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)
Because she couldn’t stay.
But she also couldn’t leave.
Things were fucked up.
Jared waited for North to right his clothes, then they headed upstairs to the room that they’d put her in. He unlocked the door and stepped inside.
Too late, he realized that he shouldn’t have let his guard down. There was a scream to his left and then something hit the back of his head.
The world grew dark and he slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Angie stared down at the man slumped on the floor in shock.
“You’re not North.”
North rushed into the room and crouched down next to Jared. “Fuck, what did you hit him with? Why did you hit him?”
“Um, the rail from the closet,” she said. “I took it out. It’s wooden.” She glanced at the door. It was still open.
Run.
Run fast.
But that would mean leaving Jared who was lying unconscious on the floor.
Memories drifted back to her. Jared, talking soothingly to her. Jared, bossing her into drinking and taking pills.
Shit.
North rolled him into the recovery position.
Oh hell.
Had she really hurt him? Now she felt ill. And it wasn’t due to the stomach bug she’d just had.
“I was expecting you to walk through the door!” she cried.
“And I was expecting to find you sick in bed,” North countered as he took Jared’s pulse.
“What? So this is my fault?” she exclaimed.
“You hit him. So yes, I do consider this to be your fault.”
So rude.
That was it. She was going. She leaped for the door, only for North to get there first, shutting and locking it. The key went into his pocket.
Well.
Fuck.
She glared at North. “What the hell?”
“Did you really believe that I would let you make a run for it? Especially after you knocked Jared unconscious.”
“Well, obviously I didn’t mean to.” Guilt filled her
“If he is permanently injured . . .” North warned.
Her stomach rolled. Christ. “What?”
He just shot her a look. One that spelled out her own death. And it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Hell.
“If he is permanently injured it’s your fault not mine!”
“How do you figure that?” North asked.
“Because you kidnapped me! And it’s my duty to try and escape!”
“Will the two of you just shut up.”
“No!” she cried before she realized who had spoken. “Jared, you’re awake.”
Then she threw herself at him, pushing him onto his back and ignoring his groan of pain.
“You’re okay! You’re alive!”
Jared’s head thumped as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.
Also, why was Angie was lying on top of him?
“What happened? Who hit me?” Jared asked, confused.
“I did. But it was North’s fault!”
“How was it my fault?” North asked.
“Because you were meant to walk in first!” Angie cried as Jared sat up and held her in his lap.
If his head didn’t hurt so badly, he might have enjoyed holding her like this.
“If you’d walked in first, then you’d be lying on the floor with a sore head and I’d be halfway across the city,” Angie told North.
“You overestimate your abilities,” North informed her coolly. “You probably wouldn’t have found your way out of this building.”
She gasped. “You are such a pig-butt-ass-face.”
A pig-butt-ass-face?
What kind of insult was that?
Well, he couldn’t deny that it worked. And there was the slightest bit of tension in North’s voice as he replied. Which meant that she was getting to him.
Very, very surprising.
“Very colorful. But not very mature.”
“Are you saying I have no sense of direction?” she exclaimed.
“Yes, I am,” North replied.
“That’s rude.”
The room spun and for a moment Jared thought he might vomit but after a few deep breaths, he brought the room back into focus.
Just as Angie attempted to leap for North who stood there, staring at her intently.
Jared wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a look like that on North’s face. And it surprised him. But he didn’t have time to figure that all out. He was too busy trying to prevent her from getting herself murdered. Jared held her tight against his chest.
“Let me at him! Let me at the poo stain!”
Okay. They needed to work on her insults. They sounded like something a naughty toddler might say.
Mind you, she had been acting a bit like a toddler while she was ill.
Jared had always wanted a Little. There was a part of him that longed to take care of one. But he’d also resigned himself to the fact that he’d never have that.
And not just because of North.
But because a Little would be too delicate and innocent for this life. He couldn’t bring someone else into it. It was bad enough that North lived it with him.
And what if something happened to her . . . like what had happened to the others.
No. It couldn’t happen.
“Angie, calm down. Right now.”
Angie stilled at Jared’s hard words.
She hadn’t expected him to sound so . . . cold. Didn’t he understand why she was angry?
North had just said she had a terrible sense of direction.