Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107376 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107376 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
She leans into him, her hand brushing his chest before she whispers something into his ear. Nathaniel nods, and a moment later, her hand drops into his and she starts leading him toward one of their private rooms.
A smile pulls at my lips.
Perfect.
Once they get into the room, he’ll likely put his drink down and all of his attention will be focused on the woman, or more accurately, her body. He won’t even notice me slipping into the room and emptying the contents of this little baggy into his glass, and from there, it’s just a waiting game.
It won’t take long. The second the drug hits his system, it will start to work, and the woman won’t even have enough time to race to the door to scream for help before he’s dead.
Wanting to get it over and done with as efficiently as possible, I follow them, taking note of exactly which private room they step into before giving them a moment to get distracted by one another. As I wait a few minutes, I gaze around Madam again, doing a last scan for those two familiar faces, and after coming up blank, I get the show on the road.
It’s a real shame they’re going to miss it, but it’ll be fun all the same.
Striding up to the door, I pull a small pin from my hair and slide it straight into the lock, not skipping a beat as I effortlessly twist, manipulating the lock until I feel the slightest click. I discreetly turn the handle, ease the door open, and step inside.
The room is dark, and I stick to the shadows as my sharp gaze scans the room. Only I pause, feeling that something is off.
Nathaniel stands across the room, his back to me as he holds his glass, but the woman is nowhere to be seen. Where the hell did she go?
I pause, scanning again, only as my gaze sails over Nathaniel’s back, something unsettles me. He’s too tall. His shoulders too broad. It’s the same designer suit jacket he was wearing not two seconds ago, but I know deep in my gut that the man standing across the room is not Nathaniel Moretti.
I immediately begin to retreat, knowing a setup when I see one, but a voice cuts through the room. “Not so fast.”
That deep voice keeps me rooted to the spot as the man slowly turns, and the breath catches in my throat.
No.
My pulse slams to a halt.
How is this possible?
Hunter Cole stares back at me from the center of the room, and for one impossible second, the entire world tilts beneath my feet.
What the hell is happening?
I wait for the shock. The confusion. The moment his eyes widen as he realizes who he’s looking at. But it never comes. Instead, he just watches me.
He’s calm, patient, almost amused, and a sick feeling twists in my stomach as the pieces begin falling into place. This wasn’t a chance encounter, and it sure as hell wasn’t bad timing. He knew. The bastard knew.
How the fuck am I supposed to explain this one?
“I, uhhhhh . . .”
A shadow steps out from across the room, and I recognize his build before I even see his face. Maddox. My fucked-up little psychopath.
He moves in beside Hunter, a cocky smirk playing on his lips as though he just won a contest. However, as he focuses on my face and not just the red hair, that cocky smirk fades away, and he gapes at me the way I expected Hunter to.
“Lyra?” he questions, his brows pinched as he tries to figure it all out. “What the actual fuck is going on?”
I wince as I look at my boys, feeling as though I’ve just been gutted, and all my dirty little secrets are spilling out onto the floor. “I swear,” I start, guilty as all hell. “I have a really good explanation for this.”
24
HUNTER
We sit in silence on the drive back home, my fingers drumming against the steering wheel as my gaze shifts back and forth from the road, and then right back to the little she-devil sitting beside me. I didn’t even wait to see if she had driven there, just grabbed that sweet ass and packed her into the front of my car.
I’d been suspicious of her for a while, and every chance encounter with this red-haired assassin only made it worse.
The night I’d first met her at Black Velvet and had that job in the alley, she was on her break. And when she was heading back in, she didn’t go in through the back door the same way the other bar staff had. Then during the DeLuca compound hit, she was sleeping on the couch and could have easily slipped out after we left and made it back in time. Not to mention how casually she accepted me and Maddox and the constant string of murdery comments that slip from her mouth.