Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Get the hell off me.” He tugs free of the men and cups my face, searching my eyes before we all turn to the door, to the next impossibility.
I gasp.
Zeke pulls me to him as the Councilor peels himself from the wall and turns to the man entering. He pushes his hair back, but it’s ruined, his perfect coif destroyed when he beat his wife.
“Lucky Thorne,” the Councilor says.
My father only has eyes for me, though. My heart races and my hands are fists at my sides. Because what I see is the man who broke my sister. Who beat her, would have drowned her. The man who destroyed her life.
“Well, Little Blue Rabbit. It’s good to see you, sweetheart.”
I would charge him if Zeke weren’t holding me back. I’d carve out his eyes with my fingernails.
“You have it. You have the laptop,” Zeke says to the Councilor who turns to him. “You fucking come near her again, and I will fucking put you in the ground, Councilor or not.”
He keeps a tight arm around me as he walks us to the door and I glance back at Ines, still kneeling on the floor, her robe tied around her, watching, a grin spreading across her face before her laughter rings out, the unhinged laughter of a mad woman.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” Zeke tells the soldiers.
“Let them go,” the Councilor calls and they do, and Zeke moves us quickly through the house and out to where Dex is waiting, the car idling.
Without a look back, he opens the back door and helps me in then climbs in after me and we take off. “Did he hurt you?”
I shake my head. “He made me watch as he beat his wife. He’s a sick bastard, Zeke.” I wipe my eyes at the memory.
Zeke’s jaw tightens.
“But wait,” I start. “The computer… There are no files on it.”
“It’ll take him a little while to figure that out. But we don’t have much time.”
“My father,” I say.
He looks at me. “I wanted to kill him. I will. I promise. But it was a trap to get me out of the house. So, I trapped Augustus. At least temporarily.”
“What now?”
“What now? You really have to ask? Now I get you on a plane out of the country and out of reach.”
23
BLUE
“What? No, Zeke. No way. I’m not leaving, not without Wren and not without you.”
“You are. You’re leaving as soon as I can arrange it.”
“You said yourself, he can find us anywhere. It’s just a matter of time.” He shakes his head. “And I’m not leaving Wren.”
“Wren is safe here. She will be protected, I promise you. And she needs to settle in. All that change can’t be good for her.”
“How do you know what she needs?”
“You know it too, Blue. Besides, it’s not her they want.”
When we get to the house, we’re still arguing but he won’t budge. I follow Zeke to the front door where he punches in the code to unlock it. He steps inside and stops. I’m right behind him, seeing the mess the Councilor’s soldiers left. When Zeke mutters a curse and stalks to the study, I realize something.
He doesn’t know they were here. He must have come right to the Councilor’s house. He doesn’t know that they didn’t find it.
“Fuck! They ransacked the house.” He goes straight to the desk with its overturned drawers. “Shit!”
“Wait, how did you know to come for me? I thought you’d been here.”
He shakes his head, crouches down to look through the items they dumped out of the drawers. “No. When your father told me it was Augustus and that his men had taken off as soon as I’d gotten there, I knew they were coming for you. I didn’t think they’d tear the place apart but of course they would. He wants those files.” He straightens, mutters another curse.
I glance at the fireplace where I hid the flash drive. It’s undisturbed.
“One of his soldiers must have it. That explains why he took the laptop and let us walk away. Augustus must not know. I wonder if it’s another one of Girard’s men if he didn’t hand it over.”
I almost open my mouth to tell him that no, it’s right here. What he wants is right here. But when I turn to him, I find him putting the phone to his ear. He’s calling his brother, explaining what happened.
I wait, listen. I can’t let him send me away from Wren. Away from him. When Councilor Augustus learns he’s been duped, and he’ll figure it out soon enough, he’s going to come after Zeke. Maybe Jericho too. And if Zeke is too stubborn to give up the flash drive, he’s going to get himself killed. Hell, even if he handed it over, no way that monster is going to let him walk away. I know it. I watched him beat his wife. I saw exactly what he is.