Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Then he moved around me and worked through the locks. He scanned the area before he looked back at me with some sort of apology written in his expression, then fully stepped out and let the door drift shut behind him.
Hurt blistered through me, and a puff of incredulity escaped my mouth.
I began to pace, fingers twining in agitation.
Was that what he thought? What our partnership meant? What our relationship meant? That he could keep me out of the parts he didn’t want me to see?
Only, I could see. Our connection was too great for his insecurities to shield it.
I didn’t need to close my eyes to feel it.
Because an hour later, a sense was there, infiltrating my spirit. A sense that swelled inside me on a rising tide. A warning that he was in trouble. It invaded my mind with visions of darkness. The darkness he’d just stepped into.
Chapter Twelve
Pax
Fuck.
I felt like an utter prick leaving Aria that way. Just turning my back and walking out. It was the only thing I could do, since there wasn’t a chance I could remain there and deny that she was speaking the truth. Her point was more than valid, but how could I drag her here?
To the seediest part of the city, where I knew I would find what I was looking for.
Some sick, deranged bastard getting rich off the weak.
Night had just fallen, and the dense clouds that hung over the city created a canopy. A darkened shell that felt as if it enclosed the wickedness, held it in captivity while letting it run unchecked.
The whole vibe made it feel later than it was, though the streets were crammed with cars that made their way through rush hour in an endless string of taillights.
A siren wailed from somewhere in the distance, and the cold, corrupt air was intermittently filled with the blare of a car horn and the revving of engines.
People bustled along the sidewalks, ducking into stores and restaurants and apartment buildings.
I wondered how many of them noticed the aura in the atmosphere. If they could scent it the way I did.
Nah.
Not possible.
They had to be wholly immune, or there was no chance they’d be dashing around as if all things were right. Not a care in the world when I felt the weight of that world’s sin crushing down on my shoulders.
It was so heavy I could hardly breathe.
I followed it, winding through the city, taking back alleys and narrow streets, tracking my way into the places where the disparaged lived. The places only the depraved would seek.
It was then that I found what I was looking for.
Women.
So fuckin’ young that bile burned in the back of my throat.
There were only two of them, loitering at the end of a street.
One had dark-brown curly hair, and the other was a bleached blonde.
They were dressed in next to nothing, their legs bare in the middle of the frigid winter. Each of them wore a cropped fake-animal-fur jacket, like that would be enough to keep them warm.
Both were clearly strung out.
Eyes devoid of emotion.
Detached.
No question, it was the only way they could stomach living this life, which they were likely forced into.
But they weren’t really who I was looking for. They were just a sign. A beacon for the perverted.
The brown-haired girl didn’t even look at me when she stepped forward in an attempt to get my attention. “You looking for someone to keep you company tonight?”
The younger one beside her looked up. The second she did, a bolt of disquiet moved through her when she caught sight of me.
Shaken from her stupor.
It was like my appearance was enough to drag her back down into a beat of reality. Green eyes widening with shock and a surprised sound spilling from her lips.
She stumbled back a step, trying to disappear into the shadows of the dingy building that stood high behind her.
Her fear was distinct.
Palpable as it radiated from her skin.
I ground my teeth, hating that she was afraid of me.
“Nah,” I said. “But maybe you should go home. Get out of here.”
The one with the curly brown hair laughed a hollow sound. “Oh, honey, this is home.”
I angled around them, turning left at the corner they were standing at, and I stuffed my frozen hands into my jacket pockets and let loose a chill that tumbled down my spine.
Doubted it was the weather that had conjured the cold. It was just the sickness that roiled in the confines of the squalid street.
Knowing I was close to what I came for, I itched, nervous that I didn’t have my gun. I was armed only with a knife, but there was no chance I was going to leave Aria at that motel without a way to protect herself.
Fucking hated that I’d had to do it in the first place.