Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 229(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 229(@200wpm)___ 183(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
I shook the remaining violent tension from my shoulders and plucked my blade from the dying man’s chest. The threat had been handled. The woman was all that mattered now.
She was too still, and the pool of crimson blood beneath her pale cheek stained her white-blonde hair. She was small and slender, appearing as frail as a broken butterfly. More blood coated her hands where she’d torn her wrists fighting the cruel restraints that the bastards had used to incapacitate her.
I crouched over her and tested her pulse at her throat. It was steady beneath my fingers. I heaved out a breath, the last of my rage leaving my body on a long exhale. The men who’d hurt her were dead. No one would harm her now.
Moving with the swiftness of familiarity, I freed the knotted gag and blindfold. She didn’t stir when they dropped away from her face. Long lashes fanned her lightly freckled cheeks, and her eyes remained closed. She was beautiful and delicate and far too pale.
I hissed a curse and wiped the dead man’s blood from my knife before using it to cut away the cable ties around her ankles and wrists. She didn’t so much as flinch when I carefully peeled them from her torn skin.
I had to get her to a hospital. Dropping her off myself would be a stupid risk, so I put in an anonymous call to emergency services and gave them our location.
I waited with her until I heard the wail of approaching sirens. Then I took a breath and forced myself to leave her alone in the basement with the lifeless bodies of my enemies. I couldn’t allow the authorities to find me here. The ambulance would be here soon, and she would get the medical care she needed.
Besides, if I wanted to check on her wellbeing in the coming days, I knew exactly where to find her. She was George Crawford’s fiancée. I would make amends to Duarte by offering to stalk his DEA agent enemy myself. And if I was able to watch over this innocent beauty at the same time, all the better. Her piece of shit lover wouldn’t be alive much longer. Until then, I could protect her from my criminal associates.
Chapter 3
Evelyn
Fear seized my mind in a vise grip before I stirred to full consciousness. Disjointed, horrific memories flickered through my thoughts in a nauseating film reel.
Darkness. Terror. Pain. Hands groping at my body, violating me while I was bound and helpless. Unable to move or scream for help.
George. They wanted to kill my fiancé. They were using me as bait to lure him into a trap.
I jolted upright with a gasp, and pain knifed through my skull. The overly bright world swirled around me, and I fell back onto the pillow.
I was laying on something soft, not damp concrete. My head pounded, but no further agony was inflicted as punishment for my struggles. My hands twitched at my sides, jerking against the phantom restraints that no longer bound me.
“George.” I moaned his name, fear for him saturating my thoughts.
“I’m right here.” His warm, familiar hand settled gently over mine, the barest brush of his palm against my knuckles.
“George.” This time, his name was a harsh sob. I turned my hand so that I could clutch at him, holding on like he was my lifeline.
“You’re safe now,” he promised, his voice tight with suppressed anger.
I blinked hard, forcing my heavy lids to open so that I could find his steady blue gaze. His soft navy eyes filled my world, and I quickly dashed away the sting of tears before my vision blurred. I couldn’t lose sight of him.
My wrist ached as I moved to wipe the wetness from my cheeks, and I noted the thick white bandage that encircled it. I glanced down at our entwined hands and saw that both wrists had been similarly dressed; the wounds inflicted by the cruel cable ties had been treated.
The bright, clinical lighting and slightly harsh, sterile scent in the air told me that I was in a hospital. Not a dank basement.
“You saved me,” I rasped, my throat still hoarse from screaming.
Fine lines of strain tightened around George’s mouth, his expression turning stony. “You’re safe now,” he repeated.
“How did you find me? Those men. They wanted to kill you.” I jolted upright again, wincing at the sudden stab of pain through my skull. I breathed through it and frantically appraised him, searching for signs of injury. “Are you hurt?”
“No, baby. I’m fine.” He reassured me, but he remained tense. I sensed an intangible distance between us, the one that separated our hearts when he was in one of his particularly prickly moods.
“But how…?” I clutched at his hand more tightly, desperate to pull him closer and bridge the invisible barrier between us. “What happened? The last thing I remember…”