Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
He loves to make a mockery of people. The very thought tells me that I’m going to struggle to trust him. And the minute my eyes meet Luke’s, I see the same doubt in his eyes.
We’re in agreement. Trusting Kurt is not an option. The problem is, there’s more in Luke’s eyes than just distrust for Kurt. He heard all of the questions I asked Kurt about holding Kasey’s murder against him. He thinks I went there because I can’t let go of the fact that he killed Kasey, so logically, in his eyes, I thought Kurt couldn’t either. And he’s wrong. Which I’ll tell him but not now. We can’t deal with that now. The clock is ticking on our three days to find the package. We have to conquer our enemies before they conquer us.
Chapter Fifteen
Luke
I killed Kasey.
That Ana thinks all of this, every last freaking nightmare moment of it, is about Kurt claiming revenge against me, it undoes me. Kurt was “dead” before I ever killed Kasey but that’s not where her head is at right now. The bottom line here is that Kasey is still standing firmly between us, even from the other side.
But I let it go for now and so does she, as Savage keeps us both focused on the immediate need for action. “I can go retrieve the SIM card,” he offers.
Ana rejects that idea with a wave of her hand. “I really don’t care what’s on that SIM card. He’s a master of deception. Anything on that card could all be fake. And he’s gotten out of worse circumstances than a chair and ropes when he wasn’t watched. Please just make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”
“I can drug him,” Savage offers, as nonchalant as if he offered to bring him coffee. “He’ll snooze, maybe snore a little, drool all unmanly like but I can wake him back up if you make me.”
Ana arches a brow. “If I make you?”
“I sure as fuck won’t wake him up by choice,” he assures her.
Smart man, I think. Ana hesitates and then says, “He’s dangerous. Maybe you should.”
“Right-e-o. Good decision,” Savage approves. “A nap it is, and then me and the Big Bear Rock have a date. I’ll go after the SIM card. Blake will know what’s real and what’s not.” He disappears into the living room.
Ana motions to the garage and starts walking. I hesitate, replaying that conversation she had with Kurt in my head. You really want me to believe that you have no bad feelings toward him because he killed Kasey?
The memory grinds through me, driving home the fact that I’m living in a dream world with Ana, but damn it, not even this makes me want to stop. I’m all about living the pipe dream apparently. I scrub my jaw and rotate on my heels, following Ana to the garage. At this point, Ana’s already climbing into the SUV we rode to The Ranch in, which one of the guys moved into the garage. I follow her inside and find her on the opposite side of the backseat, digging in the bag where we stored everything we retrieved from Darius’s cabin.
By the time I’ve shut us inside, she’s holding the tape recorder. “Darius said there was a key in here to a locker or lockbox. I don’t remember which. We just dismissed it, focused on what was in hand.”
“Lockbox. And we didn’t forget. We just got swept into torrential, bloody waters. Everyone around us keeps dropping dead before we get to them.”
“But we came here to stand our ground after we found out Mike and Newman were dead. What about Newman’s father, the real billionaire? We should be talking to him, looking for the lockbox, and finding the package. Being we’re here doing nothing.” She’s not done yet. She’s fired up obviously as she adds, “The package isn’t here. Maybe the lockbox is the key to finding the package. Maybe there’s a picture in there of someone Kurt will know.”
I arch a brow. “Do you trust Kurt to tell us if he does?”
“No, but he’s all we have.”
“Darius has more to offer that I actually trust more than Kurt. Where’s the lockbox?”
“I don’t know,” she says, frustration etched in her words. “We didn’t even find a key. Did we?”
“Not that I saw.”
“Darius said on the recording that it was in the stuff we found at the cabin. And he said it like I should know where the lockbox is. Did we drop the key? And why did we not realize we missed this?”
“Like I said, we’ve had our hands full.” I grab the bag she’s holding and start digging around.
“I want to listen to the audio again,” she says, and still holding the recorder, she fast-forwards and hits play, somehow managing to land on just the right spot: