Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Picking up another sandwich, I bite into it and watch her. She rolls her eyes at me and nibbles at the rest of her sandwich. I have to show this girl that she can’t demand things of me. There are reasons I do things the way I do them. I do not explain myself to anyone apart from my superior, Mitch. A question sits upon the tip of my tongue, and I just can’t seem to stop myself from asking. “Why don’t you like to be called Delilah? It’s a nice name.”
She scoffs, “Yeah, right.” She swallows the last of her sandwich before picking up another. “Okay. So you know the Bible, right?” I nod. “Well, whenever we were in church and there would be reference to the story of Delilah and Samson, everyone would stare at me. And I mean everyone. Even the freakin’ priest. I didn’t like it then, and I don’t like it now. I prefer Lily.”
“What’s the big deal about that story?” I ask confused. I’m not religious but my mom is. She’d box my ears for not knowing. We were a church going family.
Picking at her sandwich and avoiding my gaze, she answers, “Delilah betrayed Samson. She was basically a nark. She used her sex appeal to her advantage and deceived Samson. She watched while they humiliated him, and that sucks because Samson was a good man. His only crime was falling in love. And she fucked him over…fucked him right up the ass.” She looks up at me, eyes blazing. “Delilah was a gold-digging whore.”
Still confused. “But that’s not you.”
“I know that’s not me. It didn’t stop people from looking at me like I was destined to become someone like her.” She yawns. “Please tell me why I’m here so I can go to bed.”
Since she doesn’t give any appearance of dropping the subject, I figure it’s time to drop the bomb.
“Well, Lily, someone’s trying to kill you.”
Chapter Four
A cell fit for a king
Lily
“What?” I shriek. Shaking, my chest heaves with every heavy breath I take.
Nox looks stunned by my outburst. He stands with his hands outstretched in front of him in a pacifying gesture. “Calm down. You asked, so I told, but you only heard one damn sentence. Let me finish, will ya?”
So many thoughts rush through my head but I can’t seem to voice any of them. I nod and he looks a little more relaxed. “Your father contacted us about a month ago. He asked for protection for your family after someone anonymously sent him a threat. The threat looked false to me so I declined the job, but something didn’t feel right. A few nights ago, I hacked into your father’s email and saw there were other things being sent there. Hate mail and more threats. I immediately saw a pattern regardless of the threats being sent from multiple email addresses. I declined the job because I thought there was nothing to it, but when I saw the other things he hadn’t told me about, I decided to make a snap decision and get y’all out of there quick.” There’s a twang to his voice I hadn’t heard before. “So that’s when we broke into your house, and as you like to call it, kidnapped you.”
I’m stunned speechless. After a few moments silence, I ask quietly, “Why didn’t I know about any of this?”
Nox shrugs. “I assume your dad didn’t want you to worry. I don’t blame him. Women tend to overreact.”
I blink a moment before I screech, “Someone is trying to kill me! I think I have the right to overreact!”
He runs his hands down his face and mutters, “There she goes again.”
Shaking my head in disbelief, I ask, “What exactly were the threats?”
“One threat. Kidnapping and murder of Miss Delilah Flynn. Just one threat made multiple times.” He says this as if he’s reading out of a diner menu. No feeling. No emotion. Just cold.
I’m confused. “Why me? I don’t go out or anything. I’m at home ninety-nine percent of the time. It doesn’t make sense.”
Nox leans his hip against the kitchen counter. “Well, from the past few days surveillance I’ve had you under, it has shown me that your father is more protective of you than your sister. I think that has something to do with it. But I could be wrong.”
He’s right. My dad is a lot more protective of me than of Terah. I never really understood it. When I asked my parents if I could go to college, dad got angry. He said he expected that one of his girls would take over the business and Terah wasn’t interested. She was already at college. I was basically guilt-tripped into doing an internship at Flynn Logistics. I do all my studies externally in the warehouse office and send it off to a training institute to get signed off. It feels like I’m being home schooled.