Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“You’re really not hurting?” I ask in a small voice as we sail through the city.
“The only thing that’s been hurting me is the fact we couldn’t locate you for two fucking days,” he tells me, reaching across and cupping the side of my face, forcing me to meet his stare. “Don’t fucking run from me again, Firefly. I can’t handle it.”
“I had to,” I whisper, knowing that he knows and understands why I did it, but I suppose just because someone understands something doesn’t mean they have to like it. “I have no hope here with you guys. Zade is still going to go ahead with the ritual. Whether I run or not, I’m still going to die, but out here on my own . . . I would have had a say in how I went. Kinda. I would have eventually been killed out here, but it would have been done with me fighting right to the end, which I can accept. But I refuse to die for someone else’s gain. Especially in such a brutal way.”
“I get it,” he tells me. “But give me a fucking chance, Oakley. I’m going to find a way to save you. I promise you that. I’m not going to let you die.”
Scooching over, I move in right next to him and take his face in my hands, holding him close. “I know you want to save me, and I believe that you’re going to try everything in your power to do so, but don’t make me promises you can’t keep. You and I both know Zade isn’t going to let me go. I’m dying in seven days, Dalton. Let’s just make the best of it.”
Zade thankfully remains silent from the front of the car as Dalton pulls me back onto his lap and wraps me in his arms. “Wow, your lack of faith in me really makes me feel like the fucking man,” he teases.
“Sorry,” I laugh. “I do have faith in you, and it’s because of that I know just how hard you’re going to fight for me, but I’m also a realist, and you and I both know that the only way I’m getting out of this thing alive is if Zade magically changes his mind.”
Dalton lets out a heavy breath and drops his forehead to mine, not bothering to respond because honestly, what could he possibly say to that? He knows I’m right, and he’s not about to start lying to me now.
Zade slows the SUV and pulls off to the side of the road, and before I even get a chance to look up, the back door flies open and I see Sawyer and Easton staring back at me with stupid grins across each of their faces. “Well fuck,” Sawyer says. “There’s a sight for sore eyes.”
He clambers into the SUV beside me and Dalton, leaving Easton to take the front, and before Sawyer’s even settled in beside us, his hands are already on my waist, hauling me onto his lap. “You’ve got no fucking idea how happy I am to see you,” he says, giving me the first real smile I’ve seen on his face since before his father’s execution.
I grin back at him, my hand snaking around the back of his neck, and before I even get the chance to respond, he pulls me in hard against him, crushing his lips to mine in a bruising kiss.
I sink into him, taking everything I can get as I hear the sound of Easton getting in and closing the door behind him. Zade hits the gas and the momentum has me rocking harder into Sawyer, but he holds me tight, not daring to let me go.
I grind down against him, coaxing a long groan from his throat, and just when I’m ready to heat this up, an arm locks around my waist, pulling me away. I squeal as Easton hauls me across the SUV, and I expect him to pull me right through to the front beside Zade, only he’s cramped in beside Dalton, the three guys squished in the back, leaving me nowhere but their laps to sit on.
Easton doesn’t give in until I’m straddled over him, those stormy dark eyes locked on mine. “You really fucked me up there, Pretty,” he says, his words like a knife straight through the chest.
“Try being on the other side of that,” I tell him, my hand cradling the side of his face. “You guys have been fucking me up since the day Empire gave you my name.”
He nods, accepting it for what it is—fact.
His fingers trail up my body, his heavy gaze following the movement before coming back to meet my stare. “You good?” he questions. “I saw the mess you left behind at your aunt’s place.”
My eyes widen, and I tense on his lap. “You saw that?” I ask, my heart kicking up a notch.