can come with me,” Lena offered.
“Don’t,” Eve whispered. “Fight. She’ll kill me anyway.”
“I won’t.” Lena stayed out of range of Kala’s hands, which twitched to strike. “I think Cooper is here somewhere, and it’ll slow him down if he has to save his mother. I like some chaos, too, you know. I missed her heart. Looks like I nicked a lung. She’ll survive for a while yet. Likely just long enough for us to make it to the airfield and get out of here. If you want to fight, I can do that, too. But the first thing my men are going to do is kill your cousin. You might take a couple of us out, but she’ll die and so will Eve. Though I suppose it would fit the Taggart way to choose the selfish path.”
“Kala,” Devi began.
Kala looked down at Eve. “Tell Cooper I love him.”
The rest went without saying. If Lena wasn’t lying and Eve could survive, she would tell them everything. Her parents would come for her.
Cooper would come for her.
And hey, maybe the bad guys wouldn’t look in her butt cheek for the tracker. Probably not.
She squeezed Eve’s hand. “And I love you, too.”
Tears slipped from Eve’s eyes. “I love you, sweet girl.”
She hadn’t been a sweet girl for a very long time. Maybe never, but then perhaps the people who loved her saw her differently. She stood. “Let’s do this then.”
Lena chuckled, a nasty sound. “Like I would let you walk out of here. I never intended to do that. I was going to slip this into your drink, but this will do.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a syringe, setting it on the floor and rolling it Kala’s way. Like she was too dangerous to get close to. It was the one smart thing the woman had done all day because simply laying hands on Devi had signed her death warrant. Much less shooting Eve. It might not be Kala who did it, but she had no doubt her family would take the trash out. She reached down and picked up the syringe. Ah, here she was. Full circle. Except this time she had to choose. Once she was out, they could do anything they wanted with her body.
And Cooper would still love her. Her parents would still love her. Her family would put her back together if they tore her apart.
It was oddly simple, this thing that had haunted her most of her life. She had to choose to go back to hell or watch her cousin and mother-in-law die.
Hell it was. She’d been through it once. If Satan wanted to dance again, he’d learn how good she’d gotten at it.
She stared at Lena as she shoved the syringe into her arm and pushed the plunger. “See you soon, Doc.”
The world went dark as she felt herself falling to the floor.
Chapter Seventeen
Where the hell had she gone? A dude takes one little nap and his soon-to-be wife slips away. Cooper yawned and rolled out of bed, stretching. How long had he been out? She couldn’t blame him. He’d performed valiantly. He’d fucked her at least four times. Maybe five. It was a lot of sex.