Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Oh?” Isabelle asks, looking first at Zeke then Jericho. I get the feeling she thinks it’s Jericho who is sending us packing.
I turn to them too and I see how Jericho’s jaw is locked. “Not my idea,” he tells her, then shifts his attention to Zeke. “There’s two of us if you stay, Brother.”
Zeke shakes his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He turns to me. “Ready?”
I nod and we say goodbye, Jericho barely muttering two more words. He stops when we reach his study. I think he’s going to leave us there but he turns back to us. I notice my dad’s laptop on the corner of his desk.
“Stay here. It’s safer,” he says.
“For us, maybe, but not for you,” Zeke says.
He just shakes his head and Zeke nudges me to the front door. We drive to the Bishop house, Zeke clearly occupied because he barely says two words.
“I heard what he said,” I tell him once we’re at the gate.
He punches in the code to open it then turns to me, so lost in thought it’s like he forgot I was there.
“I think we should give him what he wants,” I continue.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” he says. “I don’t like that he walked into Jericho’s house. It was a show of power. Of how far he’s willing to go.”
“It also shows how capable he is. If any of them got hurt because of me, I couldn’t live with myself. If you got hurt because of me, I couldn’t—” my voice breaks.
“That’s not going to happen.” He wraps a hand around the back of my neck and turns me to face him. From inside his pocket, he takes out the flash drive.
“You took it?”
He nods.
“Does Jericho know?”
“Not yet.”
He punches in the combination of numbers to open the front door of the house. He doesn’t hide the code from me, and I mentally catalog it. It’s one digit off from the one that opens the gate.
We walk into the house. I leave the bags of clothes in the hallway and follow Zeke into the study where he sets the flash drive and a business card on the desk then turns to me.
“I think we should give it to Girard, Zeke. I’ll do it. You can’t. If Councilor Augustus finds out you gave Girard the flash drive, he will go after you and your brother.”
“I haven’t yet decided what to do with it but if we hand it over at all, it’ll be me to do it.”
“You could say I stole it and ran off. Blame it all on me.”
“You’re not listening, Blue. I wouldn’t have him come after you.”
“I’ll be long gone, Zeke.”
He stops at that. He looks surprised and that surprise catches me off guard.
I clear my throat thinking about being long gone. What was my plan for when this ended? It was loose at best and anyway, so much has changed. But I may not have a choice apart from disappearing. These are dangerous men and not only dangerous to me. This may be the only way to keep Zeke safe.
“You and Jericho, you have a life here. You have family here. I can take Wren and we can go to Canada, like I’d planned,” I say, making it up as I go.
“You think he wouldn’t track you down in Canada?” he says with a snort.
“I—"
“Anyway, we just moved her,” he says, and I hear the we.
I step closer to him, touch his face with both hands. Stubble prickles my palms. He hasn’t shaved in a few days.
“I know you keep warning me, but I care about you—”
“I told you not to—”
“Well, I do. You’re helping me when you don’t have to, and I won’t let anything happen to you because of me, Zeke. I won’t.”
“No, Blue.”
“I can do it, I just—”
“We’re not discussing this.”
“I get a say in what we do with that information.”
“I said no and that’s final.”
“You’re not being reasonable. I bet Jericho would agree with me.”
“Well, it’s not up to Jericho, is it?” He walks around the desk to put the flash drive in a drawer. “Go upstairs. I need to think.”
“No.”
“Upstairs. Now.”
Zeke’s phone buzzes with a message and he pulls away. Taking it out of his pocket, he checks it and mutters a curse.
“Fuck.”
“What?”
“My brother is on his way over.”
“I can help. I can—”
He grips my arm harshly. “Do I need to lock you in a room? Put your leash back on?”
“I—”
“Do I?” he asks with a shake and the look on his face tells me he will do it.
“Fuck you,” I say, shrugging out of his grasp as the front door opens and we both turn to find a fuming Jericho enter.
“What the fuck are you thinking?” he demands, stalking toward us.
Zeke gestures for me to go upstairs with a nod of his head.