Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Sparky trails after me, and then sniffs across the room, toward the three men who lie flat on their faces.
“Come here, boy,” I say, clicking my tongue.
He turns to me, disappointment in his innocent eyes.
I want to sniff the blood, he silently wills.
“Here,” I say firmly.
He trots over to my side and together we join Damian at the window. He moves aside, lifting his arm to guide me so that I’m standing behind him. I peer around and see that two men are arranging some kind of metal apparatus, grunting with the effort.
“Come on,” he growls.
“Is that what I think it is?” I say, voice shaking.
Be brave, my womb screams at me from deep inside. We need to survive this. Both of you. You need to bring children into this world. That’s all that matters now.
Damian grabs my hand and shoulders the duffel bag, leading me to the other side of the house and then out into the snow. Sparky walks beside us, stopping every so often to glance back before trotting at our feet.
“Where are we going?” I whisper.
“Transport,” Damian snarls. “As long as the shoe is in the house, they’ll think we’re still in there. We need to move.”
“Damian, what are we going to do?” I say, struggling to keep my voice from becoming damsel-ish.
Whatever I am, I’m not a freaking damsel, I tell myself. I’m the woman who slashed Dobry with a letter opener. Heck, I sang in front of Damian. If I can do that, I can do anything.
“Run, Popstar,” Damian sighs. “After that, honestly, I have no fucking clue.”
I follow Damian through the trees, moving far easier in the sneakers than I ever could’ve dreamed of in the heels.
As we move, I can’t help but wonder why Dobry or Andrei or the Bratva, in general, would find me so important that they’d put a freaking tracker in my shoe. Maybe they do it with all their servants, but wouldn’t that be expensive?
I almost laugh at myself.
Dobry lives in a gold-plated mansion. As if the expense is any concern for him.
Lived, I correct. Dobry lived in a gold-plated mansion.
We come upon a squat metal building. It looks like a bomb shelter, coated in a heavy layer of snow. Damian drops the duffel bag and jogs over to it sweeping aside some snow to reveal a metal keypad, and then hurriedly types something in.
“Inside,” he growls, when a rust-flecked metal door swings open with a whining noise.
I jog forward, breathing hard, sweat coating me despite the cold. I walk into the building to find a one-room garage with a sleek black sedan sitting in the middle, windows tinted, looking identical to Damian’s other car.
“How many of these do you have?” I laugh drily.
“Four,” Damian says. “But this one’s special.”
“How so?”
He grabs a key from a workbench and clicks a button, the car beeping as it unlocks.
“Get inside,” he growls firmly.
I lean down and scoop Sparky into my arms and then climb into the car, cradling him in my lap, stroking my hands through his fur to comfort both of us. I remember how he started to shake when the bang went off downstairs, and I lean down to let him lick at my face.
“It’s okay, boy,” I murmur as he licks my cheek over and over. “I promise everything’s going to be okay. One day there won’t be any guns or bad men. One day it’ll just be long walks and treats and toys, okay? Okay, little guy?”
Damian stows the duffel in the back and then climbs into the driver’s side, pausing for a moment to stare at me, his jaws tight.
“What is it?” I ask.
“It’s just …” He trails off, smirking despite the mayhem. “You look so much like a mother right now.”
My smile spreads ridiculously, considering the circumstances. But I can’t help it when his eyes are filled with so much sincere warmth, pouring over me, lighting up my hope and my heart and everything else inside of me.
“One day I won’t just look like a mother,” I whisper.
“I can’t believe I ever thought you’d laugh in my face when I told you you’re mine,” he growls. “Goddamn, time moves differently with you, Dakota. An hour feels like a year.” He smirks again, laughing grimly. “But then again, time isn’t moving differently for them. Let’s get moving.”
He starts the engine and inches the car forward, opening his window so that he can lean out and touch a few buttons on the wall. A big door starts to lift, painfully slowly it seems to me as I sit there, holding Sparky still in my lap.
I scream when I see them, two men standing right outside the door, their breath fogging in the air, clearly having just run through the forest after us.
They raise their guns and I duck, turning my body so that Sparky is against the seat, with me as his human shield.