Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
“Wow, so mysterious.” She looked toward the cars, all facing one way and blocking her view. I swear she paled a little when it dawned on her why I brought her here. “And what if I don’t want that? Whatever it is?”
Using my good hand, I pulled her closer until she had no choice but to lean into me. “Don’t you?”
Hunter gulped and then squeezed her eyes closed. “It was so long ago, Ocean. I’m fine now.”
“But it still happened, Hunter. Who. Was. He?”
“I can’t.” Her eyes flew open as her breathing increased until she was hyperventilating. “I can’t kill him. I can’t. She’ll never forgive me.”
“Shhh. Calm, Vengeance. Calm.” I tucked her face into my chest and rubbed her back, whispering sweet nothings until she went lax against me. “What do you want to do? I’ll take your lead, but Hunter… he can’t come anywhere near you or Coby again. One way or another, Roshaun has to go.”
“Not that I’m torn up about it, but why can’t he see Coby? He’s a piece of shit, but he is her brother.”
I released a heavy sigh. Of course, Coby hadn’t told her.
“Because he put his fucking hands on her. He slapped her so hard, her fucking head hit the window. I’m not giving him a chance to do something like that ever again.”
Hunter stiffened, and then she slowly lifted her head from my chest.
The last time I’d seen that look in her eyes was when she nearly succeeded in sticking a hunting knife in my heart.
One moment, I was holding her.
Next, she was gone.
HUNTER
For the first time since I was a snot-nosed kid, it truly felt like Christmas morning.
“Hunter?” Roshaun peered through the dark, the mist spilling from the trees onto the road. The eye that wasn’t swollen shut widened briefly when I stopped before him. “Shit, it is you. Aye…” He shifted anxiously on his knees. “Listen, you got to help me. My sister—”
“You hit her.”
Roshaun paused and then blinked like he didn’t know what I was talking about. It made me wonder if this wasn’t the first time he hurt her, and Coby had kept it from me. “What?”
“You. Hit. Her.”
Seeing that playing dumb wouldn’t work on me (I knew too much about him), he sucked his teeth and looked away dismissively. “Bitch, I ain’t hit nobody. If she told you that shit, she’s lying.”
It was all I needed to hear as I reached for my knife.
“Whoa, whoa, what the fuck are you doing?” Roshaun screamed as he scrambled to get away from me. He only made it as far as his ass since his hands were bound behind his back.
Several goons looked at each other, not knowing whether to kill us both when I walked around him and cut through the cable tie, freeing him. Roshaun—wary, injured, and close to pissing his pants—was slow to stand, and I remembered he was still healing from his broken ribs.
It was the first place I struck when I sent him back to his knees.
I watched coldly as he leaned over and spat up blood before wheezing for air. “I knew you were a piece of shit, but I didn’t know you were pathetic too,” I grumbled. This was so disappointing. I wanted to beat him up, show him I wasn’t afraid anymore, and that if he came for me, I could protect myself. But Ocean had already worked him over pretty well, so there wasn’t much fun in it for me. “Get up.”
“I can’t.”
“Get up!” I roared.
“The fuck…the fuck…the fuck are you doing,” Roshaun struggled to get out as he rose off his hands and sat back on his heels.
“I trusted you. Coby trusted you!” I drove my knee up, hitting him under his chin and knocking him back.
“Push off the ground with your opposite foot for more power and keep that leg straight,” Abel instructed. And then he sighed tiredly, like I was a disappointing pupil. “We’ve gone over this.”
Ignoring him, I placed my foot on Roshaun’s dick and pressed until he released a blood-curdling scream. Several of Ocean’s men flinched. “Don’t be so fucking dramatic,” I teased. And then I shifted more of my weight onto him, making him scream again. “How many girls have you forced this thing on?”
“Hunter, p-please.”
“I said please, too. Did you listen?” When I was sixteen and begged him not to kick me out, he said if I wanted to stay with Coby, I knew what I had to do. Roshaun didn’t answer, so I shifted my foot to his throat. He made a gargling sound when I cut off his ability to breathe or swallow. “Did you?” The fear in his eyes, knowing his life was at my mercy, was more satisfying than tiring myself out by besting him in a fight.
Only it wasn’t Roshaun’s face staring back at me.