Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Right?
5
SAVANNAH
Iwoke up groggy and disoriented, my limbs sluggish and my tongue thick behind my teeth. It took me a second to realize I wasn’t in my bed. Or anywhere familiar.
The ceiling above me was painted white, and the bedding beneath me smelled like laundry detergent and something masculine. Maybe cologne.
My heart thudded hard as I sat up too quickly, and a wave of dizziness hit me hard.
I braced a hand against the mattress and forced myself to breathe. Slowly. In and out until I didn’t feel as though I was going to pass out.
The last thing I remembered was walking to my car. A man in a leather vest with piercing green eyes. Hands grabbing me. Then nothing.
Panic flared, and I scrambled off the bed, my legs unsteady as I scanned the room. It seemed normal. Stark and spare, but clean. Just a dresser, bed, nightstand, closet, and two closed doors. The first led to a bathroom that I realized I badly needed as soon as I saw the toilet. But the second didn’t budge when I tried the handle.
It was locked from the outside.
Trying to stay calm, I yanked open the dresser drawers in search of clues to where I’d been taken. All I found were folded T-shirts, socks, boxer briefs, and belts. Nothing personal. No photos, no clutter, not even a stray sock or receipt.
I padded into the closet next, finding more men’s clothes. Mostly jeans and more tees but also a decent number of bespoke suits.
Motorcycle boots lined the floor, along with expensive dress shoes.
The mixture of biker and wealthy businessman left me with one very plausible answer—Kane Beckett was behind my kidnapping.
My hands curled into fists as I walked away from the closet, my stomach roiling with anger and fear. I’d watched enough true crime documentaries to know that being taken to a secondary location was never a good thing.
I only had myself to blame. If I’d listened to my brother’s warning, I never would’ve come to Crossbend. I hadn’t even taken the threat from the Redline Kings tail gunner seriously yesterday. Not really since I’d still planned to come back today. Just not to wherever the Redline Kings MC had brought me.
I took small comfort in the fact that they’d had plenty of time to hurt me but had left me alone instead. I wasn’t even tied up. Yet aside from the locked door, the room didn’t feel like a prison.
The click of the lock had me backing up instinctively. My knees hit the edge of the bed and almost buckled beneath me. My pulse pounded as the door creaked open, and he stepped inside.
Kane Beckett.
The man with the green eyes that were burned into my brain when I could remember nothing else.
He’d been attractive in the photos I’d found of him online, but he was beyond gorgeous in person. With thick red hair and a neatly trimmed beard to go with it. He was a good foot taller than me, around six foot five. His jaw was sharp, his mouth hard, and his right arm had a full sleeve of black ink, which only emphasized how muscular he was.
Kane was imposing enough to scare the heck out of me, but I still had the ridiculous urge to climb him like a tree.
He looked exactly how I remembered from the blurry flashes before I passed out. Only now, I wasn’t disoriented. And he was even more dangerous without the haze of fear.
He walked into the room with deliberate calm. “You’re awake.”
“What the hell am I doing here?” I snapped, straightening my spine.
He didn’t answer right away. Just stood there, gaze roaming over me in a way that made my skin heat in a completely inappropriate reaction under the circumstances.
Crossing his arms over his broad chest, he finally murmured, “You’re bait. To draw out your brother.”
I blinked, shaking my head. “What?”
“You heard me, Savannah.”
I bit my bottom lip. “You know my name.”
“Know a fuck of a lot more than that.” His lips curved into the slightest smirk. “Never woulda taken you, otherwise.”
Something was seriously wrong with me. I was twenty years old and had never truly been interested in a guy before. Just some small crushes that hadn’t led to anything. Kane had jump-started my dormant libido…right after drugging and abducting me. Unfortunately, it was too soon to blame my attraction to him on Stockholm syndrome.
Lacing my fingers together to hide how badly my hands were shaking, I asked, “Because of my brother?”
“Yup,” he confirmed with a sharp nod. “Ten days. Your brother gives me what I want, or I keep you.”
I studied him, searching for any hint that he was joking. But his expression remained hard. “It’s not going to work.”
His jaw flexed. “You saying Devon’s the kind of guy who’d let his sister swing in the wind for his mistakes?”