Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
As that was permeating, I heard the door open and saw his feet leave the room. My heart thudded loudly in my chest. He was in nothing but underwear, holding a gun, and I was under the bed, afraid for my life!
I heard a storm of gunfire and it sounded like it was right outside the door. I plugged my ears with my index fingers and squeezed my eyes shut tight. Then there was silence. Deafening silence. Then voices. But I couldn’t make out whose voices or what they said.
After what seemed like forever, I heard footsteps. I looked and they weren’t Tommy’s bare feet. They were a pair of black boots. My heart thudded wildly in my throat. I silently reached up for the knife strapped to the bottom of the box spring and slid it out from the strap that held it up.
“Tia?” It was a deep voice. I didn’t recognize it. I had the knife in my grip.
“Tommy asked me to escort you somewhere safe. Please come out,” the voice said.
I didn’t believe anything I was hearing. Where was Tommy? Was he shot dead in the hallway? Was this someone else wanting to kidnap me? If they wanted me dead, they would just shoot though, right?
I heard more footsteps, then saw a pair of men’s black leather dress shoes, “What’s going on?”
Was that Dario’s voice? I wasn’t sure.
“She won’t come out,” the first guy said.
I saw some suit pant-clad knees, then Dario’s face. I was lying under the bed with the knife pointed toward him. He looked at my face, the knife, then my face. He smiled. “You okay?”
I was frozen, I couldn’t move. I just laid there pointing the knife at him.
“C’mon,” he said, and he looked amused.
I slid out from under the bed and he helped me up. The knife fell. I was shaking. Dario threw a robe at me and I put it on, glad he was thinking straight because I sure wasn’t. I was still in those tiny lacy sleeping clothes and they were more than revealing.
Nino, that biker-looking guy, was standing there with Dario, his eyes politely fixed on the floor.
“Quickly, come,” Dario said. He and Nino ushered me out of the room.
Two men were on the carpet in the hall and one was face down, one wasn’t. The one who wasn’t I recognized as one of the burly guys from day one, the unibrow guy. I felt bad for thinking that thought. I wondered what his name was, if he had any family. It was not only bloody, but there were holes in the walls. Tommy was nowhere to be seen.
I breathed out a big breath as Dario ushered me forward but leaned back, “Get her shoes and get Tommy some pants, fast,” he told Nino.
“Where’s Tommy. He okay?” I breathed.
“Yep, no worries. Settle down.” Dario gave my shoulder a squeeze.
We got to the bottom of the stairs and I heard Tommy’s voice booming like thunder. “You tell me right fucking now or I cut off your balls first!”
He sounded utterly murderous. I froze for a second.
“Dare!” Tommy shouted, “Bring her.”
Dario motioned toward the slightly ajar office door.
I opened it, seeing a very bloody redheaded guy slumped in a chair and Tommy standing over him, two other men, one of them I recognized as sometimes being outside on guard standing behind him. Tommy was still just in his underwear. Nino came up behind me and passed Tommy a pair of jeans. Tommy threw them on the desk and took me into his arms and inhaled my hair. “You okay, baby?”
I sank into him, nodding but still trembling. Then I looked up at him, “You?”
“No. Not even a little bit,” Tommy glared toward the guy in the chair and then yelled, “See her? She’s mine. You and your fucking buddies put her in danger. See this frightened look on her face? No one makes her face look like that but me, you fucking understand? You come into my house and shoot up my bedroom door while I’m fucking my girl? You kill one of my men in my fucking house? Motherfucker!” Tommy let go of me and punched the guy right in the face.
Oh. My. Lord. I wanted to collapse. He was fricking scary. I stumbled backward and Nino prevented my fall by catching me by the elbows and holding me up.
Tommy’s eyes shot to my face. “It’s okay, baby. Dario’s taking you to my father’s house. I’ll pick you up there later. Tia…”
“Yeah?”
The guy in the chair coughed into his hands and had blood on his fingers. I shivered.
Tommy reached onto his desk and then caught me by the hand and pulled me to him, slipped the engagement ring on my finger, and then traced a fingertip from the hand without blood on it, across my lips. “This doesn’t leave your finger again. Ever. Say nothing to the girls.”