Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Her heart swelled. “Perfect.”
She ran to it, knowing she was about to square off with her old nemesis. Her heartbeat had tripled its rate by the time she reached the Ducati, and her entire body shook as she lifted a hand to touch the bike. It seemed to bristle into life under her hands, but she knew it was only her imagination.
Or was it?
She shook the thought away.
Monster or not, real or not, she was here to master this beast and not the other way around.
Closing her eyes, she imagined James going through all the motions. She had seen him do it a thousand times. He had done it slowly, done it quickly, done it in every way that was sure to terrify her. There were times when she dreamed she would find the courage to push him off the bike and ride it herself. She would leave and never come back.
But she had never found the courage...until now.
Slowly, she got on the bike. It felt larger than ever with her seating astride it, and again she had to close her eyes and will herself to breathe.
Breathe, MJ. Breathe. You need to breathe for Helios so you can go to him. So breathe.
When she opened her eyes, she went to work quickly. One of the more useful, albeit illegal, tricks that James had taught her was how to hotwire a motorcycle. Her fingers moved deftly, and soon the beast was roaring, awakened in the night.
Its roar made her shiver, but she kept her hands on its bars.
Are you ready, MJ? Are you ready?
In the old days, she would have kept her eyes open, afraid that it would be the last moment of her life. But this time, she didn’t. Because she believed she would survive and that God had meant something better to happen to her.
I’m comiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing——
She squeezed her eyes shut.
SWISH.
Swish.
swish.
And nothing happened.
Nothing happened.
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she gunned the bike and it roared to life under her. And then she was racing down the road, on her way to save the man she loved.
“WHERE ARE YOUR FAITHFUL lapdogs now, Andreadis?”
The question came accompanied with a hard jab to his face, followed by a kick to his ribs. Helios’ teeth gnashed together at the pain, but he didn’t make a sound. Letting these assholes know he was hurt would only encourage them to hit him even more.
He wished he could pass out right then and there, knowing it would put an end to his torment. But he was not the kind who passed out easily, and so the torment continued. Helios had counted on the police coming to his rescue right away, but now he knew it was wishful thinking.
The Sfagi had always been on his family’s payroll. No doubt Dahlia had paid them handsomely to teach him a lesson. She had probably learned about him quitting the club and thought of striking while he was down. Smart move. If he didn’t survive this, she would win. For her sake, she should pray that he didn’t.
The jabs kept coming, and gradually he became numb to the pain. He wondered dazedly where MJ was. Goddammit, if these men had found a way to take her and harm her...
He shook the thought away.
They wouldn’t be stupid as to involve the kind of civ MJ was. That was untouchable territory, the kind they were sent behind bars for. Fighting between clubs the police could overlook. But anything that involved innocent civs was a huge fucking no, and no amount of bribe tended to change that. The police would get to them sooner or later.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that one of his tormentors was taking off his belt. What the fuck? So they were going to whip him like this was a fucking BDSM scene? God, these men were wimps. Couldn’t they have gotten a real whip at least?
Bikes thundered into the scene all of a sudden, and the men were suddenly surrounded by the Afxisi. All of them had grim looks on their faces, and it was clear that he only had to say the word and the Sfagi were dead.
The Sfagi had their guns out, all of them tense and waiting for retribution.
“President?”
Helios forced his head to move even though pain had his vision weaving around him. Trying to focus, he saw that it was Christos who had spoken, the aloof twenty-year-old who Kellion liked to leave in command in the event that all the officers were out. Kellion said that Christos seemed to be following in Helios’ footsteps, with the way he hated having anything to do with people outside the club.
Knowing that he was being asked to issue a command, Helios fought to keep himself conscious before slowly shaking his head. He would figure some way out of this. One way or another, he would get himself out of this while staying normal.