Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Lex pulls out his walkie-talkie. “I need backup! Wife’s bedroom, now!”
BANG!
Beast shoots the walkie-talkie right out of his hand with a single gunshot.
Behind him, I hear more gunshots, the sounds making me hide underneath the beauty cabinet in the back.
“Help! Get me out of this chair!” My father screams his head off, but no one pays any attention to him.
Someone is still out there, shooting like crazy.
Is it a guard, or did Beast bring someone to help him out?
When our eyes finally connect, intense relief washes over me. “You’re here.”
“Of course I’m here,” he growls back. “You’re mine and no one else’s.”
His possessiveness always scared me a little, but now … now it makes my heart sing.
“So you’ve finally returned to me … Beast,” Lex muses.
Beast’s nostrils flare, and his lip twitches. “For your head.”
But my eyes widen the moment Lex pulls out a gun and aims it right at Beast.
CHAPTER 25
Beast
BANG!
I lift my arm just in time to protect my face. The shot penetrates my forearm, but the pain doesn’t faze me. I’ve been through worse, much worse.
Roaring, I pull out my own gun and roll to the side as I push in new ammo, then shoot at Lex from behind the bed.
The entire room fills with smoke and gunshots firing back and forth between us, half of them sifting through the walls. Blom is screeching his head off, and when I briefly throw a glance, he’s chucked himself over in his chair and is now lying on his side. And not only that, he seems to have actually pissed his pants. Fucking coward.
“You think you can win this?” Lex roars when I need to reload. With a devilish grin, he rummages in his pocket and pulls out the same box that once made me cower in fear. A meaningless trinket now when he pushes the button, and nothing happens.
“What …?” he mutters.
I tilt my head and show him the scar.
His pupils dilate. “You … removed it …” His voice sounds like his heart; shriveled up and dead.
Lex’s eyes turn to fire, and he shoots his gun all over the room, not caring who he hits. He’s gone completely insane.
When his gun is finally empty, I lean over the bed and fire another time, then lunge at his wife and drag her with me to the bed.
“Let my wife go, you monster!” Lex roars, pulling out a new gun to shoot wildly, filling his own house with holes.
“Let Aurora go unharmed, and I will,” I growl back.
“Fuck you, not a chance in hell,” he retorts, firing again.
Aurora crawls across the floor toward me as I’m reloading my gun, but Lex suddenly lunges forward and grabs her by the ankle.
“No, no! Let me go!”
He’s too quick to grab her, and before I can even react he’s already grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air.
“No you fucking won’t,” he growls, pointing his gun at her temple, “My house is ruined because of you.”
“I didn’t choose any of this,” Aurora tells him, her voice crackling as he applies pressure.
“Let her go,” I grit from behind the bed. “Or I swear to god, I’ll—”
“You’ll what? Sift her through with bullets?” A wicked smile forms on his face. Like he enjoys the idea of me having to kill her to get to him.
“Please …” Aurora mutters, terrified of the gun planted against her head. “Don’t do this.”
I hate—no, loathe—to hear her beg someone else.
The only one she should ever be begging is me.
“Do it, Beast. Try to kill me, I fucking dare you,” Lex hisses. “At least it’ll give me one last shot at some fucking fun for all of my wasted money and time.”
I aim, clutching the gun so tightly the handle might break. But I know if I try to shoot now, I’ll hit her instead. He wants me to risk it. He wants me to risk her life, but I refuse.
I can’t lose her.
Slowly, I lower the gun.
He laughs. “You can’t do it, can you?”
“I won’t risk the life of the only person I’ve ever loved,” I growl back.
“Love?” His eyes almost seem to glow with rage. “Love!?” The word itself seems to drive him mad. “All of my hard work—destroyed because of love!?”
“You’re just like Blom,” I sneer.
“Leave me out of this,” Blom says, but I ignore him.
“You wouldn’t know what love is, if it stared you in the face,” I add. I hold up his wife by the throat, making her look at him. “This is the man you chose. The man you fight for,” I whisper into her ear. “He doesn’t love you. He sees you as an asset. Something to use and discard.”
She shudders in my grip, her eyes homing in on his.
“Don’t listen to him, Anne!” Lex barks. “You know me. Better than he ever will.”