Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 94834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Zade. His name is Zade.
I swallow hard, my throat getting drier by the second. I’m in real fucking trouble here.
“I . . . I think they broke into my apartment last night.”
“What?” he rushes out, his hands pausing at my wrists for a minute. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I shake my head, feeling like a fucking idiot. “I wasn’t sure if it was them or not.”
“Fuck, Oakley,” he says, clenching his jaw. “You were about to let me drop you home, knowing damn well those assholes broke into your apartment. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” I cry. “I had the locks changed. I thought it was going to be fine. I didn’t know they would take things this far.”
“Clearly it’s not fucking fine.”
Anger blooms through my chest, and if I could pull away from him, I would. “Stop acting like this is my fault,” I demand, the irrational rage making me act out against the only person who can actually help me right now. “How the hell was I supposed to know this Zade asshole is a fucking psychopath? It’s not like I went and knocked on his door and was like, ‘Hey, I’ve noticed you’ve been stalking me and I’ve got some nasty kinks. Would it be a hassle if you could violently kidnap me in the middle of the night, and if it’s not too much to ask, could you possibly leave me gagged and bound in a fucking concrete prison? Mmkay, thanks.’ ”
“I’m not—fuck,” he cuts himself off, and a roar of frustration tears from deep in his chest. “I wasn’t trying to blame you, okay? I just wish you had told me so I knew to look out for it, or I could have taken you somewhere else. For fuck’s sake, we were in a damn hotel. We could have stayed there for the night and been fine, but we’re not. I’m fucking stuck here, getting beat simply because I spent my night fucking you.”
Guilt like I’ve never known sails through my chest and buries itself there. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, a lump forming in my throat and making it hard to breathe. “I bet you’ve never regretted screwing a girl more than you regret me.”
Dalton’s hand pauses on my wrist, his thumb gently brushing against my skin. “Don’t say that,” he murmurs. “I don’t regret you one fucking bit. I just wish things could have turned out . . . differently.”
“Oh really?” I mutter darkly, the sarcasm coming out at the worst possible time. “For a minute, I thought maybe this is exactly what you wanted.”
“Really? These fucking psychopaths are probably out there plotting how they’re going to gut us and you wanna bring out the jokes?”
“No,” I spit, the two of us clearly not vibing as well as we did up on that rooftop. “All I want to do is get the fuck out of here and never have to see them again.”
The tape finally starts to lift and Dalton does what he can to release my wrists, this small ray of hope pushing him to go faster. He grunts with the quicker movements, in more pain than I could imagine, which only has the guilt getting that much worse.
My hands come free, and just as I go to reach for the tape around my ankles, there’s another loud noise from outside our prison.
Dalton and I both freeze, our heads whipping around and following the sound as my heart races erratically, the fear completely crippling me. Last time, the noise stopped, only this time, it keeps going, sounding as though someone is standing right on the other side of the wall with heavy chains.
There’s a loud clang followed by the sound of scraping metal, and I shake my head, my eyes wide. “No, no, no, no, no,” I chant, knowing whatever it is they’ve brought me here for, this is it. This goes down now.
Will I be raped? Beat? Slaughtered like cattle?
I can’t handle this, can’t take the fear.
The wall falls back, and I realize it’s a hidden door. Had my mind not been so foggy, I might have seen the narrow lines framing the door. It looks heavy and thick, made solely for the purpose of not being able to hear the person inside scream, but it’s the last thing on my mind the moment my three neighbors step into the room.
Zade.
Cross.
Sawyer.
They’re so tall, the intimidation immediately washes over me. They’re dressed all in black, their sharp eyes not missing a damn thing. Zade stands back, keeping his distance, his arms crossed over his chest and those dead eyes locked on me, yet somehow I can tell he’s the ringleader of this bullshit. Cross and Sawyer are just along for the ride.
They’re terrifying. Their ability to control a room is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.