Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 44963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Inexperience should hold me back. The situation should bridle this stampeding lust.
Finally, Luke turns down a dirt road. The car bumps up and down.
I spot Luke watching me in the rearview at intervals. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he liked the way the car’s jostling me up and down, like it gave him some satisfaction.
I’ve never been the wanted girl. The sexy one. The one with boyfriends. I’ve never been the girl people pay attention to, and definitely not a man like Luke.
Killer status aside, he’s got looks that would melt most women, his jawline firm and confident, his eyes glinting with that hungry intensity. Not hungry, I tell myself. He doesn’t want me. Even if he did, I would have to stop myself. I’d have to remember seeing him standing in Dad’s room, pistol in his giant hand, ready to end everything I’ve ever cared about, ready to turn my life into hell.
Luke pulls up at a small cabin, its wooden outline just about visible in the darkness.
“I’ll show you to your rooms,” he says.
“What a gentleman you are,” I answer sarcastically.
He smirks at me in the rearview with a flash of teeth.
I know I shouldn’t—I know it’s a hundred shades of wrong—but I’m really liking the way he looks at me when I give him sass.
“But how can we trust him?” I say, keeping my voice low as I gesture at Dad.
He sits on the end of my bed, his shoulders slumped. “We have no choice.”
“I don’t get it. The mafia… it makes no sense. You’re an accountant.”
“I know. But my latest client—the one who made it possible for you to go to college—they’re a mob front business. I had no clue until I started digging. By then, it was too late. I’d already seen more than I should have.”
He pauses, grief touching his features. It brings me back to my very early memories when he told me what had happened to Mom.
I wait, knowing he would appreciate my patience.
“I tried to cover my tracks, hide any sign that I’d been digging around, but clearly, I failed. I thought if I went on as usual, I could avoid this.”
“So, our lives are in his hands,” I murmur, thinking about escape.
What am I going to do? Run through the forest in the middle of the night? Where would I go?
“We should go to the police,” I say. “Tell them the truth.”
“Maybe we could do that,” Dad replies, “but this is the mafia we’re talking about. They have connections everywhere. We might find an officer we can trust… or we might find one who’ll turn us over to the mob.”
“So, we trust Luke instead?”
“He saved your life tonight,” Dad says with an intensity that confuses me.
Maybe he’s getting tired of my questions, which isn’t exactly fair, considering life was never meant to go this way. Maybe he expects me to accept it all without saying a single word.
“How?” I snap.
“When you walked into the room and saw him… any other hit man would’ve executed you.”
I shiver as if footsteps are walking over my grave.
“I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t he just go through with it?”
“He said it. Sometimes a man has to do the right thing. Maybe we were one target too many.”
I lean back against the headboard. Inside the cabin, the rooms are surprisingly upscale, with sleek wooden floorboards and comfortable beds. The bedside lamp throws atmospheric light around the room. It’s a little dusty, but otherwise, it’s far better than I expected.
“Try to get some sleep,” Dad says. “We’ll need our strength for whatever tomorrow brings.”
“I’m supposed to be in class learning how to spread the word on social media.” I sigh, running a hand through my stress-sweaty hair. “So much for working for a charity. So much for making a difference one day.”
“Hey.” Dad shuffles down the bed, pulling me into a hug. “This isn’t going to last forever. We’ll find a way out. You’ll graduate college.”
I almost say something snarky again, but I can hear how badly Dad wants to prove to me things can be better. So instead, I return his hug.
“You’re right. I should get some sleep.”
“I love you,” he says, standing.
“I love you, too.”
Once Dad’s gone, I switch off the lamp, lying in the darkness with the quiet of the forest all around me. I know sleep won’t come to me tonight, impossible with thoughts of Luke clashing in my mind.
One second, he’s got a gun in his hand, aimed at me. The next, I’m in his arms, and he’s leaning down to crush me with a possessive kiss. Then the images skip ahead. I’m sitting with a child cradled to my chest, smiling over at Luke, his hair glistening silver and his cheeks wet with tears of joy.
Yep. It’s official.