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)
He couldn’t actually imagine his life without Kala. It somehow didn’t compute in his brain. Like he needed both his golden boy athlete life and the moments he had with her.
Was he hurting her?
His mom didn’t think he should be with her either. Not because she didn’t love Kala. Because they were… What word had she used? Volatile. He’d had to look it up. Incendiary. Unstable. Like a bomb waiting to go off.
His mom would be upset if he didn’t take her advice. What would she think of him? Would she wish she had a kid who listened? Maybe there was something in his DNA that made him this way, something buried deep inside that neither of his parents could recognize in themselves the way Tasha had talked about.
But Tasha wasn’t a Taggart by blood either.
Maybe Tash was better than he was. Better at fitting in. Better at being the child her parents hoped for.
He sat for a moment, feeling heavier than he’d ever felt before. He wasn’t sure how much time passed. Very little. An eternity. Tasha sat beside him, texting. Probably keeping Kenzie and Lou up to date.
He didn’t have anyone to text. Not about her. His friends would say good riddance.
TJ was asleep.
He was alone.
He missed her.
Kyle walked in from the back rooms, a phone in his hand. Not his cell though. It was small. Like a burner. Why did Kyle have a burner phone?
“Proof of life,” Kyle said, not bothering to look over as he walked out the door and into the night.
It was weird.
Tasha stood. “Where is he going? There’s a car out there. I don’t think there’s supposed to be a car out there.”
Something cool snaked along Cooper’s spine, some instinct he’d never felt before but had been buried deep. Was it too much of a coincidence that Kala disappeared on the night everyone was freaked out about Kyle’s evil ex? From what he’d gathered, this Julia Ennis person was trying anything she could to get Kyle back in her clutches.
Wouldn’t taking Kala be a good reason for Kyle to walk into a trap?
They watched as Kyle got into the car and pulled away, tires screeching.
“We should tell someone,” Tasha said.
Was Kala in the car, too?
MaeBe Vaughn was suddenly in the lobby, and she wasn’t alone. His dad was there along with Ian and Charlotte Taggart, and all had grim expressions on their faces. Something had changed. Something big.
Tasha seemed way more capable of rational thought than he was. She pointed toward the parking lot. “He left. He went out the door and got in a car. I don’t think he knew them.”
MaeBe’s face went pale. “Who?”
“Kyle,” Tasha replied. “He didn’t even say good-bye. He was talking to someone on the phone and he left. Why would he leave when Kala’s missing?”
Cooper was terrified that he knew the answer to Tasha’s question.
He stared out into the night as they spoke and worried he might never see her again.
Chapter Three
Kala came awake to the nauseating sensation of turbulence. Her eyes opened and for the briefest second she thought she was on the plane that would take her to the family cabin in Colorado. They normally drove, everyone piling into her dad’s big SUV. It was five hours to Amarillo where they would stay, eat steak because…her dad…and then wake up and six more hours to the cabin.
But this year she and Kenzie had a martial arts competition, and her mom had stayed with them while Dad started the vacation. They’d taken a plane to Alamosa where Dad met them, and then she’d known why they called it the Rocky Mountain Scareways.
She hated turbulence.
She wasn’t on a plane to Colorado.
Why did everything ache? What had happened? The fucking Russian. He’d…had he? She couldn’t remember because she’d been unconscious. Unable to protect herself. She didn’t even know… She didn’t know if she was a virgin anymore.
Bile rose but she forced it down. Take stock. She needed situational awareness, and she would only have a couple of minutes before they realized she was awake.
She quietly forced a deep breath down. She was by the window, though the blind was drawn. This wasn’t as nice as the private plane her dad sometimes used. It was more like a small commuter jet. So there was only one person beside her. From her vantage point she could see what appeared to be a man wearing jeans and sneakers. Not fatigues.
“I could have had much more fun if you give me more time,” a familiar, hate-filled voice was saying. She could barely hear him over the hum of the engines.
“She’ll kill you if she ever finds out,” another man said. “You need to stay away from her. You know she’s a kid.”
“She’s not,” Dimitry insisted. “She’s a whore like all Denisovitch women, and they’re only good for one thing.”