Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Bullshit all the way.
I glanced over at Em, who was still glaring at me. So far as I could tell, she only had the one expression at this point. I don’t know why it bothered me so much. I wanted her to hate me, right?
“Calling your dad now,” I told her. “Be a good girl, Emmy Lou—or did you need another lesson?”
She flinched and looked away. I smirked at her cruelly, hating myself because I wanted a smile from her so bad. The phone started ringing, and then Hayes’s voice came through the speaker.
“Picnic.”
“Hey, Daddy,” Em said. “We’re okay for now.”
She glanced up at me, an unspoken question in her eyes—would they stay okay?
“What the fuck’s wrong with Sophie?” Picnic asked. “Ruger says she wasn’t talking right.”
“She bit her tongue,” Em said. “Don’t worry, she’s fine. But you need to get us out of here.”
“We know, baby,” he said, his voice softening. “We’re working on it.”
Very touching.
This guy was definitely gonna kill me. I know I would, in his place. Maybe I should’ve screwed her after all, I thought wryly. If I was going to die over a woman, would be nice to actually collect … I studied Em, whose eyes were suspiciously moist.
Well, fuck.
“That’s enough, girls,” I said, pulling away the phone. I turned and walked out of the room, putting it to my ear.
“Hayes,” I said. “We need to talk.”
“We’re talking,” he said, although I heard restrained fury in his voice.
“Em says you don’t know where this Toke asshole has gone,” I said. “Says he’s on his own. That true? You can’t control your own men, now?”
“It’s complicated,” he replied. “But that’s the essence of it.”
“I don’t buy it. I know Em thinks that’s the case, but sounds like Reaper games to me. You using your own daughter to play me?”
Picnic sighed.
“I wish to hell I had that much control over the situation. We voted to pull Toke’s patch before he grabbed your boy. He’s out bad.”
Shit … Every instinct I had said he was telling the truth.
“I want to save this truce,” I said slowly. “I think you do, too. But that can’t happen until we have our guy back. And it needs to happen today.”
“I want those girls back. Safe. They got fuck-all to do with this.”
“We got ourselves a hell of a problem here,” I muttered. “I want to meet, talk it out in person. You convince me you’re telling the truth, give me something to take to my club. Maybe there’s still a way out of this. The girls’ll stay with my brother—they’re my safe passage.”
“Where do you want to meet?”
“Spirit Lake,” I told him. “Two this afternoon. And Hayes? You touch me, Sophie and Em are dead. In fact, you better hope I drive careful, because unless Skid sees me in one piece at the end of this, he’ll take it out on them. He’s a mean bastard, doesn’t give a shit that they’re women.”
Silence stretched between us.
“I hear you,” he muttered. “We’ll be there and you’ll walk away safe. For now. Someday you’re gonna pay for this.”
“I’m aware,” I said, and I felt a grin tug at my mouth. “Although I have to admit, you don’t scare me half as much as your daughter does. She’s a tough little bitch, isn’t she?”
More silence.
“Tryin’ to decide how to take that.”
“Take it to mean she’s not afraid to defend herself,” I said, wondering if I’d lost my mind. Burke always said never give out more information than you need to, and he was right. Yet here I was, either bragging on Em or bitching about her. Wasn’t sure which. “You did a good job with her. She made me, right before I grabbed her. Took off running, tough to catch. She’s a fighter.”
“Fuck you,” Picnic said. “I’m gonna kill you.”
“Maybe, but it won’t be today. Not if you want her back. I’ll see you at two. Bring whoever you want, but don’t think you can follow me afterward. If I’m not home on time, Skid will pull the trigger. I’ll leave the target up to him. Until then, make sure you’ve done everything you can to find Toke. There’s more at stake here than you realize. We aren’t careful, we’ll start a war that could destroy both our clubs. The cartel loves shit like this.”
“Fuck you,” he repeated.
I smiled and hung up the phone.
Em’s dad was a tough bastard. As much as I hated to admit it, I kind of liked him.
EM
Shit.
All other issues aside, being held captive was boring.
I lay in the bed next to Sophie, one hand fastened to the headboard. Thank God for that—no matter what else happened, at least we were together. I felt pretty good about what we’d accomplished during the whole phone call incident. I’d managed to lift Hunter’s Leatherman tool from his pocket while Sophie distracted him by spitting blood. Impressive thinking on her part, because it’d been truly disgusting. Then I’d grabbed his wallet when she called Ruger.