Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 138588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
How far did the betrayal go? How would Sawyer handle it? His staff were the only people in the world he truly trusted outside of Wyatt and herself. Would this send him right back into the cage he’d built? Or would her running have already made him decide none of this was worth the heartache?
“I’m sorry.” She wasn’t sure what to say, but Lark seemed to require a response. “I didn’t know he was yours.”
Lark glared down at her. “Yeah, well, you should have asked, rich girl.”
Rich girl? Lark knew she was a schoolteacher. It wasn’t like they were known for their free-flowing cash. “What the…”
Lark slapped her and pushed her back, the chair she was in hitting the concrete floor hard. Pain arced through her, but she’d managed to keep her head up. In the background she could hear the men starting to take bets, chuckling about whores and skanks and how this was the way women were. Lark was on top of her, and Sabrina put out her arms to ward off the attack.
“Scream,” Lark whispered directly in her ear. “When I lift my head, you scream and don’t move your right leg too much. I slipped you something. Scream, Sabrina. Now.”
Sabrina pushed at Lark and screamed. “Get this crazy bitch off me.”
For some reason Lark wanted them to fight. Wanted to hide what she was about to do. As Sabrina halfheartedly pushed at Lark, the waitress got one good smack in before she got carted off Sabrina.
She didn’t have to pretend to be shocked. She still wasn’t sure what had happened, but she felt something against her right thigh. Lark had shoved something into the deep pocket of her skirt. Something hard and maybe metal.
A knife. Lark had given her a small knife, likely a paring knife she would use to slice limes and lemons for drinks.
A shot. That was what Lark had given her.
“Sorry.” A big man came into view. A man who looked like a rougher, older version of Wyatt. “I didn’t realize that little honey was so mean. Guess she was serious. I thought cash would buy me a couple of Sawyer’s employees, but it turns out she just wants revenge.”
She wanted none of the kind, but Lark was smart and resourceful, and she would do what it took to survive. If she complied, she bought herself and the others time.
Where were the others?
“Did you pay off the rest of the staff? Sawyer’s going to be so betrayed.” The last bit was tossed Lark’s way.
“Well, he picked you over me, so I don’t care.” Lark could have been an actress. Or there was some truth to what she was saying. Sabrina wasn’t sure. She only knew Lark was playing a role, and that meant Sabrina had one, too.
Wyatt’s brother offered her a hand up. She wanted to spit in the man’s face, but was Lark trying to tell her something? To be the opposite of what they were expecting? Wayne hadn’t seen her, and from what she’d heard from her sister the men she’d taken down denied it. None of them wanted to think a schoolteacher could hurt them.
So she was going to play into all their stereotypes.
She let her fear show through, putting a shaking hand in Wayne’s. When he gently hauled her up, she made sure to shift to her left in case he could see anything. The skirt was one of her longer, more voluminous ones, and it was a darker color so she might be able to pull this off. “Thank you. I didn’t know. I’m not the kind of woman who would try to steal someone’s man.”
Wayne had a bushy beard with hints of gray sliding between the honey color of his hair. He picked up her chair and offered it to her, sitting down across from her. “Well, for what it’s worth I don’t think old Sawyer there ever gave the girl a ride. I’m pretty sure the attraction is all one sided, but I know how to use an advantage when I find one. She was the only one who didn’t run. Did you know Sawyer’s got the equivalent of a safe room in his office?”
She hadn’t spent much time in the bar, so she shook her head, relief flooding her because it meant the others were safe. “I didn’t. I’ve only been with Wyatt and Sawyer for a few days.”
But they’d been serious days. They’d been days spent wholly in each other’s company, days where she was wrapped up in them while the world outside didn’t matter. She didn’t need years to know these were the men for her.
“So you’re not pretending.” Wayne stared as she took the seat he’d offered. “My brother thought he could get me to believe it was Sawyer he was interested in.”