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)
He needed her. He might not want to. It might enrage him, but he needed her.
After a moment Josh sighed and hung up. He reached into his pocket again and pulled out a small box. “You will take this down the trail. Stay on the east bank of the stream and you’ll come to some ruins. Go up the steps and turn north. There’s a shrine there. Put this box in the offering dish.”
That sounded super freaky. She took the box and got to her feet. “Okay. I’ll be quick.”
His hand closed around her wrist. “Do not look for her. She will kill you if she gets the chance. You have to leave the gun behind.”
“I don’t need a gun to take care of her.” She wanted to get whoever the hell was on the other end of that line in some hand to hand. She would make it last and that bitch would go down slow.
“Don’t you dare,” he said. “Do everything she tells you. I know you don’t give a shit that I’m the boss, but if you don’t do this and do it right, my career will be in the toilet. I will lose everything if you don’t give her what she wants.”
She hated the slight tremble in his voice, loathed how he struggled to stand. He was always strong, stalwart, and this weakness killed her. She tried to help him up, but he pushed her hand away.
“Don’t touch me right now.” His voice was low. He was a wounded animal, and those were the most dangerous kind. “You wanted to follow me and find out what I’m doing. Here’s your chance. That’s my whole future in your hands.”
But she had to wonder if it wasn’t really his past in her hands. This felt like blackmail, his desperation familiar to her. He had a secret. She understood what it meant to have a secret that could ruin not only her future, but end her life. What had Josh done or been through that could possibly be bad enough he was willing to pay blackmail?
She’d been so sure of him. Was he working for a drug dealer? That would do the trick. If someone had found that connection, it could ruin his career.
She couldn’t think about that now. Later, she would take out the information and carefully consider it, like a box to open and explore. For now, she had a mission. “I’m going. I’ll be right back and we’ll get you out of here. And Josh, I was only trying to do my job.”
“Your job is to do what I tell you to do,” he replied, the chill in his voice nearly making her shiver. “Don’t think this fight is done just because I give in on one front.”
She nodded and turned, catching sight of Riley. “You watch after him.”
“I don’t need a babysitter.” Josh’s gaze found Riley and she knew there would be trouble on that front as well.
Another problem for another day. She needed to get the job done and figure out a way to deal with Josh.
She couldn’t get kicked out. Not now. They were close to getting where they needed to go, and tonight had merely proven that Josh was in way over his head. Hell, he didn’t even know what kind of waters he was swimming in, much less that there were sharks circling. He thought this was his real problem.
Kay moved over the uneven ground, her natural grace allowing her to go quickly down the path. She found the stream, banking to the east. Certainly during the day, this was a kind of haven, but as she moved through at night, her flashlight picking up the flare of eyes watching her from scrub and bush, she couldn’t help but think that this wasn’t a place for her kind. Humans. At night this was a foreign world and she was the interloper. Something howled in the distance and she hurried the fuck up. There they were, the stairs she’d been told to find. They rose from the ground, a piece of humanity that had zero place out here.
Moonlight cast shadows around the small shrine. Built of roughhewn rocks, the semicircular shrine looked oddly at home in the canyon. In the deep gloom, she could see the statue of the Virgin Mary on her pedestal. The white rock she was sculpted from shone against the moonlight, giving the place an eerie glow. There was a smaller, kneeling statuary to her left, and a circular offering bowl that looked to be filled with pinecones.
At least it wasn’t something bloodier. With a long breath, she approached the shrine.
Yep, she’d feel better with a gun in her hand. And a couple of grenades. Maybe a flamethrower. Damn, but she missed flamethrowers. She was really more of an urban spy. She hated the fact that everything made sounds out here. Her boots crunched across the path despite the fact that she was trying to walk as quietly as possible. Wasn’t happening out here.