Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
“Like that’s going to keep you safe,” Kingman said and picked up the table and tossed it to the side.
Fuck. He was going to die. He was going to die right here and now. He stood and started to rush at Kingman when he heard a loud blast.
Time seemed to slow, and Shane realized getting shot didn’t feel as bad as it should. He reached for his gut, trying to stop the overflow of blood that would come.
Except it didn’t.
Kingman’s eyes had gone wide, and that was when Shane realized he wasn’t alone.
Bay stood behind Kingman, and he had a gun.
Shane’s heart thudded as Kingman clutched the hole in his chest and dropped to the floor beside his mistress.
Bay’s skin was a pasty white but his voice was steady. “You okay?”
“Where did Dennis go? He has a gun, too.” Shane had never been so fucking happy to see his brother. And there were plenty of times when Bay walking in a room had saved him from something terrible in their childhood.
“The older gentleman?” Henry Flanders walked in the room, and he was covered in blood. “He’s dead. I caught him a few seconds ago. I got the others before that.” He seemed to realize they were all staring at him in horror. “Oh, this? Not mine. The one in the basement found a knife. I got it away from him. Then I used it on him and his friend, and then the older guy. I took out the guards the old-fashioned way. It’s been too long, and even though my wife told me I could use the guns, I find them loud and impersonal. The knife was better.”
He was scared of Henry freaking Flanders, who looked very Dexteresque in that moment. “Brooke?”
Bay stepped over Kingman’s body and took a place by Shane, helping him move around the wrecked table. “Is she okay?”
Henry’s manner was detached and cold. He wiped the big knife on his already coated jeans. “She’s protecting the barn for me. We need to get the radio working. Nell needs an ambulance. Are there any other men I should take care of? I handled the one in the basement and the one who came to check on him.”
Just then the door opened and Shane heard a voice call out. “Hey, boss. Everything okay in here? We didn’t find…”
The knife hit the man in the center of the neck with a deep, thudding sound as it sank in. Instinctively the man pulled it out and blood gushed forth.
He was dead before he hit the ground. Henry calmly picked up the knife.
Bay’s head shook. “Uh, I think I saw two of them walking out to the foreman’s house. This one and a tall, dark-haired guy. It might have been Mike.”
Shane nodded. “It was Mike. They were looking for Bay’s sketchbook. We need to get to Brooke.”
He heard the sound of a gunshot and couldn’t handle it a second longer. He took off running.
Chapter Seventeen
Brooke stared at the door even as Nell somehow managed to keep it all together, despite the fact that she had just expelled a baby out of her body.
“She’s here,” Lucy said reverently, and Brooke heard Nell gasp and sigh as she fell back. The labor had been rushed and furious, as though the child knew something was happening and she didn’t want to miss a minute of it.
“Brooke, I hear someone,” Noah said, his voice still steady. He’d been a rock all through the last terrifying moments. “They’re coming in the back.”
“Hey, sister, don’t shoot,” a familiar voice said.
Max. Her brother was here, and he was coming in through the back door. She hadn’t even realized there was a back door, but then Max had spent a lot of time out here with Jamie and Noah growing up. By the time she was a kid, they were all working so she hadn’t had the same experience. She breathed a deep sigh of relief and ran to him.
Max wrapped his arms around her. “You okay?”
She sniffled and hugged her brother, still holding the shotgun Henry had given her. “Shane is in the house and I don’t know where Bay is, and Nell had her baby.”
“Shit. Is Henry handling things?” Max asked.
She nodded. “He killed the guy who was supposed to kill us, and now he’s going to the house. He told me to watch over Nell and Lucy and Noah.”
“Max, did you call it in?” Noah said from his place on the hay where he was slowly bleeding out. “Nell’s doing great, but I would feel better if Caleb checked her.”
“She’s not crying,” Nell said, worry in the words.
Brooke hurried over to her.
Lucy held a tiny baby girl in her hands. The baby opened her eyes and stretched her limbs, but she didn’t cry. She looked around at the world with a quiet curiosity.