Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 106312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“I’m going to try and do this nicely, but I must confess, I’m not in my right mind at the moment,” Eli says with a smile that is anything but sane. “I understand you’re important to my fiancée, which is why I haven’t blown out your brains for keeping her from me. But I don’t know how long I can continue to be so patient.”
Craig points the rifle at Eli, and I’m shocked by how quickly everything is happening. “I can make this easy on you, kiddo,” Craig says to me. “I can take the shot, and you take the body.”
Eli smiles insanely as he steps forward and presses his forehead to the muzzle of the rifle. “Yes, Jewels. What will it be?”
“Stop it,” I grit.
“Stop what?” He raises a cynical eyebrow with his hands in the air as if he’s doing nothing wrong.
“Playing mind games with me. You need to leave.”
He laughs. “Me? Playing mind games with you?! Want to explain why I woke up drugged with no trace of my fiancée this morning? You can imagine why I’m at my wits’ end.”
“Just let me go! Find yourself a perfect little wife, and stop tormenting me!” I shoot, pulling out my father’s gun and pointing it at Eli.
He angles his head toward me, then approaches me as if hypnotized by the point of my gun. Craig tracks him the entire way, but Eli treats him as if he’s irrelevant.
“I’m not letting you leave,” Eli states.
I scoff. This arrogant asshole. “I think it’s the other way around. All I need to do is put a bullet between your eyes, and it’s done.”
“So why don’t you?” he asks, coming closer. I take two steps back.
“Stay where you are!” I demand, trying to keep my emotions in check. I made up my mind. I didn’t expect him to find me so soon.
“The way I see it, Kitten, you could’ve easily killed me in my sleep last night. In fact, you’ve had a lot of time and opportunity to kill me, haven’t you? But you haven’t.”
“Maybe you’re not the only one who enjoys playing with their prey,” I say, and I hate how my voice wobbles.
His smile stretches despite his eyes being anything but friendly. “Leave us,” Eli commands to Craig.
“I beg your fucking pardon?” Craig steps forward. And that’s when I realize Craig is definitely about to kill him.
“Wait!” I shout, and it tears at me to see how the two snarl at one another. “We’ll go outside.”
“I don’t want this asshole being in your head for one more second,” Craig angrily says.
“Mmm, yes. I much prefer being between her legs,” Eli says with an antagonizing grin.
I shove him toward the door as he laughs sinisterly, purposefully pissing Craig off. I slam the door behind us.
“You left me.” Eli turns on me, imposing on my space. The barrel of my gun is pointed at his chest as he slams both hands against the door above my head. I’m pressed back against the wood and I’m not okay with being cornered.
“It was never real!” I scream at him, trying to shove him away, but he doesn’t budge. The gun is irrelevant to Eli. “Do you really think so little of me when I have a gun pointed at your chest?”
“You’re the only one I’d let do it, sweetheart,” he says, and the truth in his words hits me in a tender place.
“Stop lying to me.” My voice comes out as a squeak, and I hate how small it makes me sound. I feel like a frightened mouse compared to the prowling tiger I usually am. Something flashes in Eli’s gaze, but I don’t understand it. I don’t understand him. Or maybe I do, and that’s what scares me so much. I see so much of myself in him, and it terrifies me.
It terrifies me that he has so much power over me and that I willingly gave it to him without even realizing it.
“Tell me what’s happening in that beautiful mind of yours,” Eli begs, his forehead dropping to mine in defeat. Tears well in my eyes, and I hate that he draws this weakness out of me. I hate this vulnerability. The way he’s able to split me in two and bring out these emotions I’ve buried for years. I hate that he ever gave me a ray of hope. I was fine by myself.
I push him back forcefully enough that he staggers, and I aim the gun at him again.
He cocks an arrogant smile as he puts his hands up as if defenseless. “Oh, I get it. You don’t like that you like me.”
A lump forms in my throat. It’s past “like.” I’m certain that I… Nope, not going there right now. I hover my finger over the trigger. “I just have to take your body to my client in twelve hours and be done with this.”