Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
“There’s people coming in from the right side entrance too,” I say, pointing him in the right direction.
“Fuck, Dylan’s close,” Alistair says. “I gotta go help him.”
Alistair runs off before I can say another word.
Dylan
I hold up my lighter, and all those fuckers think I’m waving it around to scare her father’s men away, and they all snort at me. But with a smirk on my face, I fish a canister of deodorant from my pocket. “Say hello to my little friend!”
And while laughing like a complete and utter maniac, I light the bitch on fire, setting the entire hall as well as the people who were pouring in ablaze.
“Whooo! Now that’s what we call a barbecue!”
Some men are on fire and run off screeching like chickens. Serves them right for trying to break into our fucking society.
I turn to look across the hallway. There are bullet holes littered throughout the walls and floors, and men are wrestling and knifing each other everywhere. Felix and Penelope are across the hall, fighting men who pour in from the front entrance. Penelope’s staring at the canister in my hand.
“Did you see?” I scream enthusiastically.
Her eyes are wide open, but she still nods. Her dropped jaw followed by an impressed smile fills me with pride. She turns around and stabs a guy in the guts.
I’d burn down the world to see that smile. That lust to fight.
Fuck.
And here I was, thinking that deal we made would just be temporary.
Fleshly.
But Alistair isn’t the only one who’s fallen.
And I doubt I will be the last.
Something itches near my leg, and my eyes veer down. A snake slithers between and up my calves.
“Nessie,” I mutter, and I grab her. “What are you doing here?”
I completely forgot her cage broke from the bombs going off.
She hisses at me.
Goddammit, what do I do with her?
I can’t let her get crushed by rubble or shot by those fuckers.
I swiftly tuck her into my pocket.
But the moment I turn around, everything suddenly goes black.
Penelope
Minutes ago
Right in front of me, Felix slices through a guy’s throat and slams him down onto the floor before attacking another guard.
If I don’t stop this, they’re going to kill everyone.
“Dad!” I scream.
“Penelope!” he calls for me. “Come to me!”
“I can’t!” I yell back. “Call off your men!”
“We’re here to save you!” he replies.
I don’t know what to do. It’s too dangerous to cross the floor. Gunshots fly from every direction, and the people in the side entrance … I don’t recognize any of them.
What the fuck is going on?
Alistair shoves his knife into someone’s chest up ahead and throws him to the floor, blood pooling at his feet. But he doesn’t stop as he immediately jumps on some dude’s back who was about to attack Felix. Felix turns around and slices through his belly like it comes easy to him.
I swallow back the panic and focus on the rain of fire coming from the front door. He has to be there somewhere in the smoke.
“Dad!” I yell across the room.
But the noises of an all-out war between Mafia families drown out my voice.
I don’t want them to fight.
Even though these boys have caused me trouble, someone far worse is out there.
Suddenly, a guy from the right-side entrance who doesn’t look anything like a guy my father would hire aims his gun right at my face before I even have the chance to pull out my knife.
From the stairs, Felix jumps down right on top of him, elbowing him in the head and crushing his skull. He gets up and turns to me, breathing wildly, his whole body covered in blood.
“Are you okay?”
I nod, but I don’t know if I really am.
A guy with a machete charges at him from behind.
My eyes widen, and instinct takes over as I jump at Felix and ram my knife straight into the guy’s guts.
He groans, and blood spills from his mouth before I pull out again. The guy falls down in front of us, dead.
Felix’s strong arms are on my waist and arm as he glances at the man. “That would’ve killed me.”
I wipe my knife on my pants and tuck it back into my pocket. “I guess we both owe each other a life now.”
As I’m about to walk off, he grabs my arm, forcing me to stay put. The look in his eyes is feral. And he leans in, whispering, “I’ll protect you with mine.”
He presses a kiss right underneath my ear.
I’m too stunned to even respond.
His lips leave a scorching hot mark on my skin.
He marches off, pulling more knives out of his belt before continuing his hunt.
I’m left in a daze, utterly confused and enamored by how hard he fights for me.
Until I see Dylan getting pummeled in the back of the head by a gun while he had his back toward the side entrance.