Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
I didn’t want to go to his home. But if I screamed or did anything to get free, people I loved would be hurt…or worse. I wasn’t sure how deranged this man might be.
I racked my brain to think of an Irishman I’d met through Eamon who would want to do this. None though had seemed overly flirty or interested in me. Surely not to the point where they’d stalk me and then abduct me. And he’d called me sister. That was the oddest part.
We reached the fence line, and like he’d said, there was a ladder and a rubber mattress draped and tied down over the top. How had he known this would work? He had to be a seasoned criminal. One who smoked expensive cigars.
“Now, Salem, are ye going to remain quiet if I remove my hand from yer mouth? I don’t want to stir the pot here any more than I already have but if I have to kill people, I will. Starting with yer biker.”
Kill. He’d kill Rome.
I shook my head. I wouldn’t scream. I’d do whatever he said if it meant he would leave Rome alone. I’d brought this to their door. The man was here for me. Not them yet. If I didn’t obey, they’d all pay a horrible price for protecting me.
His hand fell from my mouth, but he kept his arm around my body. “Good. Didn’t want to have to keep a muzzle on ye. Now go on up first. When ye get to the top, Emmett, one of my fellas, will help ye over and onto the ladder on the other side.”
I hated ladders. Staring up at it, I swallowed hard, and my hands trembled. I was being abducted and forced to climb not just a ladder, but one that was ten feet tall. Gripping the cool metal, I took a steadying breath. I was doing this to protect Rome. There was no other choice. This man had killed the Landiagos. He would kill everyone inside the club if they tried to stop him.
Slowly, I placed my foot on the first rung and looked straight ahead. Not down. When the ladder shook slightly as the man behind me began to climb, I let out a whimper but continued on. If I fell to my death, that might be better than what this man had planned for me. I glanced down then and knew I couldn’t willingly fall. I’d get through this. Whatever it was. Turning my focus up, I reached where the rubber mattress padding began, and then a man leaned over from the other side.
He had black hair pulled back in a ponytail with strands too short to fit hanging loose. He reminded me of a pirate. Were they going to put me on a ship and take me somewhere to sell? I wasn’t exactly young. I didn’t think the monsters that did that sort of thing wanted women so close to forty.
There was also the possibility the man behind me had some weird psycho obsession with me, but he’d called me sister. He wouldn’t call someone that who he intended to rape…would he?
The pirate man, who I assumed was Emmett, held out his hand. I was going to have to let go of the ladder and trust this stranger to keep me from falling. Ten feet probably wouldn’t kill me. That was a tad dramatic, but it would injure me, and I could break my neck.
Stop thinking about it, Salem, I scolded myself.
“Go on now. We don’t want to be seen,” the man behind me said.
Reluctantly, I released the ladder with one of my hands and reached over to Emmett. His grip felt secure. He clearly didn’t want me to fall either. I gave him my other hand and stepped onto the very top, then slid over the mattress, and he held on to me while I turned around and got my foot safely onto the first rung. I saw a man at the bottom who didn’t appear to be a pirate, but looked Irish. He was even a ginger. I moved quicker this time, wanting to get it over with. I was almost at the bottom when the ladder shook from my captor getting on to it.
If there could be any relief in this situation, my feet hitting the grass was one. I stepped away from the ladder when the ginger man grabbed my arm firmly.
“This way,” he said with an even thicker lilt to his voice.
He led me out of the tree coverings and brush that blocked the sight of the gate from the road. A black Mercedes Sprinter van with no windows sat there with the back open and another man waiting beside it.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I wondered if the man who had taken me was also tall, muscular, and dressed in expensive-looking clothing. Because the three I had seen were in designer jeans that I recognized because they were the ones Eamon had always worn. Other than Emmett and his pirate hair, the others were clean-cut and well groomed.