Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
He was wheeled in with chains on his feet and hands, and he looked spooked.
Being exposed to a possible deadly virus would freak anyone out.
But Phoebe was really amping him up, talking about the worst possible side effects she could come up with.
“…then you could start bleeding from your eyes…” She pointed toward the bed. “Sit here.”
“Rome, you can stand outside.” She pointed to a spot right out of line of sight and said, “Thanks.”
She walked out of the room with Rome, and I jerked my chin to Copper.
He hurriedly hung up the phone while I snatched the syringes.
With the curtain partially closed, Lyle didn’t see us sneaking up on him.
Copper threw his arms over Lyle’s shoulders and pinned him to the bed just as I covered Lyle’s mouth with my hand.
I grinned at the man whose eyes went wide as hell when they saw me.
“Milena sends her regards,” I said, bringing the syringes up to my face to pull the caps off with my teeth.
Lyle started to struggle harder, and I stabbed him with the needles and depressed the plungers on both.
After pulling them out, I waited until Copper was fully out of the way, then I popped Lyle on the head, right against his temple.
He slumped onto Copper’s arms, and Copper threw him down on the bed in disgust.
Using the cuffs that were on the bed, I strapped Lyle to it, then the two of us went back to the curtained-off room.
Phoebe’s voice sounded a few minutes later, much louder than necessary.
“I’ll just swab him, and you can wheel him back to confinement,” Pheobe called out.
I grinned wickedly and opened the curtain just in time to see Rome.
I jerked my chin up at him, then looked at my brother. “Glad you’re not dead, brother. I would’ve fuckin’ hated it.”
Copper gave me another back-slapping hug and said, “Two more years.”
My heart was heavy when I replied, “Two more years.”
It was most of the way back to Dallas when Shasha’s phone call came through.
I pulled over and answered the call.
Apollo followed, uncaring that we’d stopped.
His eyes were on the sailboat that was in the middle of Lewisville Lake.
“Hey,” I said. “Everything okay?”
“Define okay,” Shasha grumbled.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Got a call from Artur,” he said as he relayed the call.
By the time Shasha was finished explaining, my blood was boiling.
“I’m headed up there,” I said. “You got a private plane, by chance?”
“Not a private plane that can get here in time, no,” he said. “But I can charter one.”
“It’ll take me another four hours at Dallas Cowboys stadium until I’m finished today. Gotta pack up and clean up. Get my cleaning crew in there. Show the owner everything,” I explained. “Then I can be at DFW airport by six.”
“Flight’s about four hours,” he said. “Drive is two from the airport. If you leave at midnight, you can sleep on the flight, then drive from four to six straight to her race. That way you don’t wake her up in the middle of the night, and she gets a good night’s sleep.”
He had a point.
“Fuck,” I said. “She hasn’t called me to tell me yet, though. You think she will?”
“Artur said that she’s trying to act unaffected. She also begged him not to tell me because she knew we’d be pissed, and she doesn’t want to bother anyone. She said she was just going to come home tomorrow.”
I was already shaking my head. “I’m going to move my schedule around. We’ll both stay up there. Might be good to be gone, really.”
He got my hint without me having to say it.
“Yeah, being gone sometimes is good,” he said. “Hey, you hear the news that her ex-boyfriend was arrested for child porn?”
“I did,” I confirmed. “I’m glad he was caught. Fuckin’ sicko.”
“Indeed,” Shasha said. “Accidents happen all the time in lock up.”
I hoped it did.
But I was going to try not to make it a habit to take out all the men that had once done Milena harm.
Someone might catch on eventually.
“I’ll get on the horn and get your flight scheduled. Make sure you pack hiking shit. She fuckin’ loves hiking. As long as she can go slow and enjoy it,” he said.
I thought about her depth perception, then thought about her hiking alone, missing a tree root or a rock, then flying down the side of the mountain.
A shiver of terror rocketed through me as I shuddered. “I’ll pack my boots.”
I didn’t have hiking boots, but I had motorcycle boots, and those were the same damn thing, right?
My age is very inappropriate for my behavior.
—Milena to Cutter
MILENA
After kicking Hazel and her crew out of the cabin, I ordered Artur to sit on the couch—which I freakin’ had to clean first—then went on to clean the rest of the place up.
Not only had Hazel and her boyfriend trashed downstairs, but they’d trashed the upstairs, too.