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)
“Rickets?” Jared murmured.
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s been four days,” North said dryly.
“What?” she asked. “That’s lies!” It had to have been longer. There was no way that it could have been only four days.
She felt like she’d been locked up in here forever.
“It’s true,” Jared told her.
“Damn. Time has gone really slowly in this hellhole. No wonder I’m starting to get rickets.”
“I doubt that four days without sunshine is enough time to get rickets,” North told her. “And do you even know what rickets are?”
Angie made a scoffing noise. “Of course I do.”
North leaned forward. “Liar.”
Oh, he was such a hippo-breath-jerk.
“You don’t have rickets,” North stated.
And he wasn’t a doctor. What did he know?
“Maybe not. But I’m sure being locked up down here has done wonders for my mental health. I wasn’t exactly a stable person before you kidnapped me. You know, after I was sold to a sadistic fuck and abused. And now look at me. I haven’t showered in days. I’ve got a rat’s nest for hair. Haven’t eaten properly and I’ve lost weight. And I’m threatening the two men who put me here.”
Yeah, that wasn’t a good idea. Maybe instead of threatening two dangerous men who held her life in their hands, she should be nice to them.
Uh. That was going to suck.
“So, how is your day going? Can I make you both a coffee?” she asked.
Nothing. Crickets. Jeez. If they didn’t want a coffee, they could have just said so instead of staring at her like she was crazy.
“Why are you asking us about coffee?” North asked.
“To be nice! So you let me go!”
“We will let you go once we can be sure that you will be looked after properly,” Jared stated. “Since you weren’t taken care of with Zander, we may have to look at alternative arrangements.”
20
“Alternative arrangements?” Angie asked. “What the heck does that mean?”
Jared sighed. He was tired of sitting on the floor.
God, his head hurt. It was thumping in time with his pulse. But he was pretty certain that he didn’t have a concussion.
He hoped, anyway.
Setting Angie aside was extremely hard, but he forced himself to slowly let her go. When she didn’t immediately pounce on North, he let her go completely and stood, holding out a hand to her.
Christ.
She was in a state.
Angie slid her hand into his. It was small and cold. He frowned. It wasn’t that cold in here. In fact it was almost too warm.
“Why are you so cold?” he demanded. Was it due to being ill? Or something else? “Are you still feeling ill? You look exhausted.”
“Please, stop with the compliments,” she grumbled.
“Answer him,” North commanded.
“Oh, go suck on a chili,” she told North.
Really? Suck on a chili?
“Angie,” Jared warned.
“I have poor circulation,” she muttered, looking almost . . . ashamed? Embarrassed?
Why would she be ashamed of that? It made no sense.
“Why? Is there something wrong with you?” Jared demanded. “Do you have an illness? Why have I not been informed of this?”
“Um, maybe because you don’t have anything to do with my life?” she said, looking bewildered. “Why would you even care? I haven’t heard from you in years.”
He cared. That was the problem.
He really shouldn’t. He didn’t want to. But he cared so much that sometimes she was all that he could think about.
“Answer the question,” North told her. He was leaning against the wall; his arms crossed over his chest.
He looked relaxed, but Jared knew better. There was a slight tension in his shoulders.
North definitely wasn’t as uncaring about this whole thing as he liked to pretend to be.
She turned to glare at North, then pointed a finger at him. “You do not get to boss me around!”
Hmm.
She was either brave or stupid. Because North didn’t appreciate people glaring or pointing at him. Jared had known him to take quiet revenge with assholes who were rude to him when he was pretending to be mild-mannered and unassuming.
If they saw his real face they’d never make that mistake.
Except, apparently, for this girl.
Although she had told him to go suck on a chili. Which was pretty funny.
However, North just stared back at her. “I do.”
“Grr, you do not, North . . . North!”
“North-North?” Jared asked her.
“Well, I don’t know his last name. I do know that he doesn’t get to boss me around just because he kidnapped me. That’s less reason for me to do what he says.”
North stepped forward into her space. “If you had the sense that God gave a fly you’d know that it would make more sense to appease your kidnapper than rile them up.”
“But you’re not riled, are you?” she taunted. “Because you don’t feel feelings.”
“Feel feelings?”
“Yes, you’re an unfeeler!”
“And you’re a brat,” he said, getting in her face.
Jared was just about to intervene and save her from certain death when something occurred to him.