Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
No.
No, no, no, no, no.
This could not be happening.
He could not be in my house. Petting my dog. Looking like he’d been there for a while, all lounged back and comfortable.
“No.” The sound gulped out of me. The only way I knew it was loud enough for him to hear was the way his chin tilted ever so slightly.
“Never going to believe what?” Sofia asked, coming out from the kitchen in the back of the house with a cup of coffee she passed to the stranger on our couch. “Here you go.”
How had this gone so wrong so quickly?
Why had my ultra-safety-conscious sister let someone she didn’t know inside?
I needed to get her out of the house.
This was my problem, not hers. If someone was going to be horribly tortured and killed, it needed to be me, not her.
“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
Worse. It was so much worse. I was seeing the man I’d almost killed. In my living room. With my sweet little sister bringing him hot beverages. And my so-called protection dog rolling onto her back and begging for more belly rubs.
“What is he…” I started, but my throat was too tight to squeeze out any other sounds.
“Oh, Rune?” Sofia asked, smile huge.
Oh, God.
Oh, how had I screwed this all up so epically?
“I let him in. I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
Why, why, had I given her his name?
Dammit.
Rune’s gaze had been on me since I’d walked in, but now he shot me a lazy grin. Like this was all so amusing.
“Been talking to little sis about me, huh?”
“What were you going to tell me?” Sofia asked.
“Oh, um. Chip wants us to plant a vegetable garden. Actually, can you, uh, do me a favor? Can you run down to Church Street and help him? He rode his mower down there to get the starter plants. He’s not going to be able to bring them back on that thing.”
“Stubborn old man,” Sofia said, shaking her head. But she was already getting her shoes on. Good. That was good. She’d be safe out there. Then if this guy needed to kill me, then, well, so be it. But she’d be okay.
“Thanks, Sof,” I said as she brushed past me.
“Come on, Hamster. Let’s take a walk.” That was the magic word for the dog, who rolled over, fell off the couch, then lurched to her feet with her ass about to fall off from wiggling so hard as she got her leash attached. “Maybe I’ll even get that garden started,” she told me with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. “So you guys can have some privacy.”
Before I could respond to that, she was gone.
And we were alone.
I stood there for a moment, listening to Sofia coo at Hamster as they moved across the porch, down the steps, her voice growing thinner as she got further away.
For a second, there was nothing but silence. But my thundering heartbeat, and my jittery nerves.
I wasn’t even conscious of the decision to move.
But one second, I was standing two feet inside the door.
The next, I was making a mad dash toward the kitchen.
To, I don’t know, grab a knife or something.
But Rune was prepared for me to run.
He shot up off the couch cushion, snagged me around the waist with one arm, and dragged me back with him.
I landed with my ass half on his thigh and struggled enough to drop down at his side instead. There was no use trying to get away. His one arm was stronger than my whole body. It pinched around me too tightly, making me try to shrink smaller to ease the ache.
“Should we talk here, or make our way up to the bedroom like your sister suggested? Apparently, we were fucking last night.”
There was no reason, none at all, for the little shiver that sliced down my spine, or the way my belly flipped at his words, at the way his breath was warm on my ear as he said them.
A strange squeak escaped me before I swallowed back my spit and asked, “How did you find me?”
“Well, baby, your super professional-looking criminal outfit aside, a real pro would know not to get their plates caught on camera while fleeing.”
Great.
That was just great.
“I thought about covering them,” I said, mostly to myself. But I’d been afraid of getting pulled over and arrested for not having my plates visible.
“If you had, I wouldn’t be here.” His fingers drummed on my stomach where he was still grabbing me.
“Are you going to kill me?” I asked, hating how shaky my voice sounded.
There was a pause, then a strange false note in his voice when he said, “I haven’t decided yet.”
So, yeah, that false note was because he knew he was lying. He was absolutely going to kill me. The question was just when. And what happened to me before.