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)
I was curious enough to turn to see the lights flick off… as the car pulled up out front of the gates.
I had no reason to suspect anything.
Yet my stomach flipped.
My heartbeat raced.
A cold sweat started on the back of my neck.
I pressed onto my stomach and scooted closer to the window, praying I was still as hidden as Rune claimed.
And it was from that position that I saw two men exiting the cars, leaving the doors open, then reaching into their waistbands. With the moon peeking out, it flashed off the muzzles of their guns.
They found us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Carmen
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
I dropped all the way down, my heartbeat a pounding bass beat as I shimmied backward, away from the wall overlooking the front yard.
I was safe in the glass room. That was something that had been promised to me. Nothing could get to me in the glass room. Not even a bullet.
There was just one problem.
It wasn’t just me my cousins were after.
It was Rune. His brothers. His club brothers.
I had to warn them.
They couldn’t be caught off-guard.
What if one got shot?
Or killed?
My heart cracked at the very idea.
Not just of losing Rune. But Croft, Vas, Spike, Cain… any of them.
But I hadn’t brought my phone. And Rune left his up here. There was no way to call him.
While the glass room wasn’t necessarily soundproof, it was on the roof. No one would hear if I screamed. I had to get down the ladder. But even in the basement, there was no guarantee that they’d hear.
A whimper caught in my throat as I lowered down through the opening, my heart sinking when I missed the ladder rung for a second. I saw myself falling to the unyielding cement floor, crying out in pain. I could see my cousin running down to shoot me… and no one coming to save me because they’d already suffered at their hands upstairs.
My hand be damned, I used both to make my way down the ladder, ignoring the quick pricks of pain as I put too much pressure on my broken hand.
I was halfway down when my foot missed a rung, making my heart drop to my stomach as I free-fell downward, crashing hard on my ass, needing to press my lips together to keep from crying out.
I could practically hear what Rune would say if we lived through this. “He put a bruise on this perfect ass. I want to dig him outta his grave and revive him, just to kill him again.”
There was no time to be upset about the pain, though.
I scrambled onto all fours, then pushed up and ran through the basement.
I paused, trying to focus.
I couldn’t just run up there.
I’d wasted too much time already.
Jack was probably about to be (if not already) inside the clubhouse.
I needed to help, not make myself another liability they had to worry about.
A whimper caught at my throat as I flew toward the tall metal cabinets where a previous tour of the basement showed me how prepared these biker guys were for the kind of emergency lockdown that meant they would be trapped downstairs for extended periods.
They had stocks of nonperishable food, medical supplies, clothes, extra linens, board games, lanterns, and even water purification tablets.
Those weren’t the only highlights from my tour, though.
Up on top of one of the cabinets, stored high enough that no club kid could ever get to it, but low enough for a reasonably tall adult to reach, was a gun.
The club had them stashed in several places around the clubhouse in case of emergencies.
This, I was sure, constituted an emergency.
I flew at the locker, reaching up and feeling around until my fingers met cold metal.
My heart fluttered as I pulled it down.
I knew it was loaded. Rune told me they all were. And there was no safety to worry about. Which was good. Because the only gun I knew about was my own.
Holding it in my shaky hand, I rushed back toward the stairs, trying to feel comforted that there were no loud bangs coming from upstairs. No yelling, either.
Were my cousins still trying to find a way in?
Or was this basement just more soundproofed than I realized?
Unease pooled in my chest as my stomach lurched.
I felt like I was choking on my own heart as I inched up the stairs, cursing myself for not having paid attention before to which stairs groaned.
I swear my bare feet on the step sounded like thunderclaps, my breath like hurricane-force winds.
Logically, I knew no one could hear it but me. But nothing about me was being particularly logical right then as I reached the top step.
I was going into this blind. I had no way of knowing where my cousins might be, if they would see me before I saw them, if they were lying in wait for me.