Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Slade started to swear. “What the fuck? Hackers?”
“Yes, they’re becoming more of a problem. Stealing information for ransom.”
“Yeah, but why us? Makes little sense.”
She suddenly became aware of the fact that both men had gone silent.
Quaid had turned to look at her.
Right. Because they’re probably wondering how to get rid of you.
“Um, if you drop me here I can make my own way to the train station.”
Quaid scowled.
Damn, he could be scary. But he didn’t intimidate her.
Uh-huh. How are those lies going for you?
“Don’t be stupid,” he snapped, making her sit up straight.
“Quaid,” Slade warned. “You’re not angry at Indie.”
“Of course I’m not angry at Indie,” Quaid replied. “Indie has nothing to do with this. Indie knows I’m not mad at her.”
She did?
Okay, it seemed she did as he gave her a stern look.
She nodded. “Uh-huh. I know. I’m just not sure why you were frowning at me and calling me stupid.”
And now his frown just grew worse. What the heck had she said?
“I did not call you stupid.”
Um, yeah, he had.
“What you said was stupid, you are not stupid.” He turned back to Slade. “We’ll drop her off and head back into London?”
Slade nodded and Quaid started tapping on his phone.
“Guys, that’s hours out of your way. I can get myself home. I took the train here.”
“Don’t remind us,” Slade grumbled.
“What’s wrong with the train? Thousands of people use trains daily across the country. Probably more than that.”
They shared a look.
What didn’t she understand?
“We just want to make sure you get home safely,” Slade told her quietly. “Never forgive myself if something happened to you on the way and we could have prevented it. We rarely get to take care of you anymore, Boo. Just let us do this, yeah?”
The wind was taken right out of her sails by his words. And she sat back with a nod.
“Okay, thank you.”
She sat there in silence, wishing that she could have them take care of her for the rest of her life.
But dreams weren’t for people like her.
Closing her eyes, she let herself daydream. She felt so tired, all of those nights with very little sleep catching up to her.
And why do you think you can sleep now?
Is it because you feel safe with them? Because you know they will keep you safe?
They can take on Billy and win.
Now didn’t seem the time to tell them, though. And maybe she should think things through a bit more. There were things at Billy’s place that she wanted.
Like her backpack.
And if she told them now, she wouldn’t get to grab it.
She’d come to regret that decision later.
7
Indie was filled with dread as she headed toward the apartment she lived in with Billy
It was a gorgeous building. Well taken care of and in a nice area of Birmingham.
And yet it felt like a jail. As though she was returning to her doom.
She missed the guys already.
As she stepped onto their floor, she grabbed her handbag, searching for her keys.
Where the heck were they?
Why did she always lose them? Bollocks. If Billy wasn’t home she could be locked out for hours.
She had her gaze down and was muttering to herself as she headed along the hallway.
Smack!
Shit!
Indie stumbled back, dropping her handbag. She would have fallen onto her butt if the person she hadn’t just walked into didn’t grab her arm, stopping her fall.
Indie stared up at the tall man who still had a hold of her and a shiver ran through her. There was a nasty scar running down his face and the look in his eyes told her that he’d seen some terrible things.
Likely done some terrible things.
He wasn’t alone, either. She glanced over at the two men standing behind him. They all wore expensive suits, but it was a veneer of civility.
Because there was definitely no way that these guys were simple businessmen. They were too brutish, too terrifying.
They were thugs.
And what were they doing here? In her apartment building? On her floor? This building only had ten apartments. Three on each floor and the penthouse.
On this floor was Mr. Wembley who was about eighty, deaf as a post, and spent most of his life complaining about the postie. He missed his wife so much that he still had all of her clothes.
And then there was Professor James who worked at the University of Birmingham. He was a soft-spoken man who liked to wear button-down cardigans no matter the weather.
Why would these guys visit either of them? Unless they were here to collect a debt?
No. Debt collectors didn’t dress in Ralph Lauren.
She tried to tug her arm out of the first man’s hold. To her surprise and relief he let her go and she moved back, reaching down to grab her handbag.
Surely, if she yelled, Billy would hear her.
The man who’d had hold of her ran his gaze over her and for a moment she thought she saw something flash in his dark gaze.