Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
She wouldn’t give up.
She’d done that once before, and maybe things would have been different if she’d been more stubborn. Fought harder. Something.
“Aiden will come for me.” The words were out before she could think better of them.
Mae laughed. “Aiden is fucking you for the same reason I have the itch to cut off that cute little nose of yours. Your world and ours don’t mix. If he told you they do, he was trying to sell you something.”
Wasn’t that exactly what Charlie was afraid of?
He told me he wants to make a go of it. He might not have told me immediately about Romanov, but he did tell me.
It came down to who she trusted more—Mae, who was telling her everything that dark voice inside her suspected, or Aiden, who had offered her hope several times over in the last few weeks. Last time she’d been faced with this choice, she’d listened to the voice that whispered she deserved whatever she got, because she’d never be good enough no matter how hard she tried.
She wasn’t listening to that voice anymore.
Charlie lifted her chin and stared the other woman in the eyes. Maybe if she could provoke Mae, the woman would offer her an opening. Or maybe the psycho would just kill her that much quicker.
“You can pretend this is about my father all you want, but we both know the truth—you’re jealous because you want Aiden’s cock and I’m the one who has it. He knew you were practically panting for it, and instead he tracked down me—a cop’s kid—to play house.” She tilted her head to the side. “Or was it Dmitri’s cock you wanted? It’s really difficult to keep track. No one wants you, Mae. Not even the monsters.”
“Aiden chose you—”
“Because he wants me.” Charlie tried for a saucy grin, but it hurt too much to look truly convincing. “If he really wanted to hurt my dad, he would have snatched me off the street the same way you did.” She jerked her chin at the warehouse around them, and then lowered her voice. “Though, honey, seriously, he would have done the whole torture bit with more pizzazz.”
“Bitch.” Mae slid forward, tipping her chair onto two legs, getting right in Charlie’s face. “I’m going to send your engagement ring back to that bastard—with your finger attached.”
Charlie head-butted her. It wasn’t a clean hit, but she felt Mae’s nose give. The woman screamed and hit the ground, blood pouring from her nose. Charlie stared at her, weaving despite being tied to the chair. Going to have a hell of a headache if I live through this.
She would have kicked Mae while she was down, but her ankles were zip-tied to the damn chair. She couldn’t even work up the fluid to spit on the fallen woman, but she managed to say, “You talk too much.”
* * *
Aiden moved through the dark, Romanov at his side. He wasn’t too keen on the arrangement, but it was a necessary evil—James was liable to snap Romanov’s neck if he had the opportunity. They approached the side of the north warehouse facing the water. There were two men milling near the door. The guards.
They didn’t break their stride, moving almost as one. He shot the man on the left, and saw the one on the right drop at nearly the same moment. The silencers on their guns made the smallest of sounds as they delivered death. It didn’t seem right. Death should be an event—something loud and impossible to ignore.
But the guards’ silent slide to the ground suited his purposes. He glanced back without slowing down. Mark and his men would remove the bodies and take out their replacements, leaving Aiden and Dmitri free to search the warehouse. There was a second team coming in from the back with the same intention. At the south warehouse, James was doing the same thing. One of them would find her.
They had to.
He strode into the warehouse and froze. Charlie sat in the middle of the space, her head lolling, covered in so much blood it was a wonder she had any left in her body. He started for her, but Romanov threw out a hand and stopped him short. “Not yet.”
That’s when he noticed the moaning body at Charlie’s feet. Mae.
Aiden shoved Romanov’s hand away and stalked across the space. A movement in the hallway between two stacks of pallets morphed into a massive man who looked intent on murder. Aiden didn’t give him the chance to take another step. He shot him.
He kicked the chair across from Charlie out of the way and pointed the gun at Mae.
“Wait.” Charlie’s voice rasped through the roaring in his ears.
He didn’t look away from the woman on the ground. “This is the only way.”
“Aiden, wait.”
He kicked the knife away from Mae’s side and then used the same foot to flip her over onto her back. Her nose was definitely broken, the bottom half of her face covered in blood. She blinked at him. “What are you doing here?” The words came out jumbled.