Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
“Hey!”
Tristian West was storming our way, his own gun up and aiming at us. Correction—at Spence. The other guard who didn’t have a hold of me tried to intercept, but West growled at him. “Back the fuck up, Penn.”
He raised his hands, his gun in the one hand, and backed the fuck up.
As soon as he was clear, West lowered the gun until it was resting against Spence’s forehead. I could tell this was not how Spence thought things were going to go. His face was slack.
“What are you doing?” Spence asked, hoarse as his head moved against the gun’s muzzle.
“You don’t give us gifts and then kill one before you hand them over.” West extended his other hand, palm up. “Keys. Now.”
Spence didn’t dare move an inch. Slowly, he slid a hand into his front pocket and pulled out a key. He handed it over.
West took it, and held it behind him.
Walden snatched it up, whistling at two of the guys that came in with them. They went to unlock the cell where Marshall was bleeding all over the floor. As Walden’s two guards stepped in and began to move Marshall, West spoke, “Lane took four of our people. Four. You’re going to shoot another one, and that would’ve left us with only three as a bargaining chip. Three to four. You would’ve sabotaged us before we were even able to start negotiations with Lane. How do you think that would’ve gone over?”
Spence was so eerily still. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, and he swallowed again before pointing to me. “You only need her. He doesn’t care about the others. Just her.”
West’s eyes skirted to me, hardened, and went back to Spence. He leaned in, and lowered his voice to whisper though everyone could hear, and that was the point. “She cares about them, I bet. Right?”
Spence wasn’t following West’s logic.
He pushed harder against Spence’s forehead, enough where Spence flinched from the pain. “The thing you don’t get is that Green, herself, is another player on the board.”
I frowned, confused, but was distracted because the guards returned. They began to pull Palma and Heath out of the cell.
Palma screamed, “No! No! Please.”
I tried getting to her, and this time, the big oaf holding me wasn’t expecting it. I launched free, and was across the room in a second. There were shouts behind me. I ignored them all and flung myself at the guard who was trying to manhandle Palma.
Think, Blake!
Of course that voice in my head wouldn’t sound like me. Of course it would bark at me, sounding like Creighton, and of course, I would adhere to it because dammit, it/he was right. I needed to think. Be smart. We could get out of this alive.
Walden’s guard wasn’t expecting me to know a few things, how to handle myself, so when I launched at him, he opened his arms to catch me. I let my body turn to dead weight, which he wasn’t expecting. As I went down, through his arms, I grabbed his gun, completed a somersault on the floor. Shoving back up to my feet, I had his gun up and pointing at . . . Well, at everyone. I grabbed Palma and hauled her behind me. Heath helped, herding her too. They were trying to help each other with their tape and zip ties. The problem was that we were going farther into the cell.
There was still shouting.
I tuned them out.
The guard realized my mistake the same time I did. He lunged for the cell door, which would’ve locked us inside. I changed direction, going for the door.
I was going to be too late.
Except movement blurred in the cell next to us. A beefy arm reached through the cell, grabbed a hold of the guard, and yanked him back. The other beefy arm wrapped around the guard’s neck, and my heart froze, for a full second, until a very bloodied and discombobulated face peered at me from behind the guard.
Levi woke up.
He couldn’t talk. He could barely see, with only one eye opened, but he was trying to relay that he was okay. Or, no. He jerked his gaze from me to the door and back again. He was telling me to run.
There was a certain amount of resignation and acceptance, and sadness in his eye.
No.
No.
He was preparing to die.
I saw it. I read it. I didn’t accept it.
I began shaking my head, but his eye jerked from me to the door and back again.
Heath shuffled to my side, saying quietly, “Let’s go.”
This was not going to happen, but I could already see that Levi was going to make it happen. My insides screamed in protest. They were wailing because I wouldn’t lose a brother.
I would not.
He gave me one more meaningful look, grunting before he slammed the guard back against the cell.