Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
“Just stop it,” Aurora seethed.
Her anger rolled off her in waves, but it wouldn’t change a thing. I would not, could not stop this. As long as I wasn’t sure what Aurora had done to me, as long as my own emotions and mind were a jumbled mess, I would make sure nobody got close to her. Fuck, I hadn’t even intended to follow Aurora to the races when I’d found out about it. I wasn’t the jealous type and never even understood the reasoning behind it in the first place. But the night before Aurora’s move to the race circuit, I had been unable to fall asleep. I’d thought back to the asshole I’d killed in New York, had thought about how many more assholes would be at the races. Assholes who would dare to make Rory smile, to make her laugh, to fucking touch her. That thought had festered inside me and made my skin itch as if thousands of ants were digging tunnels under it. Usually, this kind of restless craziness only took hold of me when I hadn’t killed in too long. Now the idea of not being near Rory caused it too. What a shit show.
When I returned to the bonfire a little later, I felt the itch under my skin again.
“I don’t like the look on your face,” said Alessio when I sank down beside them.
I took out my knife, half tempted to cut open my fucking skin to get rid of the itch, but it didn’t work that way. I knew only one thing that elevated the sensation…
My eyes were drawn to Gigimo, who drank a beer with a couple of guys. Just looking at his stupid face drove me up the wall. He emptied his beer and excused himself, probably to take a piss. I rose to my feet.
“I can smell trouble,” Alessio muttered.
“Adamo won’t be happy,” Massimo added.
I waved them off and stalked after Gigimo.
The next day, I stepped into the makeshift hospital tent where Aurora helped out.
She looked up from the folding desk. She immediately shook her head and got to her feet, rushing around the table and toward me.
“I don’t want you in here,” she said as she stopped right in front of me with her fists propped up against her hips and fury in her blue eyes.
One corner of my mouth dragged upward at her feistiness. A few wayward strands had fallen out of her ponytail, accentuating the wild look in her eyes. This wildcat side of her was one I greatly appreciated.
“This hospital is for everyone, right?” I said, looking around. Only one bed was closed off with curtains. I supposed that was where I’d find Gigimo.
“You’re not injured.”
“I’m sure you can change that,” I said, amused.
I shifted my weight but Aurora’s hand came up against my chest to stop me from moving to Gigimo’s bed. But she quickly dropped it as if she couldn’t bear touching me and raised her finger in front of me like a scolding teacher. “Not another step, or—”
My eyes met hers, and my smile broadened. “Or what, Rory?”
It was adorable that she thought she could stop me. Maybe I’d even let her. But we both knew this would only be because I was being unusually charitable.
She pressed her lips together. “You won’t hurt me.”
I tilted my head. “I thought I already did.”
A blush spread on her cheeks that exhilarated my heartbeat almost as much as torture did.
“Stop it. You broke half the bones in his body,” she whispered harshly.
That was a major exaggeration. I’d really held back as much as I was capable of. “I didn’t kill him.” If only she knew how fucking much I’d wanted to cut his throat, how hard it still was to resist. One slash of my knife and the stupid fucker would spill his warm blood over my hands. Instead, it flooded his worthless body, a waste of perfectly fine blood.
“Do you expect me to thank you?”
I walked past her, sidestepping her feeble attempt to bar my way. Her attempts to stop me by grabbing my arm were futile too. “I did it for you. I would have broken the rest of his bones and then slit his throat, but I knew it would upset you, so as a show of goodwill, I left him alive.”
I reached the closed-off curtains and ripped them open. Gigimo, covered in bandages, lay in the narrow hospital bed. Aurora was talking to someone on the phone, but I didn’t pay attention. I was in hunter mode.
The fear in his eyes gave me a sick kick, and my body called out for more of his blood, a call I would have gladly answered if it weren’t for my initial reason to come here.
Aurora squeezed in front of me, her pure scent flooding my nose. “I called Adamo. He’ll be here any moment.”