Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I ignore his words, telling myself they don’t matter. I’ve rarely been bullied for my size. Being Ryan’s sister has that advantage. Over the years, people have thrown those comments my way, and I’ve always just shrugged them off and told myself they don’t matter. With Kai, I don’t have to dismiss them. I can silently laugh at them. I know how much he wants me, how obsessed he gets. I know there’s a connection between us that nobody else can understand.
“Last chance,” Kai says.
Randall smirks. “You already said that.”
Kai looks at the man holding me. “Let her go.”
“No way. Not letting a prized piggy like this go. We’ve got a delivery to make. The best part is, we can have some fun with her first.”
“Do you think you could?” Randall says, laughing darkly.
More hurtful words, and I push them all down, trying to think how we will get out of this. I know Kai is threatening them, but surely that’s bluffing. There’s nothing he can do, not when the man is holding me so close and hinting at all the bad things he will do, the knife pressing suggestively against me.
“Don’t judge me. It’s been a while. Anyway, that’s what pills are for.”
“Have you assaulted women before?” Kai says, his voice taking on an eerie calm tone, almost like he’s mentally detaching from whatever’s about to happen.
My frantic mind leaps around composing. It’s how it’s worked since I was a kid, ever since I first fell in love with words from the stories Kai would read me. He was a giant back then and somehow even more of a giant now.
Blood is in the air,
Taunting, trying to
Burst into this ugly world.
I don’t even have time to think about if that’s good or care because Randall is saying ugly things. He’s talking about a woman he and the man holding me assaulted. I can barely listen as he talks about her age and the noises she made. All the while, he’s grinning as if he’s proud.
“Thank you for telling me that,” Kai says when he’s done.
“Yeah, yeah,” Randall says, annoyed with Kai’s lack of reaction.
“It’s good to know I don’t have to feel bad about what I’m about to do.”
Randall gestures with his gun. “Get moving now, and stop pointing that damn thing at me.”
“Close your eyes, Kay.”
There’s something urgent in his tone. My eyelids fall shut before I consciously tell them to. There’s no way I could ignore him when he sounds so ready.
And then… an explosion. I’m screaming. There’s something wet and warm dripping down my face.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kai
“Keep your eyes closed,” I tell her, ignoring the slumped-over mess of the dead bodies. Adrenaline still pumps through me from the suddenness of the shooting. It all happened in a second, maybe two, but it felt much longer. It felt like slow motion.
“O-okay,” she whispers, shuddering all over.
I lean down—she slumped to the floor soon after the gunshot—gently take her by the hips and lift her up. “Don’t open your eyes,” I say as Randall’s body twitches, as bodies sometimes do when their owners are no longer here.
“Are they gone?” she says, her voice so full of tragedy and pain I want to roar at the unfairness of it. She doesn’t deserve this.
“Yeah,” I tell her. “They’re not going to hurt you. Nobody is going to hurt you, ever. Ever.”
I lift her into my arms, smoothing my hand to the back of her head and gently guiding her face to my chest. She doesn’t have to see the brutal side of the world. She doesn’t have to know how nasty things can get. I don’t want her ever to have to experience this.
Slowly, I carry her out of the gas station, pushing the door open with my shoe. I can hear sirens in the air. That’s good. The attendant called the cops. Carrying my woman across the street, I place her on the grass.
She slumps again. It’s not her fault. I help lower her to the ground so she doesn’t fall. Her limbs feel like Jell-O. Her instincts are trying to tell her that, any second, more dangerous men will appear.
“Can I open my eyes now?” she asks.
“I might have blood on me,” I tell her.
She laughs humorlessly, more like she’s pushing the pain aside as best she can. “I’d be a hypocrite if I judged you for that.”
She opens her eyes, smiles up at me, and then the smile disintegrates into a pained sob. She seems pissed at herself for letting out the tears, looking like she’s trying to fight them.
I kneel down. “It’s okay,” I whisper, reaching out and smoothing my hand over her back. I want to pull her into a proper hug, but I have to keep some of my attention on my surroundings. What if there’s a third man?