Total pages in book: 12
Estimated words: 11137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 56(@200wpm)___ 45(@250wpm)___ 37(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 11137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 56(@200wpm)___ 45(@250wpm)___ 37(@300wpm)
I shook my head. “No. It’s not fucking happening,” I retorted. “Not only am I fucking against it one hundred percent, but Damien would come back from the dead and fucking bring you to heel and kill me if I even thought about you doing this. It’s not happening.”
She glared at me. “Guess what, Miles? Damien can’t come back from the dead.” I clenched my jaw at the raw agony in her eyes. I knew losing him would never hurt her any less, and I fucking hated it. I hated seeing her in pain, and his death hurt her more than anything she’d ever gone through in her life. “Either you let me do this and you make sure I’m safe as I do, or I’ll go out and do it myself without your permission. Because either way, I know you’ll come after me, which means you’ll save those girls, too.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, but she just evenly met my gaze, not even flinching. I shook my head. “I’d like to see you try.”
She arched a brow at me. “You making a threat, Miles? I’m good at disappearing; don’t forget that.”
I stepped closer to her. “You’re my wife, and I’m fucking forbidding this.”
She grabbed my upper arms, her eyes turning pleading. Fuck. “Miles, I’m begging you. Don’t let those girls suffer. Please,” she pleaded, her tone softening at the end, a soft pout to her lips.
I was cracking. “Baby, you’re still always so sick,” I tried.
She shrugged. “I’ll deal with being sick,” she told me. “But we can do it on a good day for me.”
Fuck.
Damien, how did you deal with her like this?
I squeezed my eyes shut. Terror struck through my heart, but I knew I was going to give in. When she looked at me like that, when she was passionate about something—fuck, I was no match for her. She was the only person in this world who held this kind of power over me.
“Fine,” I rasped. I opened my eyes and looked down at her. “But we do this my way, you hear me?”
She nodded. I tugged her into my arms, a bad feeling settling in the pit of my gut. And as I met Quinn’s eyes over her head, I knew he felt that same bad feeling.
Nothing good was going to come out of this, but if she wanted me to save those girls, then fuck—I would.
I just prayed I didn’t lose her, too.
4
Hayley
Though I’d stood my ground against Miles so I could do this, I was nervous as hell as I took my seat at the bar. Quinn had it from a trusted source that they were aiming for a bit of an older generation—twenties and early thirties—so I was hitting up this bar in the hopes I could get close to one of the men to find out where they were taking the women and girls they were kidnapping.
I just prayed Miles could keep me safe. It was times like these I really missed Damien. Because if Damien were here, I wouldn’t even have to worry about getting kidnapped. Because those girls would have already been rescued before I even got word they were taken.
But Damien had wanted this life, and it was clear that Miles didn’t. I knew he was trying to do better for our family, and I respected that. But sometimes, I worried getting out would be a lot more dangerous than staying in the game.
I blew out a soft breath and swallowed down vomit before waving the bartender down for a water. He looked at me strangely, but I just gave him a small smile. “Can you add some lemon to it?”
“Sure thing, babe.”
He quickly worked on my water and slid it over to me. I squeezed the lemon into the water, sighing in relief when it settled my stomach. I wished I could see Miles, but I knew he was hiding. They couldn’t be in the building, unfortunately. All of them were too well known around here to slip in unnoticed. And they didn’t want to spook whoever was working the room tonight.
I sat there for a good hour, working on my second glass of water. But I began to feel sick and a bit loopy. Frowning, I stood from the bar, stumbling as I did so.
My heart thumped hard in my chest.
I’d been drugged.
I didn’t know when the fuck it had happened, but I was definitely drugged.
I worked on making my way out to the parking lot, praying that Miles had eyes on me so I could get some help. I’d been fucking targeted all right, and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that if one of Miles’s men didn’t get their hands on me soon, I was going to be a hell of a lot more than just bait.