Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Brody was walking out there right now. Brody was striding out with Taggart and Li, and their guns would join the bodyguards’.
“Don’t worry. They know what they’re doing.” Charlotte’s words didn’t reassure her.
They did know what they were doing, and she knew they were lying to her. Brody had no intentions of giving her up for Anya. Neither did Li. She wasn’t a complete idiot.
“What exactly are they doing?” Tucker had stayed behind. He was sitting at the conference table watching the scene at the street play out.
“They’re talking first,” Charlotte explained. “Ian needs to figure out who he’s dealing with before he murders them all. That’s lesson number one, Tucker. Always figure out who you’re brutally killing and get everything you can out of your victim before you start in on the actual vicious torture and death part.”
A car suddenly pulled up behind the men on the public side of the gate and the door was opened by the man on the left. He hauled Alfi up and shoved his big body into the car. The other man lowered his rifle and seemed to be talking to Taggart.
“Wow, I didn’t expect that,” Charlotte said as the car drove off. She stood up and started toward the door. “I think the war is off. It looks like we’re about to have peace talks. Avery, could you go and tell Serena that we’re about to have guests. I’m going to request a guard outside the nursery door and another guarding the stairs that run up to the third floor.”
Where the royals were staying. Avery strode out the door while Charlotte got on her phone.
“Remy, we have an evolving situation,” Charlotte said, stepping away to talk.
“Are you afraid?” Tucker turned in his chair. “Because I don’t think you should be. Brody’s good at his job. And he told me if I let you get murdered he would do some things to me that shouldn’t be done to a human body. I’m planning on not letting you get killed because I don’t think my large intestine should see the outside of my body.”
She had to talk to Brody about how he dealt with his coworkers. “He won’t hurt you and I plan on not being killed.”
Planned, but she knew how plans could go.
She’d planned to spend the whole evening in Brody’s arms. She’d planned to let him handle everything.
Her plans were completely blown.
Twenty-four hours and then Anya would lose her life. Twenty-four hours and there would be more blood on her hands. She knew logically that this wasn’t her fault, but deep down in her soul she had to ask herself why it kept happening to her. Was there something wrong with her that she kept hurting people?
Would she hurt Brody and Nate simply by letting them close?
“I think he would kill me if I did something that hurt you,” Tucker was saying.
She shook her head. “No. I’ll talk to him about it. He shouldn’t threaten you. I don’t want that.”
“You don’t want someone to stand up for you?”
She couldn’t handle the thought. “No. If Brody thinks that’s how I want to live, then he’s wrong about me.”
And that was a good reason for her to not pursue a relationship with him.
Tucker’s eyes tightened, his mouth turning down. “I thought that would be a nice thing. The group where I live, they stand up for each other. I thought it was a form of love. You treat it like it’s something terrible. Could you explain this to me? I hate feeling confused.”
She wished he’d picked someone else to explain humanity to him. “I don’t want anyone hurt because of something I did or something that was done to me. Do you understand?”
“So you don’t want connections with people? Because if you’re connected in a way that’s loving and affectionate, you can’t expect that person to sit by while you’re being harmed. Or threatened.”
How did she make him understand? She glanced up at the screen and sighed in relief. The guns were pointed down now and the two men who’d held Alfi had taken off the masks that covered their faces. It looked like they were talking in a somewhat reasonable fashion. “I expect them to honor my wishes. Look, I’ve hurt people in the past.”
“You’re talking about the two people who died in the car accident?”
Well, at least he’d done his homework. “Yes.”
“So you think because those two people died, that no one should stand up for you. You think you don’t deserve love from anyone.”
She wished he would stop playing the shrink. “Of course not. It’s simply that I think I should be left to handle things. I know best what I want and that’s not more people to be hurt. I’m a big girl. I should be able to choose how to live my life.”