Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

“You told me I can trust Coop, so I am. Well, trying to. Besides, it was my idea. It’s the safest way for all of us to get to the airport without being followed and the only way to ensure nobody gets hurt because of me. Once we’ve made it to Boulder, then you’ll leave the tracking device from Titan’s collar here and drive to town with him and Leo. If anyone trails you, they’ll see I’m not with you and hopefully double back to your house, allowing you all to head down from the mountains without anyone behind you. Coop has the security set so if anyone shows up here at the house they’ll be intercepted quickly. Even if they don’t, by the time they realize we’re all gone, they won’t be able to follow us to the airstrip.”

“Sounds like you have it all figured out. How soon before this mission goes live?” His body curled flush behind mine again as he nuzzled my neck. One big hand slid over my breast, while his other tucked between my legs.

I really didn’t want to ever leave this bed. And I really, really didn’t want him to stop taking my body and mind to places only he could. But somehow I managed to squeak out, “We only have enough time to get ready.”

“Then we’ll make some time…by showering together.” He scooped me into his arms and carried me to the bathroom.

After reaching in to turn the water on, he set me on the vanity, spreading my thighs with his hands. “Got to wait for it to get hot,” he murmured as he hungrily kissed his way down between my legs, his tongue sending me to heaven over and over again.

* * * *

Leaving Nik didn’t seem real until we were standing in his garage and I was about to get into another man’s truck. Nik had that look. Not the good one. Not the hungry, heated one. This was the stiff, stony one from back behind the wall I’d thought I’d broken through. Leaving him like this, even for a few hours, didn’t sit well in my stomach. Needing to feel an actual connection to him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and lifted up on my toes for a kiss.

With a jerk of his chin, he kept the contact as brief as possible.

“Don’t kiss me like it’s goodbye.” His hardened eyes met mine and I felt the push from them as surely as if he’d done it with his hand. Stunned, I stumbled through my goodbyes to Titan and got up into the truck. Nik silently closed the door between us and disappeared into the house, not even bothering to watch us pull away.

I wanted so much to believe his words—this wasn’t goodbye, but I couldn’t help feeling differently. Had Coop been right? Had Nik only wanted one thing from me and now was fine with letting me go?

“Did you text Aimee?” Coop asked as he pulled out of Nik’s driveway.

I nodded, shaking off the insecurity with the hopes Nik had only gone behind his walls because he hated my leaving him as much as I did. “She’s going to meet us at the park in town in an hour. Should give us plenty of time for recon.”

I didn’t like lying to Nik about the plan, but I didn’t want to put him or anyone else in danger. And I didn’t want to run. I wanted to confront her head-on, and Coop had assured me Nik would talk me out of it. While these people might be powerful and dangerous, I doubted they’d be so brash as to do anything in broad daylight with Coop next to me. Besides, Aimee had had opportunity to hurt me back in Boulder and she hadn’t, so how bad could she really be?

Coop reached back and pulled something out of his backpack. I barely had time to register the folder full of documents he’d dropped in my lap before we were at the main highway. He whipped his truck the direction Nik and I had taken to go to Boulder, opposite of Estes Park and what we’d planned.

“Whoa! Where the hell are you going?” I lunged across the massive center console to grab at the steering wheel, but the seatbelt shocked me by locking down, holding me tight to the leather seat.

Coop didn’t even flinch at my flailing at him. Reclining his elbow on the window frame, he drove with his fingers lazily on the wheel. Clearly he didn’t find the curves he navigated at high speed any more dangerous than his pissed-off passenger.

I doubted he’d respond to reasoning, but short of unlatching my seatbelt and killing us both, it was my only option. “We had an agreement to handle this my way.”

“We are handling this your way. You didn’t want Nik involved.”

“This isn’t the plan we agreed to.”

“This is the plan Nik agreed to, and he’ll be tracking my phone. He’d come if we didn’t go toward the airport.” Coop glanced over, shaking his head at my death stare. “You can sit there and glare at me the whole ride for screwing you over. Or you can read the damn file.”

At least he was admitting he’d screwed me over. I had a feeling it was the best I was ever going to get out of the jerk. Frustrated, I looked down at the paper on top. “This is an autopsy report.”

“Supposedly yours. Look at the pictures—what do you notice?”

Hating the taste of the words on my tongue, I said, “The girl has red hair and a phoenix tattoo on her forearm.” Just like Aimee. The fiery shades of orange on this woman’s tattoo stood out, reminding me of Aimee’s words, ‘Having risen now…we’ll be adding color to my tattoo so it will match the other sisters’.’

“Still trust your friend, Aimee? Still want to meet her at the park?”

Instead