Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
He frowned. “You’ve got a bruise here.” He brushed his fingers over my jaw. “What did they do to you?”
“It doesn’t matter. You can’t kill him again.”
His eyes turned fierce. “I would, you know.”
“You’ve never shot anyone before. It’s a big deal. Are you sure you’re all right?”
He shook his head as if dismissing the question. “I’m fine. He hurt you. and he would’ve killed you. I didn’t have a choice.”
“Of course you didn’t. You did exactly the right thing, and you shot him dead center in the chest. I thought you said weren’t a very good shot.”
“I’m not, but this counted more than anything ever has.”
I loved Zeke so fucking much. Before I could tell him that, there was commotion upstairs. We both froze, listening carefully. No one called out to us, and no one appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Look at me, Zeke.”
He did, and when I looked into his eyes, my heart skipped to beat. “I love you.”
“I love you too. I thought…I thought you were just obsessed with me, that you would get over it once the excitement died down—”
I pressed a finger from my good hand against his lips.
“That was never going to happen. From the moment I first saw you in Vegas, I felt something that I’ve never felt with anyone else before. But I didn’t really understand how much I cared about you or how deep this went until I saw you with my family. That’s when I knew…I knew that I loved you, that I wanted to be with you forever.”
“Well, that’s good because you’re stuck with me.”
“They like you, you know. My family.”
“I like them, too.”
Val called down to us. “Everything’s clear up here, and there’s a cleanup crew on the way. We need to get you home, then track down the rest of these bastards.”
“He needs to go to a hospital,” Zeke said.
I shook my head. “We have a doctor who will come to us. I promise she’s really good and very discreet.”
Zeke looked up at Val, and Val nodded. “He’s telling the truth. I wouldn’t risk his safety any more than you would.”
“Shit. Your game. What happened? Did you win? What time is it?”
“I left before the game started. I told everyone I had a family emergency and took off. I couldn’t play knowing that Benito had you.”
“But how did you know he’d captured me? How did you know what happened?”
“Benito sent a message telling us he had you and we had until midnight to meet his demands if we wanted to see you again. But your family said he wouldn’t just turn you over.”
I smiled at Zeke and pulled him to me. “They’re right. But how did you find me here?”
“The tracker.”
I frowned. “What tracker?”
“You put a tracker in my jacket pocket, remember?”
“You took it out, didn’t you?”
I shook my head. “I realized maybe it was best for you to know where I was, so I left it in my jacket.”
“And then I wore it.”
“Yeah, almost like you knew you needed to.”
“We really do belong together.”
“Fuck, right we do. I heard you upstairs and then outside. I was so scared you wouldn’t find me.”
“Val remembered an uneven place in the kitchen wall, and when he found it again, he was able to find the release for the door, but I would have gotten to you if I’d had to tear the house down with my bare hands.”
“I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too.” Zeke leaned forward to kiss me, but Val made a gagging noise.
“That’s enough you two.”
I huffed. “I’ve had to watch enough mushy shit between you and Liam. You can’t complain.”
“I can complain that you’re wasting time, and we need to be gone.”
Zeke took my uninjured hand. “Can you walk?”
“Sure, I’ll be fine,” I said, having no idea if that was true.
As soon as I stood, I swayed and nearly fell over. Zeke put an arm around my waist.
“We’ll take him out the basement door,” Val said, hurrying down the stairs to come to stand at my other side.
“There’s nothing wrong with my legs. I mean, my knee is a little bruised, but I can walk.”
“What did happen?” Zeke asked.
“I got caught in a trap out back. I hit a trip wire, and I was yanked up in the air. Benito marched me inside and ordered me to go down to the basement. When I refused, he pushed me down the stairs.”
Zeke glanced back toward the house.
“You really can’t kill him again. Trust me. If we had the power to bring him back to life, I’d do it for you.”
“Come on,” Val said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Zeke stayed by my side as the doctor examined my wrist in one of the guest rooms at my father’s house.
He was impressed that she’d brought a portable X-ray machine so she could get images of my wrist and my ribs. Fortunately, nothing was actually broken, but she did want me to keep my wrist in a brace and use a sling for several weeks. We’d see how long I could stand that, though I had a feeling Zeke was going to be very strict with me about my medical orders.