Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
As far as I knew, we hadn’t traced Silas anywhere. That was the problem. But it looked like one of us was going to get away, and it probably wasn’t going to be me—in which case, I wasn’t sending him out there with any more information than he’d come in with.
“Not talking?” he mused. “Let’s see if this helps.”
Two cold points jammed under my chin. I heard a click and fire burned across my nerves, down my spine, up into my skull as I felt myself sliding into unconsciousness.
I fought to keep my eyes open, though I couldn’t see through the blindfold. I wasn’t going to pass out—I couldn’t let that happen—but goddamn, that hurt. I remembered every other time I touched a loose wire or got a random shock, and how I’d thought that was painful. Ugh. This—that fucking taser—was so much worse.
“I don’t know anything about Silas,” I ground out as soon as I could make my mouth work again.
“I don’t think I believe you,” he said. “I think you’re just being obstinate. I’m going to ask again. Where was the last place you traced Silas Creed to?”
I shook my head slowly.
“How about we play an answer for an answer?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
“Because you don’t know anything, or because you’re stubborn?”
“You’re not offering me much of a reward,” I said. “If I tell you what I know, do I get to leave?”
“No, I’m afraid you don’t.”
“Well then, why would I talk?”
“Because I can make the last nine minutes and three seconds of your life incredibly painful. Trust me, nine minutes can be a very long time.”
I believed him. Even more when that cold, sharp metal jammed into my shoulder and the fire spread across my skin again.
I screamed. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t stop it. The burning. It hurt. Fuck.
I let my head loll forward, sucking in air, trying to get my thoughts straight. I didn’t have anything to tell him.
I thought of the post office box, the letter. Miss Carmody. No. I wasn’t sending this man her way. I wasn’t even sure whether the letter or the existence of the box was useful. On the chance it was, he wasn’t getting it from me. Maybe if I thought I could bargain with my life. But he was going to kill me anyway.
I didn’t give a shit about Silas. I didn’t know Silas, but I wouldn’t betray Eli. Not like that.
Fuck. Eli. I’d left his bed last night, angry. So fucking angry. He’d kissed me, and I just wanted to touch him, to feel him against me. Wanted his arms around me. All it had done was remind me how good we were together and how fucked up everything was.
I’d wasted what we could have had because I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t realize it wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t just that I liked being with him, felt safe with him, thought I could trust him. That we laughed together, could talk for hours. It wasn’t any one of those things—it was all of it together.
Who the hell thought I’d fall in love in a handful of days, in the most chaotic, crazy time of my life? I hadn’t seen it coming because it didn’t make any fucking sense.
Except that it was Eli. And he was everything. He’d fucked up, but so had I.
And now I’d wasted it—our time together, what we could have had. It was all going to end far too fast, and I never got to say goodbye.
My tears slid down my cheek, soaking into the bottom of the blindfold. I didn’t want to go out crying, but I didn’t think I could stop. My heart hurt as much as my burning nerves.
The beep sounded from my chest again.
“Eight minutes, thirty seconds,” he said conversationally. “You’re sure you’re not going to tell me anything? If you do, I’ll knock you out before I go. You’ll never feel it happen.”
I gritted my teeth, ready for the burn of the taser again. The only thing I had left was my ability to stay quiet, to keep Eli safe from this monster. To show Eli that I loved him, even if he’d never know.
I had nothing to fucking say. Not to this guy.
When the next shock came, I shook, fighting unconsciousness. I only had a few minutes left. I didn’t want to spend them out cold. I didn’t want the ease he was offering—fading into black, never to wake again. Fuck that. I was fighting every second until this damn bomb went off and ended it for me.
“Tell me where Silas is,” he said, the charm gone from his voice. This was the real man, ice-cold and unyielding.
I swung my head slowly from side to side, tears coming harder, faster, until my body shook from the overload of the taser on my nerves, from fear.