Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 151384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
“Believe me, Little girl. It is my sincerest wish that he come after me. Then I can rip out his intestines and string him up by them.”
“Kind of gross,” Immy said, although she did approve of his protectiveness. “Wouldn’t shooting him be enough?”
“No. I’m going to make sure he suffers for a long, long time before I put him out of his misery.”
Immy guessed that was fair enough. She grabbed a snickerdoodle and sat with her own cup of coffee.
Black. No sugar.
A tough man’s drink. Or tough woman’s drink.
Immy watched on dreamily as Gray and Maeve flirted with each other. This was just all too much.
“You go against any of my safety rules and you won’t sit for a week.”
“Whoa,” Immy whispered. “Anyone else finding this hot as heck?”
“Immy,” Jenner scolded. “We should give them privacy.”
Sampson’s phone ringing broke the spell. Darn it. Immy thought she could watch the two of them for hours.
“Isaiah! I’ve been trying to get hold of you all day! Why weren’t you answering your phone?” Sampson demanded. “Right. Got it. Did you listen to my messages? Yeah, we think it was Maeve’s stalker. Don’t know who else would try to kill her. No, yeah. She’s fine. She’s here. Really. You can talk to her if you want. I’ll put you on speaker phone. Abe’s all right. Just got a concussion. He’s sleeping. Yeah, we’re keeping an eye on him.”
Sampson placed the phone down on the coffee table.
“Maeve?” Isaiah asked urgently through the phone. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Maeve replied.
“What the hell happened? How did someone get past the security system to attack Abe and hurt Maeve?” Isaiah demanded.
“Looks like an inside job,” Sampson said grimly. “Andy is missing.”
Isaiah swore. Jenner attempted to put his hands over her ears, but she brushed them away. Honestly, she’d heard far more swear words than those ones. Although he did owe the swear jar a lot of money now.
“He hit Abe? You think he tried to drown Maeve?” Isaiah asked.
“Don’t know,” Sampson said with clear frustration.
“I don’t get why Andy would try to kill me,” Maeve said. “He can’t be my stalker, right? He was here when I was attacked?”
Gray growled.
“Who was that?” Isaiah asked.
“Maeve’s friend,” Sampson said.
“Maeve’s boyfriend,” Immy added.
“What?” Isaiah asked.
“He turned up just after someone drowned Maeve,” Jenner explained.
“He saved her,” Immy said with a sigh. “It’s all rather romantic.”
Everyone stared at her incredulously. But Immy wasn’t going to take it back. Gray rescuing Maeve was just like something out of a fairytale. Or a romance book.
Immy despaired of ever having that. She’d found her prince charming when she was eight.
Unfortunately, she’d always be just his little sister.
10
Immy turned on the light in the kitchen.
She couldn’t sleep. And when she couldn’t sleep, she baked. Or she cleaned. But she’d already cleaned her room and bathroom, and she didn’t want to wake anyone up.
So she’d come downstairs. Thankfully, Jenner had sensor lights set up everywhere in the house and the drapes were all drawn.
Except for over the kitchen sink.
Cupcakes.
She stared out into the darkness. There was no reason to be scared.
Then she saw something outside. A flash of light.
Someone was there.
Oh God!
What was she going to do? What if it was Maeve’s stalker out there? He could be looking for her even though she’d headed back to Montana with Gray several days ago.
For some reason, Alejandro had left a couple of his men here.
Wait . . . could it be one of them?
Maybe she should just go and get Sampson . . . but if it was one of Alejandro’s guys then she’d wake him for no reason.
That flash of light grew brighter and then disappeared.
And someone knocked on the door.
She let out a squeal, then placed her hand over her mouth.
She stood there, frozen, as the door handle turned and then a man walked in. Immy worked up a scream, but it couldn’t escape her mouth. There was nothing she could do . . . he was going to get her . . . hurt her . . .
Her breath came in sharp pants. She was going to be sick or pass out.
“Immy?”
How did he know her name?
“Immy? You remember me? Tobias.”
Now he was giving her his name? That must mean that . . . wait, Tobias?
One of Alejandro’s men was called Tobias.
Immy blinked and stared up into the big man’s worried face. He was a good-looking guy with dark hair that was cut short at the sides and longer on top. He was wearing a black jacket and jeans and she could see hints of a tattoo at the bottom of his neck.
“Tobias?” she whispered.
“That’s right.” He crouched down and pointed at his chest. “Tobias.”
Wait. How did she get onto the floor? And pressed into a corner of the kitchen?
Oh heck.
He was going to think she was a complete basket case.