Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Disbelief burst out of me on a scoff, and I shook my head. I didn’t even know why I was upset.
It was the plan. The way I wanted it. The way it needed to be.
But the thought of him walking away like this, after I’d just shared one of the most traumatic parts of my life, sent a razor raking across the raw, abraded parts of my spirit.
He started around the far side of the table, and I thought he was going to walk straight to the parking lot where I’d seen his motorcycle when we pulled in.
Only he stopped, facing that way, his being vibrating with intensity.
I jumped when he suddenly whirled in my direction.
A storm that came within an inch of me.
Towering.
Intimidating.
His breath hot and intoxicating. That distinct cedar and clove scent making my head spin.
He leaned in close, and I prepared for his goodbye.
I could already feel the regret pouring from his body.
“Know you’re going to hate me for this, Emery.” His voice scraped low. “And the last thing I want to do is hurt you more than you’re already hurting. But that’s my daughter, and I can’t turn my back on that.”
Cold slicked down my spine, and I jerked back. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’m her father. It means she stole my heart the second I saw her. It means I have every intention of raising her. Meet me at Twisted Moon at nine, and we can discuss the details.”
Horror pinned my feet to the ground, the shouts and rejections and denials trapped in my hemorrhaging throat as I watched him turn without saying anything else and stride through the park and over to the playground.
I was unable to move as I watched him lean down in front of Maci.
She giggled and laughed at whatever he said, then he touched her chin and ruffled his fingers through her hair as he stood.
I couldn’t look away as he strode the rest of the way to the parking lot and climbed onto his bike.
The roar of the engine echoed through the air like a thunderclap.
That menacing, vicious man I’d thought I’d recognized that first night in full force.
I’d thought somehow in it he was a moment’s comfort.
But no.
He’d come to completely obliterate my heart.
EIGHTEEN
KANE
My guts were a tangle of knots as I sat at the dining table at Otto and Raven’s house. It was situated near the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the forest and the south end of the lake low in the distance since their place was set high on the mountain.
The view was nothing but stunning.
Guessed that’s what I was.
Stunned.
Fucking shocked at what I’d felt when I’d met that little girl.
Every molecule in my being altered at first sight.
The pulsing of love and devotion that had completely taken me over. A crash of complete surrender when she’d smiled up at me with eyes the exact same color as mine.
The same color as my mother’s.
Most shocking was the action I’d taken when I’d realized there was no chance I was going to be able to walk out of her life. I squeezed my left hand into a fist, the tattoo on the back of my hand burning anew. The petals dripping off the wilted rose almost feeling like they were coming back to life.
You take care of who you love most.
Didn’t quite get the fullness of that statement until I’d seen my little girl’s precious face.
Then there was the shock at what I’d felt when I’d seen the picture of Emmalee and recognition had finally taken me over.
That was an entirely different story.
Hell, I likely would have recognized her from the beginning if it hadn’t been for the fact that she’d called herself Lee.
So, now I sat with a tumbler of scotch while I stared blankly out into Otto and Raven’s living room at the mayhem that normally would have had me cackling and jumping right in.
Our Sunday family gathering was typically my favorite day of the week, but right then, I wasn’t entirely sure how to take part in the festivities.
Taylor Swift blared from the speakers as Raven, Charleigh, and Nolan danced around in the open area on the other side of the couch.
Laughter booming in the house.
“Watch this one, Auntie!” My nephew Nolan shouted it as he dropped to the ground and spun on his butt. “You think you can top it? Because I bet my Daddy-O is gonna give it a perfect ten!”
Nah, the kid wasn’t my actual nephew. River and Charleigh’s son unrelated by blood.
But that’s what he was to me.
Every single one of these people within these walls were.
That same devotion I’d felt earlier forever clanging in my heart whenever I was around them.
But it had never quite been what I was feeling today.
The way my pulse was chugging extra hard at the thought of the way my life was getting ready to change. A gong resounding in my head, pain splitting it in two, my mind all fucked up at the possibility of Maci being out there in the mix.