Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 76022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Shit. She’s really out of it,” he said, moving ahead of me to open the trunk for Trix.
“Yeah. You remember the way to the animal hospital?” I asked, digging inside the trunk compartment for a spare gun stashed there.
“Yeah,” Colter said, eyeing the gun. “You sure you’re good?”
“Fine,” I said, the word bit off between clenched jaws. “Get Trix treatment. And keep me updated.”
With that, we exchanged keys.
I waited until he peeled off before reaching for my phone again.
I shot off a text to Slash, telling him that Este was missing and that I was going to figure out where the fuck she went.
Then I turned off my ringer.
Because I wasn’t about to listen to him telling me to wait for backup, to think clearly, to tamp down the rage that was burning through my veins like battery acid.
I tucked my phone away.
I checked the gun before I slipped it into my waistband.
Then I let the fucking fire catch and burn as I tore down the street.
There was a light on in the office side of the pool hall, but I knew better from the looks on their faces than to trust that they would simply open the door if I knocked.
Adrenaline surging through me, I grabbed the metal trash can out front, lifted it up, and sent it sailing through the front door.
My gun was in my hand before I even made it through the new opening I’d created.
“Where the fuck is she?” I roared, gun aimed at the brothers through the glass wall separating the office from the rest of the pool hall.
“Whoa,” Mikhail said, holding up both hands. “Coach, relax.”
“Don’t tell me to fucking relax,” I snarled, moving into the doorway. “Where the fuck is Este?”
“What makes you think we would know that?” Konstantin, cool even with a gun aimed at his throat, asked.
“Because you were the one to fuck up her face. And those marks on her mouth? A gag, right?”
My voice was shaking.
My arm was shaking.
My fucking soul felt like it was shaking.
“She wasn’t supposed to tell you about that,” Mikhail said, exhaling hard.
“You motherfucker,” I snarled, stepping forward until the gun was pressed to his forehead. “What did you do to her?”
“We talked,” Konstantin said.
“Talking doesn’t put marks on a woman’s face.”
“Admittedly, we planned to do more,” Konstantin went on. “But it turned out we had the wrong person.”
“Wrong person?”
“She wasn’t stealing from us. We were mistaken. She informed us of that. And we let her go. With a hefty price for her silence.”
Nothing about what he was saying sounded false to me. But these were professional criminals. They lied for a living.
“If that’s all it was, then where the fuck is she now? Why is her dog half-dead?”
“Her dog,” Konstantin repeated.
“Yes, her dog. She loves that fucking dog and it was out cold on the kitchen floor.”
“It was all she asked when she thought she was about to die,” Konstantin said.
“What…was?” Each word was a sentence.
“She begged that we let the dog out, so you might see she wasn’t being taken care of and take care of her.”
In what she thought were her last moments, she trusted that I would make good on my promise.
“We might be monsters in our own way, but we wouldn’t hurt a dog,” Mikhail said.
“No. Just kill women.”
“Actually,” a female voice said just a second before I felt the cold muzzle of a gun press to the back of my neck, “I believe I’m the only woman-killer here.”
“Not the time, Stas,” Konstantin said, gaze never leaving me.
“Seems like it’s the perfect timing,” Stas shot back, pushing the gun more firmly against my neck. “Lower your gun.”
“Stas,” Konstantin barked.
“Coach!” That was Slash’s voice. Because this wasn’t a clusterfuck enough already.
“Oh, a party,” Stas said.
“Coach,” Slash said over the sound of his boots crunching broken glass. “Saul,” he tried, voice calmer. “Put the fucking gun down.”
“They did something to Este.”
“We didn’t put our hands on her,” Mikhail said. Then, at the cocking of my gun, he added, “Tonight.”
“She was fine when she left work,” Konstantin said.
“Bullshit.”
“Saul, come on. This isn’t the way,” Slash tried. “Stas, seriously?” he asked as he got closer. “How the fuck is that helping?”
“He’s got a gun to my brother’s head.”
“I see that,” Slash said.
I saw him out of my periphery as he moved past me, then quickly shoved Mikhail out of the way to stand in front of the gun himself.
“Calm. The. Fuck. Down.”
My jaw was twitching, my teeth aching from clenching so hard.
“This ain’t you, Saul.”
“You’re wrong about that. This is me.”
“This is the part of you that you’ve busted your fucking ass to fight. And you’re letting it win now?”
Konstantin moved past me, snatching the gun out of his sister’s hand.
“She’s missing.”
“Okay,” Slash said, nodding. “Then we find her. But we gotta get our fucking heads on straight to do that. How are you helping Este like this?” he asked. “Get your fucking head in the game.”