Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Plus, he’d really like to have his body. It seemed wrong to just bury his head.
His phone rang and he sighed. Zander.
He’d been expecting this call. The other man had called yesterday and he’d dodged his call. He knew that Angie hadn’t said anything to Keira about Rex, not wanting to upset her. And he didn’t intend to tell Zander.
The other man didn’t seem to handle bad news well. His feelings were rather volatile. Delicate.
“Zander,” he said.
“How is Angie?” Zander said quickly.
“She’s good.”
“She’s safe? Healthy?”
“I know how to take care of my girl,” he told the other man.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist. She’s my sister-in-law. I have a right to check on her.”
“Your sister-in-law who you left in a vulnerable position to get kidnapped.”
“By your fucking assistant,” Zander snapped.
Jared sighed. “Look, I’m tired and this is getting us nowhere. I have some shit going on here.”
“So do I,” Zander said. “I’ve got to find two dead women.”
“You’re on a job?” Jared asked distractedly. Why was he telling him this?
“No, these women have gone missing close to us. They think one has been missing about a week and that the other disappeared a few days later. Both have a very similar look.”
“What are you thinking? A serial killer in your neighborhood?”
“Don’t know. But I’m keeping Keira locked down tight. Not taking any chances. Wanted to let you know I might be busy. So you better take care of Angie. Hear me?”
“I could be insulted by that, but I’ll let it go since you’re married to Angie’s sister.”
Jared hung up, shaking his head. He needed to find his girl.
He and North had been working to make sure she wasn’t left alone at the moment.
She’d had three nightmares last night that they’d had to soothe her through. During the third one, he’d noticed that North had disappeared. He wasn’t sure if he’d left because he couldn’t sleep.
Or for another reason.
Walking into the media room, he found them watching a movie on the big screen. He winced as he saw it was a horror movie and that someone had just used a chainsaw to cut another person in two.
“Do you guys really think this is the most appropriate movie to watch?” he asked.
“It’s really bad,” Angie agreed. “Like terrible acting. And so fake.”
“I wasn’t talking about how terrible the movie was. I’m just not sure it’s appropriate with everything that has happened.”
“I needed a distraction,” she told him.
“You know, if you need a distraction, I can give you one.” North said without looking up from his laptop.
“What?” she asked,
She looked really tired. What she needed was a nap.
“The punishments I owe you,” North said, setting his laptop to one side and steepling his fingers together as he placed his elbow on the arms of his chair.
Damn.
That was hot.
Easy, man.
“What?” she cried. “You don’t owe me any punishments!”
“Such a terrible memory, Angel,” North drawled. “You can’t remember what punishments you’re owed? Let me refresh your memory. You’re in trouble because you hid and spied instead of telling me that you were there so I could save you from seeing Rex’s head.”
“Yeah, that would have been good,” she said quietly, looking ill.
Jared walked over and sat next to her on the sofa.
“Then you moved when I told you to stay put.”
“I was in shock, though!”
“Not a good enough defense,” North told her.
“I think it is,” she grumbled.
“And then you called yourself gross and told me that I shouldn’t want to be around you.”
“It was the truth. And that is a defense.”
“Not when you’re putting yourself down,” Jared told her. “There are also the punishments from Angie’s Naughty List.”
“No!”
“Don’t think we don’t know that you were trying to put off your punishments,” North told her. “Were you hoping we’d forget?”
“So, I think it’s time you paid the piper,” North told her. “Come here.”
He crooked a finger at her.
Angie couldn’t believe North was actually going to spank her.
Did she want this? Was she willing to submit?
She took a few seconds to think about it. And she realized that she could say no. But this felt like a turning point in their relationship. Something that could change the course or halt it.
And she wasn’t scared of being spanked. In fact, part of her did believe she’d earned it.
She had disobeyed him.
And she shouldn’t have been listening in and watching like that.
She wasn’t so sure that calling herself gross was wrong, though.
So she got up and walked slowly over to him. She thought he almost looked relieved. Had he been worried that she wouldn’t come?
“You trust me.”
It was a statement, but she nodded anyway. “I do.” Had that been worrying him?
Maybe it had been. And perhaps that was her fault.
“I don’t find it easy to trust. My life hasn’t been filled with people who took care of me, or who fulfilled their promises. But the two of you . . . you’ve shown me what it’s like to be in a real relationship. I was always jealous of my sister having Zander. But not any more. Having the two of you on my side, it feels like I’ve won the lottery. I know I won’t ever be alone or let down again.”