Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
I’m fucking pathetic lying here. And this is what he made me.
It starts as a tight pull beneath my ribs and spreads until I can’t breathe without tasting it. He doesn’t get to make that call for me. He doesn’t get to walk away like some tragic hero and expect me to just pretend it never happened.
Throwing the blankets off, I pull the IV from my vein, hissing at the sharp sting that follows. Then, with a trail of blood carving a path down my arm, I march out to the nurses’ station, not prepared to sulk here a moment longer.
Katie gives me a hard stare, but reluctantly hands over the discharge papers. “I wondered how long it’d take for you to discharge yourself,” she says. “Just don’t do anything stupid. You still have a concussion.”
I sign the paperwork and give her a sad smile. “Thank you.”
An hour later, I’m striding across the tarmac, cool mid-morning wind whipping through my hair as I climb the steps of my private jet. The engines roar to life beneath me, and in the blink of an eye, we take off, leaving Austin behind.
It’s a little after two by the time I arrive back home, and as I make my way through the corridor toward my apartment, the hallway has never felt so lonely. I pass Raiden’s door and hesitate, wanting to know what I’d find. Are all his things still there? His bed still unmade and messy? His toothbrush still tossed carelessly on the counter?
Fuck. Or would I walk in to find an empty shell, telling me what I already know: he’s not coming back.
He’s the fucking Iron Viper. He’s a legend in our world, and he didn’t become that way by getting caught up with a woman who could bring his whole empire down. Hell, I know his name now, and that makes me a threat to him. But he also knows mine, a small detail about myself that I have never trusted anybody with, not even Milan. But Raiden . . . I know he will protect it with his life. Even if he were strapped to a gurney, being tortured for information, he’d never give it up.
Damn it. Why’s it got to feel like this?
Ignoring the lure of his apartment, I continue on to mine, and as I push my key into the lock and twist, I hear my phone from deep within my apartment, and I hurry to finish unlocking the door before rushing inside and scrambling for the phone.
I don’t bother checking the caller ID before accepting the call and pressing the phone to my ear. “I know, I know,” I start, only to be shamelessly cut off.
“What the fuck is going on?” Milan demands, her tone suggesting that I better start spilling details before she figures out a way to bitch-slap me through the phone. “Why did I get an alert that you were in a hospital in Austin? What the hell happened last night, and why the fuck are you only just now answering my call? I’ve been trying to get through to you for God knows how long.”
My face twists with a cringe, guilt soaring through my chest. “I’m sorry, it’s been . . . fuck, Milan. It’s been a really shitty twenty-four hours.”
“What’s going on, Crims?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “That job I went on last night—”
“What job?” she questions. “You weren’t assigned anything.”
Fuck. I’ve already said too much.
“Umm . . . okay. You’re going to be really pissed, but I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing.”
There’s a heavy silence before she lets out a breath. “Does this have something to do with the abundance of bullshit jobs you’ve been accepting, and the jobs you’ve been completing that haven’t been on your roster?”
“You noticed that, huh?”
“How could I not? It’s literally my job to track your contracts and make sure you get paid.”
I blow out my cheeks and crash down onto my couch as I tell her exactly what happened, minus a few key details, of course. “Okay, I’d tracked the target to his penthouse apartment in Austin, and when I was entering the building, the assassin who’d accepted the contract showed up, and I suppose he didn’t take well to me being there.”
Milan sighs. “And let me guess, you were too freakin’ stubborn to apologize for stomping all over his turf and bow out respectfully.”
I cringe again. “Something like that,” I say. “We ended up getting into it, trading blows, and it got messy.”
“How messy?”
“Target got away, and I ended up in a fiery explosion. I had to jump through the fifth-story window and crash land on a car. But it’s fine. I’m not hurt or anything like that. Well, I mean, I have a pretty serious concussion, but apart from that, I’m okay.”