Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Our eyes locked, and she used her hands instead of her eyes. Because of that, I felt and saw when she found something.
I nodded to her, and she took a step back and then moved behind me. Her touch would have gotten me hard if not for the dread I felt about what she found.
“You see something,” I stated, breaking the silence.
“You wouldn’t, by chance, have a scar here?” She touched a spot where my ass met my leg. Nearly the same spot I’d found the tracker on her.
“Not that I’m aware of.”
She pressed on the spot. “I can’t be sure that anything’s there.”
“We can’t risk it. You’re going to have to cut me open and see.”
Her movements stilled, and I turned to face her as she crouched on her knees. I reached down and tucked a finger under her chin. “You can do this.”
Her head shook, sending her wet, curly locks flying around her head. “Not here.”
I didn’t want to get blood on the bed, but she was right. She needed me face down. “Get the blade,” I directed and pointed at the counter. As she did, I got down on the floor into the prone position. It said a lot about how much I trusted her. I was more vulnerable in this moment than I would allow myself without being overpowered. With slow and even breaths, I kept the nightmares clawing on the inside of my brain at bay.
“Are you sure?” she asked, unable to mask her nervousness.
“I’m not sure of anything. But we won’t be safe until we know if I’m being tracked.”
It was silent then. Only the rustling of fabric as she bent down and got on her knees. My heart raced from ugly memories of the past as I tried my damnedest to remain still and not leap to my feet.
“I’m sorry,” she said, right before a biting pain chomped at the spot she’d pointed out before.
Too many seconds passed without her declaring that she’d found something. “You may have to open it a little wider to use your finger to probe for it.”
When I only got silence, I imagined her bobbing her head until she shakily uttered a less-than-certain “okay.”
For the next several minutes, I only heard the sounds of our rapid breaths, or maybe just mine, as I ground my teeth, determined not to show any signs of weakness.
“Found it.”
I closed my eyes, recalling when this might have happened. Being locked up in a six-by-eight room that you share with one other person you dwarfed in size didn’t mean you were safe, even in the cell where the door was locked.
Trying to stay awake forever wasn’t possible. And the one time sleep claimed me against my will, I’d been overpowered by four other inmates who invaded our cell after lights out.
Terror didn’t cover what I felt as each of my limbs was held down by a person while another held a sickly-sweet damp cloth over my mouth. Eventually, I passed out either from the drug or lack of oxygen, but until blackness claimed me, all my worst fears had me longing for death.
I’d awoken alone on my cot, my cellmate above me. But it was the immense pain in that area that had me curling into a ball, trying not to imagine what had happened. Hope, even the unlikelihood of it, had me thinking they’d only wanted to implant the tracker. But I wasn’t that stupid.
“It’s done,” she said. I could feel the tape on me she’d used to close the wound.
I blinked as my surroundings came into focus. Gone was the memory, banished back into the deep recesses of my mind. Knowing time wasn’t on our side, I snapped back into training.
“We need to go.” I held out my hand to see what she’d found. She put the bloody miniature pill-like object in my palm. “Grab whatever you absolutely need and let’s go.”
Ruin would already know about the missing women. Since we’d left the trackers on each of their beds, he would assume we would put it together that Tayla had one too. The only advantage we had was that we were aware of my tracker.
What I’d need to figure out, and soon, was if the kingpin and Ruin were working together. The trackers were similar enough to draw that conclusion. But I had to get us out of here now. I got to my feet and pulled on my pants. Then I pocketed the tracker she’d found on me, not taking the time to clean it.
My next move was to go into the room I’d claimed. I swept the tracker we’d found on her into my palm. “Are you ready?” I called out. I didn’t yell because I wasn’t sure if anyone was in the hall waiting for us to exit.
Her head popped in the door. A hoodie covered her hair. “I’m ready.”