Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
“Good, because I’m not into sharing, either.”
He keeps pushing his way through the bodies, forging a path for me in his wake. Everyone’s taller than I am, so nothing’s visible except a forest of shoulders and vests and beards. Abruptly the forest clears and I’m facing the most beautiful man that I’ve ever seen.
Except I’ve seen him before, in the house where I woke up today. It’s the blue-eyed devil who called in the favor from the Iron Blood—the one who’s setting up Stone to be taken to the Cage.
And Stone says this man is his brother? But he isn’t safe here with him.
Panic thrums through my veins. What now? What now?
I barely hear Stone greeting the man and introducing me. Only see the devil’s icy gaze on me when Stone’s arm circles my waist. He must be wondering why I haven’t already drugged Stone. Why I haven’t already taken him stumbling outside, where he’ll be easy pickings for the Iron Blood. That cold stare locks with mine and I begin shaking, because I wasn’t expecting this. Now I don’t know what to do.
Except stall. And keep playing along.
I glance up at Stone. Who’s been so sweet to me. So good to me. And I will save him.
But I need time to think. Pasting on a smile, I take his empty glass. “You want me to get you a refill before we go, baby?”
“I sure would, darlin’.” His gaze is hot on mine and he doesn’t immediately let me go as I move away. His fingers drift across my hip as if he doesn’t want to be separated even by the ten feet to the nearest table for a refill from one of the pitchers.
Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god. I don’t know if the blue-eyed devil is watching me, but Victor and Hotel probably still are. So I have to make this look good. While my back is to Stone, I not-so-surreptitiously slip a vial out of my bodice. They’ll see me. They’ll think that I’m drugging his drink like I’m supposed to.
I take my time at the table, pretending to slyly dump the roofie into a glass while also being so completely obvious about it that I’m waiting for someone to call me out at any moment. For someone to shout that I’m putting a date-rape drug into someone’s drink. But apparently no one sees me.
Or maybe in this crowd nobody gives a fuck.
Despite the show I’m giving, not a single drop of the drug makes it inside the glass—and the table’s such a mess, no one could possibly tell that a few milliliters of dissolved Rohypnol are mixed in with the puddles of spilled beer.
My racing heart trips over itself as I make my way back to Stone. His eyes are still eating me up, yet there’s something more…guarded in the way he’s looking at me. As if he suspects what I was doing with his drink.
Was my pretense too obvious? Am I going to lose his trust before I even get a chance to help him?
Stomach roiling with nerves, I hand him the glass—and he takes it. Thank god. Whatever put that look on his face, it isn’t the beer.
So maybe it was something the blue-eyed devil said. “Are you all right?”
“Better now.” As if he’d rather have me close than ten feet away. He tilts his head toward the other man. “Just discussing the perils of defenestration.”
“Being thrown through a window?” That’s…a strange topic. Or maybe it’s not. The scarring on Stone’s face might have been caused by broken glass. “Is that what happened to you?”
His eyes narrow. “Don’t you be pretty and smart.”
Is he intimidated by smart? If so, it’s good to know there’s something that intimidates a man his size. With a laugh, I tell him, “I’ll try.” Though not very hard, because I need to be smarter now than I’ve ever been before. “I’d rather be something else, anyway.”
“What’s that?”
Alive. Free.
But I’ll settle for keeping Stone alive and free, instead.
Chest suddenly tight, I shake my head. Because the blue-eyed devil is watching me closely, and the only way to help Stone is to get him away. So I gesture at his beer. “Why don’t you finish that up and we’ll head out?”
Maybe that was too pushy. Because Stone frowns but downs the beer, and I can feel his gaze on me as I desperately plan. His chugging the drink should give us a few extra minutes. Surely Victor and Hotel will hold off until they think the drug has started working. That’ll give us a head start.
I’m not even sure where they are. My gaze searches the crowd, trying to see them. But it’s impossible.
“Ready, then?”
I nod, and Stone slings his heavy arm around my shoulders, begins guiding me through the mass of people.