Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 106909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
He groaned.
“No. Promise me.”
“Baby—”
I was trembling and shaking my head back and forth. “No.” I tried to get up, but he leaned back against the wall and dragged me with him. “We have to go.”
My back was snug against his chest and his arms were around me, fingers linked. He kept me locked against him as I fought to get free. To take us away from here.
“Kat, I need you to stop. Stop fighting me.”
I pounded my fist into his thigh, and he kissed the top of my head. “We need to leave.” But this time my voice was a whisper because I was realizing that this … Ream being here with me had more to it than what I’d first thought.
“Alexa’s mind is warped.” Ream stroked my arms slow and casual, as if we were sitting on the dock and he was telling me a story. “She grew up surrounded by druggies. Her mother … she ran away when Alexa was two years old, at least that’s what the rumor was. Most likely she overdosed.” He lowered his voice. “There is only one thing she wants.”
My heart slammed into my chest. “She can’t have you. You’re mine. I’m not letting her have you.”
His mouth was in my hair and I felt the curve of his lips. “Oh, baby, I love hearing that more than anything. Those words from your lips … I love you, Kat.” I heard the hesitation and my breath hitched. “But I can’t let anything happen to you, you know that, right? I told you.” Fear plowed into me like a Mac truck, and I tried to turn around but he held tight.
I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. He was going to do something stupidly brave or just plain stupid, and I wouldn’t let him. “No.”
“Kitkat.” His tone was strong and fierce, but I knew no matter what he said, I’d never leave him behind.
“No, you promised to marry me.” I felt him stop breathing, his body stiffen, and then it was like he let it all go and brought the warmth around me and took me into him.
“Even after knowing … what I was?”
I yanked from his arms and swung around and grabbed him by the cheeks. “Yes. Don’t even question that. Ever. I fell in love with you, and that’s all of you. What happened here is part of who you are now, and that is the man I love.”
He stared at me for several seconds then a low growl emerged from his throat and he kissed me. It was hard and unyielding, like the rush of a wild river. Despite where we were, the circumstances, it didn’t matter because we had one another. His tongue sought mine, and the sweetness swarmed me bringing me into him, our lips locking together like smoldering links of metal being welded together.
He was first to pull away, and I felt his body sag into mine and it scared me because it felt like defeat.
“Ream? Why can’t we leave?” This … sitting here waiting … but for what? It wasn’t right. Something was off and my stomach felt like a tide crashing into jagged rocks over and over again.
He sighed and lowered his eyes.
No. No. I knew something was off. We should be running for our lives, and we were sitting here in the bathroom. “Ream. No.”
“Kat—”
I felt the tears, foreign tears that now weren’t so foreign anymore. “No, don’t say it. I won’t leave without you.” I tried to get up again, but he held me to him. “Ream, let’s go. We can make it.”
“No, baby. We can’t.”
I choked back my sob and yanked myself from his arms, scrambling to my feet. “The door, it was never locked, we can get out of here.” Ream sat on the floor, knees bent, watching me. The fear was like a spider weaving its web around me. “Get up, damn it.”
He was so calm. Too calm. Resignation. Oh God. No. But it made sense. How he found me. How he just walked right in here and no one did a thing. How there was no rush to leave. And then I did what I swore never to do again. “Please … Ream … please, we can try. Please.”
He got to his feet and walked over to me and then cradled me in his arms as I begged through my tears. He stroked my back and wiped away my tears with the pad of his thumb, slow and gentle, his eyes filled with concern—for me. And it was maddening. I wanted to shake him and yell and beg and then run from this place with his fingers locked with mine.
“Alexa … called me. Made me a deal. It was the only way to get to you fast enough before Ben ….” Oh God, I didn’t want to hear the rest. I just wanted to take him and run. “Baby, look at me.” I closed my eyes when he tilted my head up. “I need you to look at me.” I didn’t want to because I knew what I’d see … the acceptance of what this was. Of what was going to happen here. He kissed each eyelid. “Open them, beautiful.”
I did and everything inside me was screaming. “Deck. Deck will come.”
He shook his head. “Deck’s not coming. No one knows where we are.”
My breath hitched. “But he’ll figure it out. Georgie will call him and he’ll find us.”
He caressed the side of my face and I leaned into it. “Deck’s in Afghanistan. Even if Georgie can reach him again … I won’t risk your life, Kat.”
“You’re telling me you came here without telling anyone? Jesus, Ream, why?”
“Because I want you to live. I won’t risk your life. She’ll let you go and this will end.” He leaned in close and kissed my cheek. “I’ll get out. I’ll come back to you.”
“No.” I pushed away from him and shoved him backwards. I turned and started walking out of the bathroom then stopped dead when I saw the body. Ben was spread eagle lying on the bed, the manacles on him. There were welts and blood all over his body like … I looked back over my shoulder at Ream and he stared back, a cold, indifferent expression in his eyes. He knew exactly what he did and there wasn’t a flicker of remorse.