Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 129676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
“Hello, Gia.”
I started running before I had time to think about what I was doing, my heart pumping so hard I felt my pulse thrusting against every inch of my skin. I had never run so fast in my life.
“Bring her to me,” Tiernan ordered in an indifferent tone. “I want her alive and well. Mostly, anyway.”
The side street was empty, so I tore across the pavement as quickly as my legs could carry me, looping around streetlamps and stop signs to slow down the three men at my heel. Their feet pounded on the cement, reverberating through my spine as they inched closer.
I spotted two overflowing plastic bins. Whirling behind them, I pushed them hard against the three men, unleashing a dam of garbage on them. They tumbled backward, cursing and growling. It bought me a few precious seconds, which I took to turn onto Fifth Avenue. There, I’d be able to disappear amid the throng of people. My lungs were burning and my muscles shaking, but I kept running.
As soon as I made the sharp turn, the fog of catastrophe clouded my vision.
The street was closed for construction. Thick, long wooden boards blocked my way.
I’d hit a dead end.
The sound of thrashing boots grew louder, closer. They were snarling, swearing under their breath. Hurling garbage at them obviously only angered them further.
I stopped in front of the barrier, calculating whether I could smash through it. I yanked my phone from my pocket and tried to slide the screen to unlock it, but my fingers shook too badly. Tiernan’s soldiers materialized from the corner of the street, circling in on me as they spread across the narrow alleyway. They stalked toward me. My nerves finally gave in. I dropped my phone between the bars of a water drain. Bollocks.
I was completely screwed.
“Ah, there she is, the little spitfire.” The burliest man out of the three advanced in my direction, cracking his knuckles, his friends following close behind him. The three of them were brawny and pale, dressed in inconspicuous black jackets and dark denim.
My gaze danced between them, trying to come up with a game plan.
“Here, kitty kitty.” The leader of the pack rubbed the pads of his fingers together as though I was an alley cat. “C’mere now, you little—”
I pounced on him with a snarl, scratching his eyes out with my fingernails. Maybe I was going down, but I wasn’t doing it without a fight.
“Fuck!” He stumbled backward, falling flat on his arse. “This pussy has claws.”
The other two men tackled me, one of them pulling out a knife and pointing it toward me. “Tiernan said mostly well,” he reminded me, flashing rancid, yellow teeth. “He wouldn’t mind a few shallow cuts, and man, wouldn’t I love a taste of a proper lady.”
My back was pressed against the boards. I heaved, knowing the only way out was through. I could let them take me…
But as Tate graciously pointed out countless times, I was never good at taking orders.
Drawing a deep breath, I gained momentum and started running straight into the men, hurling myself between them. For a moment, I thought I could actually escape them. But then one of them grabbed me by my pearl choker, yanking me back. My head slammed against the ground. My ears rang. Liquid heat spread across the back of my skull. I was bleeding.
A cloth was pressed against my face, and my eyes snapped open, flaring in horror. Chloroform.
Thinking on my feet, I pressed my mouth shut and stopped breathing. Losing consciousness was a terrible idea. I fluttered my eyes shut after a few seconds while holding my breath until I felt the hand that pressed the cloth to my face loosening around my nose.
“Finally,” one of them spat on the floor. “Fucking bitch. Do you wanna have a go?”
“Nah,” another one sighed. “Her husband is killing people left and right. She’s gorgeous, but no pussy’s worth it.”
My eyes were closed, and my head was dizzy, but I wasn’t passed out. Someone grabbed my feet. Then a second pair of hands scooped me by the wrists. They dragged my back over the pavement on their way to the vehicle purposely, leaving painful welts of raw skin.
They tossed me into a waiting van. Tiernan’s face peered down at me, wearing his victorious expression like a crown of vipers. I watched him through half-closed eyes, still feigning unconsciousness.
“If it isn’t Tatum Blackthorn’s one and only weakness, in the flesh,” he rasped. “Oh, what lovely plans I’ve waiting for you.”
Some people smashed glass ceilings.
I smashed a thirty-five-hundred-year-old, eighty-million-dollar vase I’d bought at an auction.
“Kidnapped her!” I grabbed the edge of my office desk and flipped it over. That shit was at least two hundred pounds of solid wood. “He fucking managed to kidnap her. I’m impressed with your incompetence. I’ve met broken condoms with better security.”