Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
He missed her. He didn’t want to be here, sneaking around and trying to survive. He wanted to be laying on the couch at her place, his head in her lap while she read some romance novel about fairies fucking and stroked his hair while he watched baseball.
He was not going to fucking cry.
He was not going to think about the fact that he would miss that woman for the rest of his life. She was in danger every second he was close to Huisman. If he got away and stayed away from her, she would be safe. No one in that house would give up their connection. Never.
He was losing so much more than a job. He was losing a whole family.
He stopped before making the turn to the alley. Someone was moving to the west. He could hear the sound of shoes against the pavement. He glanced around the fence and saw a sprinter van parked on the side of the alley, tucked away as though it was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. A guard was walking up to it. One of Huisman’s. He didn’t know why that van was there.
Zach breathed a sigh of relief. His team was here. Ian and Charlotte Taggart weren’t about to let their daughter and niece die. Adam wouldn’t let his son go. So now all he had to worry about was who had been left in the van.
Almost certainly Lou. She would be manning whatever communications they had going and ready to drive them out when the time came. Someone else might be in that van, but he knew Lou was there.
The guard had a gun and a weapon that was far more dangerous—a walkie-talkie.
Luckily Zach had taken a knife off one of the guards he’d murdered. He was pretty sure they were dead. He was covered in a lot of blood, and none of it was his. He had a choice to make, and it wasn’t a difficult one. He could do his team one last solid before they became the ones hunting him. Before they started a game he didn’t want to play.
He moved on quiet feet, holding the handcuffs out so they didn’t hit anything and make noise. The guard lifted his walkie and Zach pounced.
It was his fifth kill of the day. But it was the only one where he had a witness he cared about.
He couldn’t see her because the van had some privacy features Lou had obviously engaged, but he knew she was there. The blood splattered all over the van.
He let the body drop to the ground, sure he hadn’t connected to anyone in the big house.
The van door slid open and Zach went still, adrenaline pumping through his body. Aidan O’Donnell was there.
“Hey, Zach.” Aidan’s tone was quiet, soothing. Probably the tone he would use if he found himself in front of a hungry lion.
The doctor was looking at him like he was a monster. And he was. “Aidan.”
The window rolled down and there was Lou. “And me. You need to get in the van and let Aidan look you over. The team is inside the house. We need to be ready to go.”
He couldn’t do that. If he got in that van, he put everyone at risk. Even if they would potentially listen to him, all it would do is put his team on the radar. There was more than Huisman out there looking for him. “Good. Huisman sent half his guards with me. They’re dead now, so it’ll be a fair fight. Doc, Kala’s going to need you. Carys, too, if Huisman decides to fuck around with Tris. I have to go.”
“Go?” Lou sounded shocked as she scrambled out of the van. “Go where? You’re hurt.”
He loved his team. He was going to miss them so fucking much. He wanted to hug her, but he wasn’t going to mess her up with all the blood. Lou was clean and she should stay that way. “Back to hell, sweetheart. Should’ve known I wouldn’t belong here. Take care, Lou. Aidan, you can get in through the garage. No one’s guarding it anymore.”
Zach jogged away, forcing himself to keep going when every cell in his body screamed at him to go back in that house and finish the mission.
But this mission was over. He had a new one.
Staying alive. Finding his mother so Huisman couldn’t.
He slipped away into the city, found a bathroom, stole some clothes and a cell.
And started his new life.
* * * *
Devi looked up from the sewing machine at the sound of her doorbell chiming. It was late for visitors, but she stood up.
Zach.
She felt a smile cross her face. If that was her gorgeous man, he was early. She’d talked to him a couple of days before, but he’d warned her the op was starting up in earnest and he would have to go radio silent for a while. They were going to talk about what that meant since he could have absolutely given her a heads-up that he was on his way back.