Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
He glanced at the bag of bones resting on the ground against his feet. His father and Duke Remington would bear witness to his final act of revenge against the James family. He could have shot both brothers in their home, but he wanted them to suffer more than a single gunshot to the head. Just like he’d suffered for more than thirty years. He planned to bleed them to death slowly. One puncture wound at a time. To do that he needed time and privacy, so he marched them at gunpoint into the wilderness. If it took him two days, so be it. Time meant nothing to him now. He was done on this earth, and only needed to complete this final act before he could leave.
The younger brother never took his eyes off of Chance. He followed the motion of the knife as it sometimes sparked on the stone. The older one had been losing too much blood, so Chance had packed the bullet hole until they reached their destination. He didn’t want him bleeding out before he received his mother’s punishment.
“Get it over with already, you fuck,” the younger one said bravely. “If you’re gonna kill us, then just do it. This Edgar Allan Poe shit is boring. And just so you know, we already figured out you killed your daddy. You’re not as smart as you think you are. You may kill us, but Logan will hunt you down and break every fucking bone in your body.”
“Josh, shut the fuck up,” the older one growled, slumping against his restraints.
Chance cocked his head and studied the younger one. “Maybe there is a similarity between us.”
“You’re nothing like us.”
“Because you grew up with a mother who cared and loved you? No. That’s not right either. She left you behind just like she left me, didn’t she? DIDN’T SHE!”
The kid blanched then turned angry. “She didn’t fucking leave you, you dickweed,” he argued, pulling at the rope that tethered him to a tree. “They fought for two years to get you back. Everyone knows that. She loved you and it killed her she couldn’t see you.”
“LIES!” Chance rose and covered the distance between them in the blink of an eye, pinning the kid to the tree with his blade at his neck. “She left me behind to my fate without guilt. She knew what my father was like and she still left. I was beaten daily just for living, did you know that?”
The kid swallowed against the pressure but held Chance’s wild eyes.
His brother tried to kick out to put distance between Chance and the kid, but Chance batted his leg away with ease. He was weakening. It was time to exact his revenge. Time to die with her precious sons.
“You want to die?” Chance asked his youngest brother. “Die for her sins?”
_______________
He needed Max. The shout had carried through the trees, but from which direction?
With the thermal scope pressed tightly to his eye, Logan scanned the distance looking for a heat signature. Slowly, he turned the focus on his scope until his surroundings cleared. Inch by inch he hunted. Out there, not far, less than a quarter mile maybe, he’d find Skylar’s brothers. He just needed . . . movement. He held his breath and focused his scope farther out. Scanning. Scanning. There.
“He built me a fucking fire to light the way. Stupid fuck.”
He adjusted his setting again until Josh came into focus. He was tied to a tree with a rope. His mouth was moving, and he looked pissed.
“Keep it together, kid. I’m coming.”
Logan moved his sight to the right and found Jake. He was slumped and bleeding. Fuck. Time to move. He started to lower his weapon when Chance Bear shot past his vision and pinned Josh to the tree with knife. No time. No fucking time.
Logan closed his eyes to center his mind. The last time he’d been in this position he’d watched his brothers die in front of him. Not this time. He wouldn’t let Skylar down. He’d promised as long as he had air left in his lungs, no harm would come to her or her brothers. He’d broken that promise with her, he’d be damned if he let it happen again.
He shook off his anger and rolled his neck, then sighted Chance Bear again. He was still taunting Josh. Still too close. Logan anchored himself against a tree and took a deep breath to calm himself. There was no time to calculate wind speed, gravity, terrain. He would need to make the shot of his life to save Skylar’s brothers.
“Move, motherfucker. Get clear.”
An instant before Logan squeezed the trigger, Chance Bear spun around and looked behind him, giving Logan a full body to target. He took it and watched smugly as Bear flew back and hit the ground as Logan’s shot tore through his leg. At the last second, Logan changed trajectory and took a maiming shot instead of a kill shot. Death would be too easy. He needed to pay for all the damage he’d done.