Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
I stumbled into the last room with Shug, Bee, Pixie, and a silent figure huddled and bleeding in the corner. I gently lifted her head to tug the gag out of her mouth, revealing a pretty, lined face between a sea of black, blue, and red.
She didn’t react to my promise to get her out safely. She didn’t do a thing at all except to drop her head, and resume her blank-eyed staredown with the floor.
“They’re going to realize I’m not out there soon, if they haven’t already,” I told Shug and the others. “I’ve got to get that key. I—”
“FGH! They’re here!”
“They’re back!”
“Kill them!” my girls sounded off. “Fucking kill them all!”
“Oh, well, no plan as always.” I drew my guns, tearing for the door. “More fun that way.”
I tore out guns up and already firing before I crossed the threshold.
“There she is!” Five dicks scrambled over each other to get to me. “That Merchant bitch!”
“Put her down!”
“Kill her!”
Gunshots ripped through the cabin—only as loud as the screams.
MACKENZIE
Vance stood behind his desk as we came in, every limb shaking as he leveled the gun on us.
Sunny’s only move was to push me behind him. Otherwise, the man could’ve been holding a squirt gun for all the care Sunny showed.
“Hello, Hollywell. Is this how you normally greet your guests? With piss stains on your pants and guns in your hand? No wonder Caddell House is bleeding clients.”
“I’m not afraid of you!” he shouted, shaking like a leaf in the breeze. “If you try anything, I’ll—”
“You’ll shoot me, the gunshot will be heard on three floors, the police will be here in seconds, you’ll be arrested, my family will have you shanked before the prison van leaves the courthouse, and Caddell House will go down in history as that psycho brand that employed not one, but two gun-toting maniacs.”
“The other one was one of you!”
Sunny shrugged—calm as ever. “Details don’t matter once a story goes viral. You’ll be just another disgruntled dick who decided to solve his problems with a little domestic terrorism.”
“T-terrorism?” he croaked, paling. “But I’m not— I’m defending myself!”
“Defending yourself from who? An unarmed man and a beautiful, sexy, equally unarmed woman with candied nipples?”
I sighed. This guy...
“How do you see that going for you, Hollywell? Think a single juror is going to vote not guilty with her face and the face of the adorable little baby girl you orphaned plastered on the news every night? Think there’s anything close to a happy ending for you if you pull that trigger?”
Vance’s face crumpled. Spittle flying, he sobbed—reddening worse than Laurel when she’s constipated. “I don’t—I don’t want to hurt anybody! I— Ahhhh,” he wailed.
I cringed at the sight of him. No wonder the Brotherhood put an army of hitmen and bangers between them and the real members. It wasn’t a pretty sight on the other side of the battlefield.
“Then, put the gun down, Hollywell. We can talk. Just talk, I promise. I won’t even move from this spot as long as you put the gun down.” Sunny’s voice brokered no argument. Authority oozed from his pores. Vance was at least fifteen years older than him and armed, but the true power in this room was Sunny.
Sobbing, Vance dropped his hand, letting the gun clatter to the floor. Only then did Sunny let me come out from behind him.
Leaning in, I pressed a kiss to Sunny’s cheek as I put my arms around him—holding him close. I knew my love well enough to know he came in here to stomp Vance’s ass into the carpet... until he saw the gun. He changed tactics to eliminate the danger to me, and that would always blow my mind.
No guy I’d ever been with had put me, my safety, or even my feelings first. The universe was really so impatient with me for constantly choosing assholes, she finally just dropped the love of my life on my head so that he could wake me up and introduce me to the rest of my soulmates.
I hid a smile in his chest thinking of River. Even the soulmate I was denying and pushing away.
“Help me out here, Vance,” Sunny said over Hollywell’s noise. “Help me understand how it came to this.”
“I didn’t want this!” he roared. “I didn’t want you! I had no idea when I took the job who the true silent partners in Caddell House were! Could that cold, arrogant bitch have warned me? Sure! But she was too fucking busy getting out of here as quickly as possible!”
The cold arrogant bitch was Talia, or I’d eat my shirt.
“Why didn’t you just buy us out, you miserable fucker?” Sunny was done smoothing his ego. “I’ve seen the contract my dad drew up and your founder signed. There is a buyout clause written in language clear enough for even you to understand. If you didn’t want us in your fucking business, why didn’t you invoke it instead of trying to kill us!”