Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Maybe he’d been out of the scene for so long that the first woman he set eyes on caught his attention, but Rocco thought it was more than that. The attraction was instantaneous and not waning.
“Is the resort reopening?”
She nodded, her ponytail flipping over her shoulder as she did so. “Yes. I don’t know the details because I only arrived yesterday, but I’ll be managing the front desk.”
And what will I be doing?. He was confident Sadie had no clue. In fact, he doubted she knew the answer to any of the dozens of questions running through his mind.
She nodded toward the end of the lobby. “Come on. I’ll show you to the conference room where the others are waiting.”
Rocco followed behind Sadie, watching the way she bounced slightly with each step and how her ponytail swung back and forth. Her skirt swished with every step. She had energy. The idea that she was a Little floated through his mind again. It was possible, or perhaps just wishful thinking on his part.
Rocco hadn’t dated in far too long, and he knew better than to date vanilla women. It was always a mistake. He would never be satisfied in a vanilla relationship in the long run, so why bother entertaining the idea in the short run? All that could happen would be hurt feelings. Probably the woman’s when he let her down.
When Sadie reached a door and stopped, he felt a twinge of disappointment. He was about to walk out of her presence. It didn’t sit well with him.
“They’re in there,” she stated.
“Thank you, Sadie,” he said softly. “I guess we’ll be seeing each other.”
She gave him a dimpled smile, and her cheeks turned pink. “Yep.”
For reasons he couldn’t possibly explain, he reached up and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. The messy ponytail was already slipping.
Sadie didn’t flinch or pull away. Instead, she leaned her cheek into his touch. “Thank you,” she murmured before she turned and scampered away like a little bird.
Rocco smiled at her retreating form for several seconds until she disappeared through the door behind the reception desk.
Finally, he took a deep breath to break the spell and reached for the door handle. Whatever the hell was on the other side of this door, it was time to face it.
Chapter Two
Five men looked in his direction as Rocco entered the room. Three were sitting around an oval conference table. Two were standing, leaning against opposite walls. All of them were built and in good shape, like himself. Each man carried himself with the assurance that often came from a military career or advanced defense training. No one spoke.
Rocco looked at each of them in turn as he shut the door behind him. “Who’s in charge?”
The group all chuckled.
A dark-skinned man leaning against the wall to Rocco’s left spoke first. “We were hoping you were.”
Rocco shook his head. “I don’t have a clue what I’m even doing here.”
“Neither do any of us.” The clean-cut-looking man about Rocco’s age leaned forward in his chair, held his hand out over the table, and flipped something in the air. He caught it on its way back down and flattened it on the table. “Don’t suppose you have one of these?”
Rocco glanced at the gold disc he was well-acquainted with—a duplicate of the one he’d been carrying in his pocket for two years. He pulled his out now and set it on the table. Each of the other men did, too, including the two men who leaned away from the wall to do so.
“So, we all have a strange gold coin,” Rocco stated as if it weren’t obvious. “Now what?”
The man closest to Rocco—the one with the broadest chest and bulging muscles—reached for a piece of paper in the center of the table and slid it toward Rocco as Rocco took a seat.
Rocco leaned over the paper. It didn’t take him long to read the one line.
Answer the speakerphone on the table at 12:30.
“Informative,” Rocco stated sardonically.
The buff man next to him chuckled and held out a hand. “I’m Phoenix.”
“Rocco,” he said as he shook the man’s hand.
“Hawking,” chimed in the darker man by the wall.
“Kestrel,” added the man who’d flipped the coin onto the table.
“Caesar,” grumbled the serious-looking man with a five-day beard similar to Rocco’s.
Rocco glanced at the last man, whose face was partially concealed by his baseball cap. After a pause, the man sighed and introduced himself, “Magnus. This is ridiculous.”
Rocco had to agree. As he stared at each man, he wondered what had lured them here. Had they each received a letter similar to the one Rocco had gotten last week? More importantly, had their lives been saved at some point, warranting the marker they each possessed?
The phone rang, jerking Rocco out of his wandering thoughts.