Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
She had to tell him. If she let the chance to kill the man who’d hurt Josh get away, she would never forgive herself. “Josh, you have to let me up. I need to make sure Hector is dead.”
He whispered in her ear. “Not on your life, and I know what he did to me. You’re more important than revenge. You’re more important than anything in the world to me.”
“Roll us behind the bed and cut through the bindings on my hands. I need them free.” She needed a gun, but she was completely helpless without her hands.
He didn’t hesitate. He tightened his arms around her and then the world was spinning as he maneuvered them to the relative safety of the bed. She caught a glimpse of John Bishop coming through the ruined windows. He held a gun in both hands, and his eyes were grim as he pulled the triggers.
Josh immediately went to work on her hands, deftly untying the knots. “I played a ship captain once. I’ll have you out of these in no time at all. Kay, there’s a gun in my right sock. I think if one of us is going to be armed, it should be you. I’ll follow you and I’ll listen to orders, but don’t think I’m going to leave you.”
“I wish you would.” But she knew it was futile. “Stay behind me. I have to see if I can find Levi or my sister. They’re dangerous.”
She crawled to the edge of the bed and watched as her sister tried to get a shot off at Bishop.
Kayla immediately took the shot, but Kun was on the move and it went wide. She saw her sister’s eyes go round as she realized Kay was there on the ground.
Time to move. Kun raised her gun.
“To the left, Josh.” She rolled as the bullet breezed by her head. Even rolling, she took another shot, trying to give them some cover.
She watched as one of Bishop’s bullets took out the guard nearest to the hall. Her sister swiveled and took her own shot and then sprinted for the door. Bishop had taken cover and Kun was gone.
That couldn’t happen. Levi she might be able to deal with. She might be able to convince the Agency to handle him, but Kun would be back. She’d seen it right there in her sister’s eyes—pure hatred. If Jiang Kun got away, she and Josh would never be safe again. The blackmail would start up and they would always be looking over their shoulders.
Her sister. Time seemed to slow as she got to her feet and braced herself. Kun’s gun was coming up, too, and it would be a matter of who was faster. An Old West gunfight, but in that moment she remembered how she’d felt to know that she had a sister, someone who shared her blood and DNA. All her life she’d been the weird one, the adopted kid who couldn’t even pretend her parents were her real parents.
Except they were. Her dads loved her beyond blood and DNA. Beyond the simple circumstances of birth. They’d chosen her. Her mother had loved her enough to risk everything so she could live. And her sister…her sisters had nothing to do with blood. Her sisters were Ariel and Penny. Her brothers were Damon and Nick and Brody and the Lost Boys.
She pulled the trigger, letting go of that dream. That shot was true. She knew it the moment she took it, but her sister’s mirrored her own. They would hit each other squarely in the chest. Identical heart shots.
Except Josh tackled her, shoving her out of the way. She watched as her sister’s shirt bloomed with blood, her eyes going wide and startled.
Kayla hit the floor with a thud, Josh landing on top of her.
The room was suddenly silent, eerily quiet after the hail of bullets.
She took her first deep breath in hours. “Are you okay?”
“No, baby,” he said, keeping his body over hers. “Don’t hurt her, Hector.”
She glanced up as much as she could and Hector was standing over them, his gun pointed their way.
What had happened? Where was John Bishop?
“What do I get if I don’t hurt her, Joshua?” Hector’s voice was silky-smooth evil. “You might not ask me for mercy if you knew some of the things I’ve done.”
“I know exactly what you’ve done,” Josh replied, his whole body covering hers as if he could magically form some cone of protection around her. “I know what you did to me. I know your group was behind it all. Think of what you could get for the tape of me now, Hector. Let her go and I’ll do anything you want. You know how good I am at it, right? You remember.”
“Josh,” she said, her whole soul aching. He could barely talk about what happened to him as a child, much less give himself back to the monster who’d profited off all of it.