Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
The night grew long, bright strobes flashing against the dusky light of the house.
Piper didn’t know what it was, but she could feel the sudden shift in the atmosphere. Or maybe it was just the shift in Justin when two guys came through the door.
Darkness radiated from them. A match to whatever suddenly rolled through Justin.
Pulling back, Justin sent her one of his charming, brutal smiles. “Stay here, yeah? I have some business to take care of.”
A frown pulled to Piper’s brow. “What kind of business?”
“The kind that doesn’t concern you.” He winked, and the buzz she’d felt in her belly shifted to something else entirely.
Justin weaved his way through the crowd to the two men. From where she watched them move to a shadowy corner from across the room, she could tell their voices were hushed.
In discomfort, she shifted on her feet, wondering what she thought she was doing. She was the responsible one. The one who never got into trouble and, somehow, she had decided to go looking for it.
But she wasn’t sure she knew how to divert it any longer when Justin bumped fists with the two guys in parting, before he turned and stalked back for her.
So darkly delicious as he clamped a hand on her bare thigh. His voice pure seduction as he muttered, “Now where were we?”
FORTY
PIPER
My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I stood at the high table, my mind forever spinning as I refolded a bunch of fuzzy, soft sweaters.
Wondering how I was still here. In this town. How I’d shown up here at Ivy Threads this morning like it was just another day, though I’d wandered around the shop more like a zombie than anything else.
I’d left Theo’s texts he sent last night unanswered.
Theo
Can I see you?
Theo
We need to talk.
Theo
Need to know you’re okay.
Theo
Please, Piper. Talk to me.
Ignoring his pleading, I’d tried with everything I had to pack our things, but instead, I’d lain there on the floor, rocking and crying for hours as I warred with the collision of grief and apprehension and this feeling like the roots I’d allowed to sprout had grown too deep.
My spirit a toil of uncertainty.
Unsure if I’d been grounded or trapped.
Terrified I was only repeating every horrible mistake I’d made when I’d been so naïve. Ignoring the signs that had been staked right in front of me like proof.
Visions ran on a constant circuit, unable to get the gruesome scene out of my mind. The viciousness that had taken Theo hostage when he dragged the blade of that knife across that man’s throat.
All while it clashed with the sense that what he and the rest of the guys were doing was right.
A dire, appalling necessity.
Because what was he supposed to do? Let them get to Alicia and Lucy?
Nausea rolled in my stomach at the thought. I had the sudden realization that if that knife was in my hand, I likely would have done the same.
No choice but to protect when someone else sought to destroy.
But how did you survive in a life like that? I’d struggled for years to leave the corrupt behind. To run from its grips. To stay one step ahead of it so we might have a chance at a normal life.
Someway.
Thinking if I somehow fought hard enough for it, we would finally stumble on it.
And I’d crashed directly into a bed of iniquity.
Or maybe this was exactly where we belonged.
So, I’d spent the night drifting in and out of vivid, disturbing dreams.
Nightmares from when I was nineteen. The blood. So much blood. Justin at the frayed ends of my mind as he hunted me.
They’d shift and flash to nightmares of the viciousness that had been written in bold, disturbing lines on Theo’s face when he killed that man.
Then they’d ultimately swing to nightmares of never seeing him again.
At just before dawn, I’d finally pulled my aching body off the floor, had showered and dressed, and had ended up here for my shift.
Numb.
Working on autopilot.
The whole day, I could feel Emery’s eyes on me as she wandered through Ivy Threads. Her care and worry woven in every glance she cast my way.
She’d hugged me tight when I’d first shown up, murmuring, “I’m so glad you’re still here.”
But that was all that had been said.
For the first time since I started to work here, Kane hadn’t shown, and there was an air of apprehension that had filled the store.
The normally light, airy mood dampened.
Or maybe it was just that I’d never been able to take in a full breath the entire day.
Now, my actions were stilted as I folded a pink sweater, fingers trembling as I checked the size so I could place it in its proper spot.
“Have a nice afternoon,” Emery called to a woman as she exited through the door, the bell jingling over her head.