Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 61149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Between my obstructed windpipe and increasingly unbearable pangs in my chest, it becomes almost impossible to keep my eyes open.
Mind alert.
Thoughts on anything that isn’t the misery seeping into each and every nerve ending.
“Where is the female target?” calmly inquires the attacker.
Safe.
Somewhere not here, not where they can grab her, not where they can just do to her or our baby what they’re doing to me.
My lack of response receives me two more hits to the side that doesn’t have a broken bone.
Yet.
“Where is the female target?” repeats the man in charge, voice along with demeanor eerily composed.
No.
I won’t say shit.
I’ll die first.
“You’ve got bigger balls than your file made it sound, Woods,” the assaulter compliments, “but I’ve got a track record to keep, so…” cold metal is unforgivingly wedged into the severely damaged territory prompting my body to strain itself while trying to flee, “where. Is. The. Female. Target?”
Resistance to speak continues until another crack buckles my knees, “Fuckkkkk!”
“Where is she, Woods?”
Tears threaten to leave the corners of my eyes.
Unfortunately for him, the answer he desperately wants never does.
“Where-” the repeated question is abruptly cut off courtesy of him pushing a button on his earpiece. “Speak.”
Regardless of my inability to hear it, the gear shift in his expression tells me everything I need to know.
That I was hoping wasn’t gonna happen.
Couldn’t happen.
The fucking reason we didn’t want Bunny somewhere without one of us.
“Deliver the female target to the extraction point,” he instructs at the same time he steps back. Post another push of the button, he matter-of-factly states, “You can dispose of Woods here.” The tool he was using is thoughtlessly thrown to the side. “He’s no longer needed for questioning.”
The shaggy haired man immediately strengthens his hold to his maximum capability, unbothered by my flailing elbows and pounding fists and choked gasps. Spots begin to litter my vision as thoughts of what could’ve been hit top speeds to reach the front of my mind.
Images of Bunny in a wedding dress.
Nolan tugging at a bowtie.
Holding our newborn son.
Pretending to let him drive while working on someone’s car.
Arguing over who takes him to kindergarten.
Picks him up from soccer practice.
Walks him down the aisle.
The aisle I’ll never get to.
Two loud pops suddenly reverberate around the garage, an action that results in my neck being granted freedom.
One large gasp is anxiously taken in tandem with my attacker falling to the ground in his own agony. “Shitttt!”
“Consider those warning shots,” a surprising voice coldly states prompting my bleary stare to relocate to him. “My next use of force will be deadly,” Garcia smoothly announces with a smug smile. “And legal according to the penal code.” His Beretta remains positioned at the retrieval specialist’s forehead. “I’m an attorney.” The corner of his lip kicks upward. “Trust me.”
Rather than put up any sort of fight, he simply surrenders his hands while backing away. “We’re done here.” What sounds like the door to our apartment shutting is followed by him instructing the other male, “Assist Gamma 2 to the vehicle. The female target has been acquired.”
“No,” Garcia instantly refuses during my efforts to regain my footing. “Gamma 2 stays for questioning regarding ‘the female target’.”
“It’s Bunny,” is croaked through gritted teeth. “They’ve got Bunny.”
“Affirmative.” Yet again, the man in charge maintains his unbothered disposition. “And you may ask Gamma 2 anything you want, but he won’t answer.”
“The more pain they’re in…” I coldly repeat his phrasing at the same time one hand is braced on the counter for support, “the more likely they are to tell you what you want to know.”
Garcia keeps the weapon along with his stare fixated on the enemy who retorts, “Yes. But they have to be alive to talk.” There isn’t even time to furrow my brow. “Your family will be well compensated Gamma 2.”
Our attention swings to the wincing male on the floor just in time to see him shove something in his mouth.
“Nooooo!” screeches Garcia in tandem with darting forward, leaving the others an easy opportunity to escape. “Don’t-”
What happens next is somehow more and less brutal than anything I’ve ever seen in a spy thriller.
One minute the dude not much older than me is upright and breathing and able to give us information yet the next he’s seizing and shaking and vomiting, head pounding uncontrollably against the edge of the structure I’m leaning on.
Fuck…
If they’re willing to leave one another to die like this…and then willing to fucking die like this…what exactly are they planning to do to our fucking fiancée?
Chapter 17
Bunny
“What do you mean we can’t fucking extract her?!” screeches an unfortunately familiar feminine voice.
Beverly.
Beverly. McAdams.
The square root of mommy issues.
I knew she’d come sooner rather than later for me.
She always has.
She’s always backed her precious, overgrown child’s decisions.
Enabled them.
Mentally.
Emotionally.
Physically.
Financially.
Beloved baby demon wants for nothing.
Correction.
Wanted for nothing.
The only thing I’m sure he wants now is to be alive and stalking versus ripped to shreds by bears.