Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
In a flash of poetic imagination, he becomes a knight charging to battle.
Does that make me the insane princess chasing after him?
I’m out of the car, too, running over.
Killian turns and opens his mouth. I can tell he’s going to tell me to wait in the car.
But then Emil calls over from the other side of the sidewalk. “Got a trade in mind for you, Killian. I’ll let you off the hook for all those fights if you let me and the boys here have a go on your…,” he clears his throat. “Lovely lady.”
The men snigger.
Killian moves, blocking me from view, but I peer around him and glare at Emil. It’s another instance of moving toward what makes me anxious instead of away, though in this case, I think Killian would prefer it if I stayed in the car.
“You’re a loser,” I snap, hating how my voice trembles but pushing on anyway. “You can act tough all you want, but what sort of man does this? You should’ve let this go years ago, but here you are, stuck in the past.”
I’m aware I’m talking to myself too. Stuck in the past with Dad’s paranoia, trapped in that cycle.
But not anymore.
“She’s right,” Killian snaps. “Why are you really here, Emil? It can’t just be for the fights.”
“For respect,” Emil says, his voice shaky.
Whatever the other men are on, he is too. Even his leer shifts around like a snake trying to slither off his face
“You don’t get respect by forcing fighters to break their code or the law. And you don’t get it by insulting a man’s woman.”
“Insult, where?” Emil says. “I called her a lovely lady. I could’ve been honest and called her a fa….”
Fat, the word slaps me coldly across the face, but then Killian rushes forward, and I’m more concerned with stopping him from getting jailed by swinging on Emil.
Clinging onto his arm, I say, “It’s not worth it. Let’s just go inside.”
Killian is raging, his arm expanding in my hands, his muscles pressing powerfully through his shirt like he’s going to tear it loose. He glares at Emil, chest heaving, as Emil smirks and the men around him laugh low and mean.
“You’re a joke,” Killian growls. “All this effort… stalking Mia, threatening her landlord to get her apartment number, all to get to me. And because I wouldn’t fix a few fights?”
“You humiliated me,” Emil yells.
“This is what happens when a man lives too long alone, is it?” Killian goes on, voice deep and yet cutting.
As he speaks, he reaches back and guides me behind him, blocking me from the men’s view with his bulky body.
“This is what happens when a man doesn’t find a wife and start a family. Is that it, Emil? You’ve been on your own for too long, stuck going over and over things that shouldn’t matter to you anymore. Stuck wondering what might’ve been.”
“It does matter.”
“You sound like a fucking child.”
“You’re disrespecting me again!”
“Yes, I am.”
The second Emil throws himself forward, the other men follow him so the five move almost like one entity.
I scream when Emil brings his hand around toward Killian’s head, but then Killian ducks and makes a tsk noise, controlled, and hammers Emil in the chest.
Emil gasps, wheezing, collapsing to the concrete as he clutches at his chest.
The other men rear back like animals who suddenly realize they’re far too close to a flame. They exchange looks.
Killian nods at Emil, coughing and sputtering.
“Whatever he promised you, fellas, it’s not worth what’s going to happen next. He was a big deal once. He had Cartel connections. But now, I’m sure he’s just a pathetic man who can’t let go of an old grudge. I’m more interested in the future… in my woman.”
My chest flutters with warmth when he calls me that, stating it firmly as if challenging the men to make a comment about me.
“I’m calling the cops,” Killian goes on. “Since they want to talk to this bastard about a home invasion, it’s your choice if you stay here or not. But be aware that my woman’s here, and I’ll do anything to protect her. That includes beating the four of you so badly you can’t walk for weeks.”
The men bristle, shrugging their shoulders, stretching out their arms, in general, doing everything they can to look tough.
And then they realize Killian is serious.
I can’t see his eyes, but I bet they’re smoldering.
I can see his back, the taut muscles making his shirt seem tighter, the rising and falling of a bear ready to charge back into battle.
They look down at Emil, still gasping, still clutching his chest.
Together, they turn and leave.
“Ain’t worth it,” one of them says.
Killian leans down and grabs Emil by the scruff of the neck, lifting him and turning to me, forcing him to look at me.