Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Elijah sucked in a deep breath and released in a rush. “Welp, if you won’t go with me, I guess I’ll just have to kill you here. It changes my plans, but I can do plenty of horrible things to you here for Kai to find.” Elijah stepped far enough into the room that Kai could clearly see him now. At the same time, he swung the gun in his right hand up and pointed at Dev’s head.
The entire world slowed down so that it felt like entire minutes passed between heartbeats. There was no time. One bullet and Dev was dead. Kai shoved to his feet, his own gun raised and pointed at Elijah’s chest as he shouted.
Eyes widening, Elijah swung his gun around toward Kai, a wicked grin slashing broad and ugly across his normally sweet face. They were so close now. There was no way that Elijah could miss him, but there was no way Kai would miss either. Even if he died now, at least Dev would be safe.
His finger dropped from the guard to barely touch the trigger when two shots boomed from the far side of the room. Blood bloomed bright in the center of Elijah’s chest as he was thrown back into a tallboy dresser. Surprise filled Elijah’s face as he looked across at Dev. He started to raise his gun toward Dev, but Kai easily squeezed the trigger on his gun, burying a bullet in the center of the bastard’s forehead. Elijah slumped to the floor, dead. There was no question this time. Blood and brain matter were splattered across the dresser and the wall.
Kai pulled his eyes from Elijah to Dev. His lover was standing frozen, both hands tightly gripping the gun in front of him. The muzzle trembled, and his eyes glistened.
“Holy shit,” Dev whispered.
Kai rushed across the room, carefully plucked the gun out of Dev’s fingers, and tossed it onto the bed before pulling the shaking man into his arms.
“I did it. I shot him,” he mumbled.
“You saved my life,” Kai said. He pressed a kiss to Dev’s parted lips and pulled him into a tight hug. He wanted to hold him and tell him that everything was going to be okay, but he doubted they had time for that right now.
Positioning Dev to one side, Kai leaned around Dev and peeked out the curtain to look down the block. There seemed to be more lights on in the house across the street, and someone was now standing on the front porch. Three gunshots on a quiet street like this were bound to be noticed. One of Dev’s nosy neighbors was going to call the cops.
“Dev, darling, I need you to ball all this up for a moment and think with me.”
“What?” Dev still sounded a little dazed but hopefully his brain was kicking in again.
“The neighbors are going to call the cops about the gunshots. Do you want to report this as a home invasion?”
Dev’s eyes widened and snapped to the dead body sitting on the other side of his bedroom. “I can’t.”
“We can. You were threatened. He was shot in self-defense.”
“From two guns?” Dev demanded, his voice rising in volume as panic started to take hold.
Okay, he had a point there. How did one guy get the drop on two armed men? That definitely looked a bit shady.
“Dev, I can cover this up, but I will need your help.”
Dev nodded. “Yes. Of course. I can’t look suspicious again. Between Adam’s death, the dead body in the tub, and the woman on the jogging path, the local cops don’t believe me anymore.”
“It’s okay. We’ve got this. You just have to follow my instructions to the letter.”
“Of course.”
Kai leaned in and snatched one more kiss. He was so damn proud of his man. Now he had to protect Dev in a slightly different way.
Darting away from Dev, he hefted Elijah up and dumped him into the center of the bed. Kai snatched up Dev’s gun and shoved it into his holster. His own gun was awkwardly placed in his pocket, the damn thing weighing down his pants even more. “Do you have another comforter or duvet set for this bed?”
“Uh…yeah, in the hall closet.”
“Okay. I want you to go get it and bring it in here. Afterward, go downstairs, put on the loudest action movie you can find, and strip to only your shorts. Also, find that bottle of whiskey. Take a big swig; then put it on the table in the living room.”
If Dev thought any of those instructions were strange, he didn’t say a word about it. He zipped out of the room to fetch the linens while Kai grabbed a couple of towels from the bathroom. He wiped up the blood and brains from the dresser. A little blood speckled the wall, but luckily that particular wall was painted in a dark blue as an accent against the lighter bluish gray in the room. Most of the blood came off and would be noticed only with close inspection. There was a small spot on the carpet, but Kai hid it under a pair of Dev’s discarded slippers. The room would need a much deeper clean, but the goal was just to get through a brief inspection if it couldn’t be avoided.