Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 82(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 82(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
He pulls away from me.
“No.” He shakes his head. “Not like this.”
I freeze.
Shame soaks over me, sending a chill through my bones. At the same time, I blush painfully and curl up into a ball. I want to run for the door or hide under a big pile of blankets, but there are no blankets in here, and I’d be a fool to run.
“W-what?” I whimper. “What do you mean not like this?”
Magnus draws a deep, difficult breath. “You barely know me, Josie. I’ve seen you so many times at the club, and you’ve walked right past me without a single glance. And now…now you want me just because you want to get back at Vincent.”
“That’s not true!” I cry out, but Magnus shakes his head. I can see from the look on his face that he doesn’t believe me.
“You’re the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever laid eyes on, Josie,” he says with a sigh, as if pained by his own words. “But until tonight, you never even gave me a single glance, let alone a second.”
“I couldn’t, Magnus!” I protest, feeling the tears from my last horrible months of captivity swelling up inside me. “Those were Vincent’s rules. I couldn’t speak to any man. I couldn’t even look at them! It had nothing to do with you!”
Magnus shakes his head. He saw what happened tonight. He has to believe me.
“Even if that’s true, Josie…I’m still not good enough for you.”
“What!?” I gasp, rising to my feet. “Magnus, what are you talking about?”
Slowly, he raises one of his massive hands to his face. “Look at me,” he says. “And look at you, beautiful. Josie, you deserve so much better.”
Tears spill from my eyes. What could have possibly happened in this man’s life to make him think this way about himself? I take a step forward and reach my hand up to his cheek, gently tracing it down his jaw.
“Magnus,” I whisper. “You couldn’t be more wrong. You think I don’t find you handsome—?”
Suddenly, there’s a pounding at the door. Magnus’s hand instantly covers my mouth to silence me. His eyes turn dangerous as a male voice shouts from the other side.
“Yo, Big Mag! We know you’re in there, buddy! Come let us in. We wouldn’t want you to have to replace your door.”
“Under the couch now,” he hisses in my ear as he rises. As quickly as I can, I drop to the floor and scurry under the couch, a cramped space filled with dust and lint.
“Come on, Mag!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Magnus calls out in response. “Let me get my pants on. Unless you boys want a show, but I do charge for those.”
I’m just pulling my left foot under the couch when I hear Magnus unlock the lock and open the door. From where I’m hiding, I can see two sets of black boots step into the living room. Vincent’s men.
“What’s going on, fellas?” Magnus asks.
“Looking for Josie.” I recognize the voice as Hank’s, one of Vincent’s regular dogs hired to do his dirt for him.
“And you thought you would find her here because…?” Magnus asks.
“You were the last one seen with her at the club,” a voice I don’t recognize chimes in.
“And you cut out on work early,” Hank adds.
“Food poisoning,” Magnus lies, taking a seat on the couch above me. The cushion sinks down just above the section where my feet are. “You really think I’m dumb enough to take the boss’s girl home with me, fellas? You think she’d even go with me?”
The men’s boots continue to patrol the living room as my heart rate rises. The dust and lint is invading my nose. I can feel a sneeze coming on and do everything I can to fight it.
“Food poisoning, eh?” Hank asks, clearly not buying it. “Jimmy said you seemed fine earlier.”
“Well, you know food poisoning,” Magnus replies. “Just hits you out of nowhere, doesn’t it?”
The pressure in my nose is building. It’s absolutely killing me. I pinch my nostrils together with my fingers, but I just don’t know if I’m going to be able to hold back.
“All right, Magnus,” Hank says. “You let us know if you see her, all right—?”
And then it happens.
A sneeze forces its way out of my nose.
It’s muffled, tiny, and barely audible, but it is audible. The black boots in the living room stop moving, and Hank stops speaking.
I’ve just blown it.
“Magnus,” Hank says slowly, his voice taut like a bowstring. “Is there somebody under your couch?”
What happens next, I can only speculate. Magnus leaps off the couch, I know that because I can see it shift from where he was sitting, and then there’s a sound of someone getting hit. Voices cry out, but I can only watch the struggle from where I am as three sets of boots all shift for position around the living room.