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)
“Look, man, I don’t have time for your bullshit today. I ain’t signing up for shit, and I ain’t got no money, so go on somewhere. I’m busy.”
“Busy snitching?”
His question caught me off guard enough that I paused to get a good look at him.
Lord, help me, it was a White man.
His blond hair had fallen over his forehead and past his brow, while the dark leather of his jacket made his fair skin and green eyes look even paler in the moonlight. He looked young, but his eyes told a different story. He had this fatally gorgeous, tragic bad boy thing going on that I was sure wet many cats.
Unfortunately, mine was as dry as Popeye’s biscuits.
I’ve taken down a few White boys before. Another day, another time, maybe I would have given the cutie some play, but not now. All I could think about was my best friend being tortured and hacked into little pieces or trafficked to god knows where to do god knows what.
Sighing, I stared straight ahead at the door, but something wouldn’t let me walk through it.
As if reading my mind and knowing exactly why I hesitated, he said, “You never know when a chance encounter is really by design, or when a stranger isn’t a stranger after all, Hunter.”
Pivoting on my heel, I slipped my hand inside my clutch where my Ruger rested. “Who the hell are you?”
“No one important,” he evaded. “But you can call me Kellan.”
“Hmm…sounds made up. What do you want?”
Kellan lowered his foot and shifted until his shoulder was propped against the wall. “I want to know why you think talking to the cops will help your friend.”
Unmindful that we were in spitting distance from a building full of cops, I rushed him and pulled my gun before shoving it under his chin. “Where is she?”
Kellan didn’t care that I held him at gunpoint, and it told me one of two things—he either didn’t believe I’d shoot him, or he wasn’t afraid of dying. The first made him stupid, and the second made him dangerous. “Coby’s safer than you are right now.”
Hearing him say her name, I pressed the muzzle deeper into his skin. “Do I look convinced, Kellan? Take me to her.”
“Can’t do that.”
“That wasn’t a goddamn request!”
“My boss, who has some very powerful friends, would like me to inform you that going to the police is a mistake he will not forgive.”
“Good. Then you can tell him that taking my friend was one I won’t forgive either.”
Kellan’s green eyes twinkled. “He thought you might say that.”
“Am I supposed to care?”
“He also wants me to tell you that he’ll pay you well to forget what you think you saw.”
I lowered the gun until it was pointed at his crotch. “Say that shit again, and I’ll blow your dick off.”
Kellan’s green eyes twinkled with a grin. “I think I’m in love.”
“That’s what they all say.”
The door next to us opened before Kellan could respond. Five uniformed cops filed through, talking amongst themselves. Kellan yanked me into him until I was pressed against the full length of his body—so close I was sharing his heat. Our closeness also hid the very illegal gun I still had pressed to his crotch just as they gave us curious glances.
“Okay, love birds,” the last officer, who had a thick mustache, said with a wave of his hand. “This is a police precinct, not the backseat of a car. Move it along.”
I discreetly slipped my gun back inside my clutch and then slowly backed away from Kellan, braving the treacherous steps blindly this time because daring to take my eyes off him seemed twice as risky even with a boatload of cops around.
Reading my mind once again, Kellan smiled. “Be seeing you, Hunter.”
Rolling my eyes, I darted off and dove inside the safety of Deborah, but I couldn’t bring myself to drive away. My emotions overcame me the moment I was alone, and I ended up sobbing with my forehead pressed to the steering wheel as I imagined all of the horrors Coby would likely face.
Getting her back was never going to be easy, but Kellan boldly showing up to stop me from filing a report mere feet away from the precinct told me I wasn’t dealing with the average street thug. No, there was something much larger at play here.
Whoever took her was clearly watching me, so I would have to find another way to get my best friend back, and I would. There were so many things I never got to say—so many things I was sorry for. But I couldn’t turn back time, so I would do everything in my power to make sure Coby had a future. I would defy the devil himself to reclaim what was mine.
Even if it killed me.