Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
The ones I knew impaled Silas in the back.
I could feel his big, powerful body jolt with each one.
And God, I wanted to grip onto him. Hold him and protect him and shield him the way he was shielding me, but I couldn’t even scream through the shredding agony with the gag in my mouth.
Garbled sobs battering against the soaked, balled fabric.
My hands bound between us, heavy with the hopeless need to wrap them around him.
My voice silenced when the only thing I wanted to do was beg him to be okay. Beg him to forgive me.
Go back to the beginning and trust him with every molecule of my being the way he deserved to be.
It turned out, I was the one who couldn’t be trusted. I was the one who let her pain and wounds and traumas cloud what my soul knew was the truth.
And Silas was that truth.
My truth.
An eerie silence suddenly reigned the smoke-clogged room. A shrill echo that rang in my ears. A disturbed lull that charged my heart into mayhem where I was pinned below Silas.
He was suddenly rolled away, and a man I didn’t recognize was in front of me, tearing the gag from my mouth and dragging a blade through the ropes that fettered my wrists and ankles.
“Are you okay?” he demanded.
I only had one answer.
“Silas.”
It was a plea.
A groan.
Desperation as I managed to roll around, my bruised, battered body protesting as I climbed onto my hands and knees.
Scrambling to where Silas was on his back.
Kent Ellison was dead beside him. His skull opened and spilling onto the floor.
I gasped but kept moving, my hands fumbling for Silas. They were frantic as I ran them over his chest, searching for a pulse.
For this life that we’d just found, even though I didn’t deserve it.
But I’d gladly take his hate just to see the glint in the gold flecks of his hazel eyes again.
I choked over a sob, and tears blurred my sight as I hovered over the top of him. Frenzied hands flitting all over his cut.
I jolted when strong fingers started winding into my hair at the side of my head, and a low voice murmured, “Wildfire.”
My gaze darted to his face.
To those eyes, bright enough to shine through my tears.
He pushed up to sitting. “Wildfire. Are you hurt? Fuck, please tell me you’re okay.”
Gasping around the relief, I fumbled to get to him.
“You were shot. You were shot,” I mumbled, close to incoherent.
His head barely shook, and with his free hand, he took mine and settled it over his cut. “Bulletproof vest.”
“And believe me, that shit fucking hurts.” Brody suddenly stepped forward through the dust and debris, and he tore off a mask and helmet as he howled with laughter.
He smacked himself across his chest, acting like it was no big deal where he’d been hit.
Deliverance sped through my veins, a shuddering of shock and disbelief. Of pain and regret.
Another man was cutting through Dereck’s bindings, and strained air raked from my brother’s throat as he slumped with a groan to the floor.
Though his head was turned, his eyes on me, full of loyalty and an apology.
“Dereck,” I croaked.
“Everything will be fine,” he gurgled. “Like I promised you.”
Love and grief spiraled. Binding me as tightly as the ropes. The anger and burden I’d carried were smashed while my own guilt surged to the surface.
The man who’d cut Dereck’s ropes peeled back his shirt and grunted, “He needs medical, stat. And we need to find out how many others we have down and need attention.”
The man looked at me. “We have a doctor and my wife Charleigh in an ambulance a mile away. Prepared to do surgery. He’ll be fine. I promise you.”
He and another man rolled Dereck over and picked him up, one holding him under the shoulders and another by the ankles.
While tremors rocked through me.
Shame and relief and a love so distinct.
My body juddered. Shaking uncontrollably.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” Silas’s promise wrapped me in a dream.
“She’s in shock.” An unknown voice curled through the disorder, words warbled as they touched my ears.
Silas was suddenly on his knees in front of me. Big hands framing my jaw and forcing me to look at him. I could only see him through one eye, my entire face throbbing.
All of me was throbbing really.
My body and my heart and my soul.
“You’re going to be fine, Brinley. I’m right here. Right here.”
A sob finally cracked. Violent in its horror.
And I was being swept up, cradled in his arms, his stride firm and strong as he carried me from the room and down a long hall.
Stepping over bodies, muttering the whole time, “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
He didn’t stop as he edged through a rambling, darkened room before we were outside.