Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
I hung up before it got to voice mail and called Bolton.
He picked up before it even finished ringing once. “Astrid?” He didn’t sound asleep, like he was wide awake in his study with his phone next to his laptop.
“Someone just broke in to my apartment.” I spoke in a panic, my words slurred together and almost indistinguishable. “I put the dresser in front of the bedroom door. I—I don’t know what to do—”
“I’m coming. They’re probably just burglars and will leave after they get the TV. Stay quiet.”
“Okay.”
“I’m in the car. I’ll be there in three minutes.”
I continued to pant into the phone. “Okay.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He hung up.
I clutched the phone in my hand and stared at the door. I hadn’t unpacked my things, so they were all downstairs in the boxes. I had no weapon for defense. Couldn’t get a knife from the kitchen. I had to hope the furniture would be enough to stop them from coming in.
Even over the storm, I heard voices downstairs.
There was more than one, but I wasn’t sure how many.
With my phone clutched in my hand, I sat on the floor against the bed and stared at the dresser that blocked the door, listening to every sound in the house, praying they were distracted by all my belongings downstairs. My purse was there too, so they should just take that and run.
My phone started to vibrate in my hand, and I saw Theo’s name on the screen.
Footsteps sounded outside the door. “I’m gonna see if there’s another TV up here.”
Shit. I ignored Theo’s call and crawled away from the bed and away from the door in case the guy managed to open it.
I was about to go into cardiac arrest, my heart was beating so damn fast.
The guy turned the doorknob, but it stayed put. He tried to push on it several times, and the door wouldn’t budge. “Someone’s in here,” he called to his partner downstairs. “Help me with this.”
“Shit.” I moved to the window, pulled back the curtains, and looked into the street.
Headlights moved up the road at a dangerous speed before a vehicle came to a screeching halt in front of the apartment. It was Bolton’s car.
“One…two…three.” The guys threw their bodies into the door, making the dresser shift several inches across the carpet.
I searched the room for a weapon, but there was nothing. Nothing except the phone in my hand.
It started to ring again. It was Theo calling back.
The men threw their shoulders into the door again, making the dresser move several more inches.
I stayed against the opposite wall, trying to keep as far away as I could.
One of the men poked his head into the room, his face covered with tattoos. An ugly son of a bitch. When he spotted me, he grinned. “Ooh…she’s pretty.” He grinned, showing his fucked-up teeth.
I chucked my phone at his face.
“Fuck.” His head hit the wall, and he moved back into the hallway. “She threw her fucking phone at my head.”
“We’ve got company.”
Hurried footsteps were noticeable on the staircase. Then there were thuds, bodies hitting walls and floors. I heard the sounds of a struggle, muffled grunts coming from the men who fought at the top of the landing.
All I could do was stand there and hope Bolton would be the victor.
I heard one final thud before the world turned quiet.
I stared at the door, my breathing all over the place.
“Astrid?” Bolton pushed the door open another foot before he appeared in the crack.
Now that the threat was over, tears of terror streaked down my cheeks.
“Are you okay?”
He pushed the door farther so he could step inside. His left eye was swollen, like he’d taken a hard punch to the face, but he looked fine otherwise. He didn’t answer the question before he beelined to me, getting me in his arms and squeezing me tight. “Are you okay?” His hand supported the back of my head as he cradled me into his chest.
“Yes.” I cried into his chest, more afraid now that I was allowed to feel that fear. “I’m okay.”
His lips moved to my forehead, and he kissed me. “Let me take you home, and I’ll come back and finish this.”
“Finish what?”
“The cleanup.”
“Did—did you kill them?”
He looked down at me with that heavy stare. “You think I’d let any man live after what they just did to you?”
I waited at home for Bolton to return.
A couple hours later, he did, bringing all of my belongings with him. He stacked the boxes in the hallway to be dealt with in the morning. He just assumed I would live with him now.
I didn’t correct him, because I didn’t want to leave.
My short time in the real world had ended in heartbreak and violence. I didn’t want to go back to that horrible place. I wanted to stay right here, in the only place I’d been happy. The past no longer seemed important, not when Bolton was the one who had been there for me, who’d come to my rescue when I had no one else.