Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 105(@200wpm)___ 84(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
A small gasp leaves Eve when she spots one of the perpetrators and then another. “Stay put,” I order her.
“Marco.” My name comes out in a panicked plea.
“No one will hurt you. I’ll never let that happen.” I reach up and stroke her cheek to reassure her.
“You, what about you?” Her eyes fill with tears. I was thinking of only killing one of these assholes and keeping the other to pull information from, but not now that I’ve seen the fear they’ve caused her.
“I’ll be back,” I promise her, pressing a hard kiss to her mouth before I close the door, the lock clicking into place. Only I can get in, but Eve could get out if she needs to. I hadn’t thought about that before, having the door be able to lock both ways. I file that away for another day.
I disengage all the locks on the house with one click. No need for anyone to break my shit. Not with Eve living here. She loves the house, and that might upset her. I order Snow to stay on the front door, wanting to stay toward the back of the house. I know Eve is tucked away safe, but I don’t love the idea of going far from her.
I press my back against the wall and let myself slide down to wait. My phone lights up with a message that I have company headed my way. That’s a damn late notice. Who the fuck is here? A total of three people know the general area where I could be located if they tried to even look for me. I don’t see why they would. They can get a hold of me. Two are my connections with my old life with the agency, and the other is Nick DaVinci, who has his hands in fucking everything. You can cut off most ties, but you need a few for oh-fuck situations.
There you are. I smirk when the floorboard upstairs creaks. I glance up, knowing right where they are. I itch to pop a bullet through the ceiling but that would be messy inside the house. A figure in all black moves toward the back door.
Is this serious? The motherfucker might as well be wearing hunter orange. Everything outside is coated in white snow. I allow the asshole to continue to creep in. The least he could do is speed this up. I wait for him to finally make it through the kitchen. He pokes his head around the corner, not realizing I’m on the ground.
“Here, dumbass,” I mutter so he looks down. I slam the butt of my gun up against his forehead. He drops like a fly. I quickly push his gun away and zip-tie his hands, hearing that Snow has caught the second.
I jump up, heading toward the living room. Too busy trying to get Snow off him, he doesn’t see my giant ass coming. He drops as easily as the first one.
“Lezhat.” I call Snow off and zip-tie this guy’s hands behind his back. Then I roll him around to pull off the mask. No fucking clue who pretty boy is, but he’s still wet behind the ears. He’s in his mid-twenties, I’d guess. I fish through his pockets, coming up with a phone. Lucky me, it’s ringing.
“You got a death wish?” I ask, taking the call. It’s quiet for a long moment.
“Did you kill him?” the woman asks.
“Thinking about it. How did you find me?”
“It’s more like you found me,” she responds.
“I’m not playing games. I’ll track you down and everyone near you. You’ll be six feet under before you even know I’m there.”
“Threatening my family, Marco? That is your current name now, right?” It doesn’t matter what my name is; I’m still a ruthless fucking killer no matter what I go by. I’ve tried to leave that life behind, but there’s is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect Eve.
“I’ll see you soon.” I go to end the call, but one word catches my ear that the woman rushes to say. Eve. That’s the only word I catch as hot white rage bleeds in. “Or maybe you will see me.” A quick death would be too kind.
“Eve is my daughter.” What the fuck? Why would Eve’s mom send these assholes to break into our home?
“Carol Sherwood.”
“We’re coming up the driveway. Try not to kill us,” she says before ending the call.
Eve’s parents keep an eye on her more than I think she knows.
12
Eve
It’s so quiet. I wrap my arms around myself, my eyes going from the closed door to the screen that shows the house. I’m so freaked out and worried that I forget for a second how insane this is. I’m inside some kind of safe room.
Not only that, I think it’s also where Marco keeps a small arsenal. I hadn’t been wrong in my line of thinking of what he’d once done for a living. We hadn’t really touched the subject of what he used to do since that first night. What had he said? Something about getting his hooks into me before I found out who he really was. He’s gotten more than his hooks into me.