Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Most women have to face this kind of threat at least once in their lifetime. Maybe not with so many, but certainly at least one man. Even without you here, I would kill them all. You know me now, Draden. If these were good men, trying to protect their friend, unknowing of what he had done, I wouldn’t harm them. This isn’t the case. These men aren’t good and they’re willing to rape a woman just because they can and then kill her so they don’t get caught. Not good. They’ve tangled with the wrong woman.
He couldn’t help the swell of pride. He was that twisted. She was one in a million and she was his. So, what’s the plan? Because she wasn’t handling this alone. This was personal to him. It might not be to her, and he suspected it wasn’t, she was too matter-of-fact. To Shylah, men like Bakti were hazards of her work. To Draden they were the worst of all human beings and gave all men a bad name. And this time, it was his woman they targeted.
We’ll go inside. I’ll ask questions, haggle over money. He’ll stall to let his friends get here. He’ll step up to open the door for them and I’ll be right behind him. The moment they’re inside, I’ll slit his throat. Then … game on.
You’re not leaving me much time to get there to help out.
I know you. You’re bloodthirsty and right now, feeling very um … brutal. That’s the only word I can think of. You’re not going to play nice.
Play nice? He nearly choked, and he envisioned his hands around her neck. Shaking her. How does one play nice with men like this?
You kill them fast. They’re vermin. You’d probably take your time and not be nice at all.
We have entirely different ideas on “nice” play.
There was a silence. Draden Freeman. Are you getting turned on because we’re talking about doing these disgusting men in?
No, baby, I’m getting turned on because my woman is the biggest badass in the fucking city. Maybe the world. That is the turn-on. The way you talk. The way you use that knife. I love the blowgun.
Only because it has the word “blow” in it.
There might have been a little bit of truth in that. In spite of the situation, he found himself grinning like an idiot. Still, he picked up the pace, until he was nearly on the heels of his prey. He could see that Shylah had stopped just outside a brightly colored door while Bakti unlocked it and stepped back so she could enter. She went down to one knee on the pretense of loosening her boot, and while she did Bakti took the opportunity to sneak a quick glance down the narrow street in an attempt to catch a glimpse of his friends.
Shylah glanced up and caught the satisfaction on Bakti’s face. He was certain everything was going as planned. She stood up and meekly entered the room in front of him. He let the door partially close, but left it unlocked with light streaming from the street through the large crack. He turned on the lights.
Only two bulbs worked and the light was more brown than white or yellow. She risked glancing at that bulb, but it had to be ancient. Why it wasn’t burned out ten years earlier, she didn’t know. She looked around the apartment. Clearly, it hadn’t been cleaned yet.
“Who owns this place?”
Bakti turned away from the door. “I do. I rent to various people by the week. They took it for a week. You can see they’ve made a mess. There are all kinds of things here I don’t understand.”
“Sadly, these men are making viruses. This entire apartment could be contaminated. Don’t touch anything.” She wanted to share that particular wickedness with Draden. It certainly wiped the smile from Bakti’s face.
“Viruses?”
She nodded. “The small village of Lupa Suku was wiped out by this virus. The three men created it.” She indicated the room. “See the equipment here? This is what is used to make this virus. There’s no vaccine. No cure. You must have heard of the Ebola virus. You’re an educated man. You know that these hemorrhagic viruses are lethal.”
He looked around the room, all the while shaking his head, not wanting to believe her. The door swung open and his three friends walked in. Bakti swung around toward them. The moment he saw them, the doubt was gone from his face, their presence bolstering his courage. She saw his hand move under his tunic to pull his weapon.
She killed him without hesitation. Before the body could topple to the floor, she’d thrown a small blade, no more than an inch long, but it lodged with deadly accuracy into the lead man’s neck, severing the artery. He went down hard, blood spraying across the room.