Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
How could he see that? It was so dark in here that she could barely make them out.
“We need to stop upsetting her,” Alexei snarled.
“She has to know what’s going on,” Salem said. “Baby, Mark kidnapped you and then brought you here. There’s a bad man, a criminal that we’ve been trying to track down for a while. He was behind your kidnapping. He wants to kill us all, he’s just waiting for Alina’s men to get here before he’s going to blow this place up.”
Oh.
They knew all that.
“You saw him?” Tamsyn asked.
“Pinky? Yeah?” Alexei said.
“Or perhaps we should call him by his real name. Patrick O’Connor. He’s got the whole world fooled,” Roman said in a strangely bitter voice.
Yeah. He did.
“What did he . . . what did he say to you?”
“Not much,” Salem said. She could hear the curious note in his voice. “He had Mark kidnap you to lure us here. He has a beef with us for trying to take him down and with Alina’s men for thwarting his plans to get hold of Escana. To put Jeric on the throne with him as the puppet master.”
Right. Yeah.
That had been the plan a while ago.
And when that plan was thwarted, he’d gotten mad, because no one crossed him.
“Come here, Pet,” Salem told her. “Come here to me. I need to hold you.”
“And me,” Alexei said.
“Me too,” Roman added.
Would it hurt to take one more moment? To have one last hug?
Surely not.
She needed this. So she shuffled over toward Salem, bit by painful bit.
God, she hurt.
But it was nothing in comparison to what was coming.
“I would grab you and lift you, but I’m scared I’ll hurt you more,” Salem told her.
She wasn’t sure it was possible to hurt more. This was, by far, the most painful beating she’d ever endured.
Finally, she was close enough that Salem could carefully lift her into his lap with his free arm, holding her loosely.
“Baby,” he murmured. “God, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that you were kidnapped because of us. Hurt because of us.”
Shit.
It seemed that she couldn’t take a last moment before she had to tell them the truth.
“It’s not your fault,” she told him as she moved off his lap and crawled to Alexei.
“What do you mean it’s not our fault?” Alexei said. “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. Pinky holds a grudge against me because I was a spy in his midst.”
“He does.” She kissed Alexei lightly. “I’m surprised he hasn’t beaten you worse than me.”
Alexei frowned and opened his mouth as though to question her further, but she moved to Roman.
Her ribs were burning, her entire body throbbing in pain and she still wanted to throw up. But she reached Roman.
“Just how badly are you hurt?” Roman whispered as he lightly cupped her face between his hands.
“Physically? I’m a mess. Emotionally? I’m ruined.” She moved away from him, from them all, and slid up against the wall.
Her breathing had grown shallow, and she felt light-headed.
Come on.
You have to do better than this.
You’re their only hope for getting out of this alive. Even if you have to sacrifice yourself, you have to save them.
“What are you doing?” Alexei demanded. “Get back here, Bunny.”
“No,” she croaked.
“Pet, come here. We need to protect you and to do that, we need you close.”
“Don’t worry,” Roman reassured her sweetly. “We’ll look after you.”
“Nothing like this will ever happen to you again,” Salem told her.
“We promise to protect you better from now on,” Alexei said gruffly.
“You can’t protect me.” She had to be careful with what she said as she knew he had cameras in here.
“We will keep you safe,” Alexei told her.
She shook her head with a sad smile. “You’ll all change your mind once you learn the truth.”
“What do you mean?” Salem asked. “What truth?”
“The truth of who I am.” Tamsyn cleared her throat. She didn’t know how long she had, and she had to get this out quickly or she might not be able to get it out at all.
“What are you saying?” Roman asked.
“It’s not a coincidence that I met you all or that the agency sent me to work for you. That was all set up. Everything was a set up. I was there to spy on you and feed back information to him.”
“You . . . you’re working for Pinky?” Alexei said in horror.
She could feel everything changing. It was like their disgust and hatred was pushing down on her, making it hard for her to breathe.
“Work isn’t the word I would use. He . . . he has something on me. And he uses that as a threat to keep me in line. To keep me doing what he wants.”
Were they all right? Had he hurt them as revenge?
No, they had to be okay. He would have told her if they weren’t.