Savage Secrets (Titan #6) by Cristin Harber Read Free Book Online Page B

steadily.
    Zip . His sight went fuzzy, and his lungs revolted, doing their spastic best to throw him in Lake Crazy. The glow from the lamps became shining orbs. The pink dress spun itself into a cotton candy frenzy. Fuck . He couldn’t stop it and had to bolt. At least he was always a man with a plan and had booked a just-in-case hotel room a few floors down.
    He could escape. Trip his ass off. Recover and rebound. It was the only plan he had, but he hadn’t planned to use it this soon.
    Caterina turned back to him. Her mouth was moving. The words? What was she saying? Something…was he okay? Did he need something? Her arm stretched, and he had to go. Run. Get the hell away from her. Lord only knew what he looked like morphing into crazy-man.
    His numb lips moved side to side, feeling the pins and needles. “Change of plans.” Did he sound as breathless as he felt? “Gotta run out for a little bit. Just a couple hours.”
    Not giving her a chance to respond, not that he’d have a clue what she said, Rocco brushed past her. Her intoxicating scent wrapped around him, holding him, telling him it would be okay. Stop it. Smells don’t talk . But on this acid trip they did. He busted out the door, knowing he could make it to his hotel room and ride this trip out. The door slammed behind him, echoing like a round of applause. The ornate carpet swirled around his feet. The brightly colored patterns crept up, sliding over his fancy-dancy shoes, stroking his calves. Their touch tickled. The walls began to melt, rushing into a beige river and threatening to drown him in the hallway.
    This is all a dream. All a trip. Make it to your room. Make it to your safe zone .
    He’d memorized the room number. 521. Rigged the door to stay unlocked without leaving it ajar. All he had to do was make it there.
    Five.
    Twenty.
    One.
    So close, just a few floors. He ignored the elevator and hit the stairs. No way could he get into a metal box right now. He’d go insane, claw his way out as the walls caved in. Where was his room?
    Say it out loud. You won’t forget .
    “Five. Twenty. One.” With the effort required for a Tough Mudder with a hangover, he did it again. “Five. Twenty. One.”
    You are stronger than this. Survive this mind melt .
    Do it .
    Now .
    And then his angel was at his side, same as last time. It was about the only saving grace he had, knowing that his hallucinations gave him a protector. With his psychedelic angel guiding him through the warping stairwell and again with the carpet that grew over him like ivy, Rocco relaxed into her care and let her save him more one time.
    ***
    Yassine rubbed his hands together in the cold rain. Big Ben stood as a cultural icon. Historical. Recognizable. An attack would be respectable. He’d walked the area several times. It’d been harder to see inside the old clock tower. The pain of safety precautions coupled with the fact only native UK residents were allowed to tour had created a research stumbling block. But it was nothing the internet hadn’t fixed. Podcasts and videos were posted all over the web. After watching hours of them, he’d felt like he’d walked the three-hundred thirty-four steps himself a thousand times.
    Not forgetting the botched bombing a few weeks prior, he knew this was the time to go big. Authorities were scrambling. Newscasts were drooling over themselves, using the name El Mateperros every chance they could on air. Nothing like a panic to up their ratings. And Yassine had plans to up the ratings. For them. For him. For the ACG.
    All he needed was for this Daniel Locke to come through with the required supplies. Using a new dealer wasn’t ideal, but he’d cut ties with his usual supplier. It’d been messy. There’d been blood. Perhaps too much because his usual backups didn’t step forward to fill his order.
    But Daniel Locke had. The newcomer. The man who, like himself, seemed to thrive under a veil on anonymity. No confirmed reports on where Locke