Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
I gasped as the car careened to a stop an inch away.
The woman driving was shouting obscenities, gesturing her frustration and fear through the windshield.
“I’m sorry,” I wheezed through a haggard cry, my hands in supplication as I stumbled the rest of the way across the street to the sidewalk on the other side.
I went right.
Drawn.
Fumbling through the mass that roamed the trendy street.
People shopping.
Browsing.
Laughing as they chatted.
Unaware that I was certain my life was slipping out from under me.
Anxiety hit me in a full-fledged attack, and I wheezed for air, for oxygen, choking over the sob that was stuck in the middle of my throat.
By the time I tore through the door, tears were streaming in hot waves down my cheeks.
The security system beeped, and one second later, River was towering in the opening of his station.
Dark, dark eyes a toiling storm. A protective rage instantly in his stance.
“Charleigh?”
And at the sound of my name, I dropped to my knees.
TWENTY-FIVE
RIVER
I felt her before I heard her. Felt her in the way the air suddenly turned volatile right before the door blew open. I was on my feet and rushing to the opening of my station, my heart leaping from my fucking chest when I saw her come stumbling in.
“Charleigh?” Her name ripped off my tongue, and the second it hit the air, she crumpled to the floor.
Face full of tears and terror radiating from her being.
I tore off my gloves and tossed them to the floor as I raced to her. I had my arms around her in a flash, panic searing me through at the sight of her like this.
“What happened? What’s going on?”
Tried to make it soothing, but the words were shards as I tried to hold back the aggression that pounded through my veins.
I’d just texted her not five minutes before, and she’d been fine. Flirting with me the way we’d taken to doing.
And now she was falling apart in the middle of my shop.
Jagged, rasping cries ripped up her throat, and I curled my arms tighter around her as I pulled her against me. My mouth went to her temple. “It’s okay, Charleigh. It’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
She heaved over a sob, and she pressed her face into my neck.
I curled around her like I could be her shelter when I murmured, “Tell me what happened. Need you to tell me what’s going on.”
“I…I thought…I saw…”
“What did you see?”
“I—” It cracked as she shook.
She couldn’t even get words to form around the panic that had her tongue tied, her heart racing mad, girl logged with horror and grief.
But I got enough from it that I rumbled, “Stay right here.”
Otto had come in to get a piece worked on, and I tossed him a look where he stood in the doorway of my station.
Watch over her.
In understanding, he gave me a jut of his chin, and I turned and flew through the door and out onto the sidewalk that ran in front of my shop.
Sure she’d been running.
But this time she hadn’t been running to flee, she’d been running from someone, and she’d come runnin’ to me.
So fuckin’ terrified she couldn’t stand.
My eyes scanned the faces of the people who rambled by for any hint of depravity. Searching for the corrupt. I’d known it enough in my life that it wouldn’t be difficult to sift out. Spot it in the rambling throng that rippled by.
I couldn’t nail down anything amiss. Couldn’t pinpoint one single person who was going to pay.
I could feel it, though.
Could feel it ride on the atmosphere, floating on the rays of warmth that filtered through the late afternoon day.
Evil.
The kind you could taste like an oil slick.
I moved in the direction of where I sensed it, shouldering through the crowd that was thicker at this time of day. Their grunts of annoyance and disapproval did nothing to slow me down.
And still, there was nothing there.
No hint or innuendo.
No phantom or shadow.
Whoever this fucker was had turned to vapor.
Frustrated, I roughed a palm over my face, and I cast one more vicious glance around before I gave up and stormed back down the walkway to my shop. Nearly pulled the door from its hinges when I tore it open.
Second I stepped back inside, I was slammed by her turmoil, a fucking tsunami that almost knocked me from my goddamn feet.
Fuck.
This woman possessed a power that could annihilate me.
She was still on the floor, though she was surrounded by Otto and the two other artists who were in the shop working today.
Each kneeling around her in a circle in an attempt to give her comfort.
I tore through them, gritting, “Everyone get the fuck back.”
My heart ran jagged and my spirit staged an all-out assault.
A furor of protectiveness lined my insides in liquid steel.