Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19985 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 67(@300wpm)
God, I let him take my virginity and whisper a fantasy to me about a house by the water where we’d spend our days together. And this whole time, he was lying to me about who he was. Who he is.
I close the closet door and fall back on the bed. I want to cry, but I can’t. Not yet. I’m too angry for tears. Those will come soon.
Chris knows the instant he walks through the door.
I’m on the couch with the lights off. The sun is going down, and the house is dark, aside from the last strip of purple over the ocean.
I haven’t done anything since the closet. I’ve sat here thinking, replaying every moment, every conversation, every kiss. Looking for cracks in his story and finding dozens.
He stops at the doorway, eyes on me, reading me the way he always does. What he sees makes him go still.
“What’s wrong?”
I almost snap at him. “Who are you?”
Silence. A long, heavy silence. Even from the couch, I can hear him breathing.
“Avery—”
“I found the bag, Chris. Cash, fake IDs, another phone, and a blueprint?” Somehow, I’m keeping my voice steady, and I’m proud of that. Because inside, I’m falling apart. “So tell me who you are. Right now. Or I walk.”
He closes the door behind him and moves slowly into the room like he’s approaching a wounded animal. He doesn’t sit. He just stands in front of me with his hands at his side. Slowly, the mask he’s been wearing all this time falls away.
“I rob banks.”
I swallow hard. “Banks…”
“That’s what the blueprints are for. My crew and I have been planning a job—a job that goes down tomorrow.”
His words hit me like individual bullets, each one sending a hot pain into me that radiates out until my whole body is shaking.
Chris…is a bank robber.
The man I gave my virginity to, the man who held me so sweetly and called me his, the man who sat me down and described our perfect life together…
Is a bank robber.
I should get up now and walk out. Maybe even call the cops on him. That’s what I should do.
But I can’t. Something keeps me in my place.
“For how long?” I ask.
“Eleven years.”
My stomach drops. An entire career based on taking what isn’t his. “You’ve never been caught?”
“No. I’m careful.”
“Have you…hurt anyone?”
He pauses. It feels like an eternity. “Not anyone who didn’t have it coming. Like those men at the pier.”
I close my eyes, feeling the anger within—burning, rising. But beneath that, there’s something worse.
Fear.
Not fear of Chris. I’ve never been afraid of him, and even now, despite everything he’s told me, I’m still not. No, I’m afraid for him. For what might happen if he walks into that bank tomorrow.
“You lied to me…” My voice starts to crack. “I gave myself to you, Chris. I told my best friend you were a good man. I believed everything you said about the house, our life together. And the whole time, you were just lying to me!”
“No!” His voice is rough, strained, like he wants to shout but is holding back. “Yes, I lied about what I do, but when I told you how I feel about you—when I told you about the life I want with you—I was not lying.”
I shake my head. “How can I believe that?”
“I’m telling you now, Avery. The truth. Right now.” He takes a step closer. “I could have taken that bag and disappeared without you ever knowing, but I didn’t. I’m still here, telling you that I want you with me.”
He’s close enough to touch me. There’s a strained look on his face like nothing I’ve ever seen on him. The control, the discipline. It’s slipping.
I see desperation, emotion. And it’s raw.
He’s terrified of losing me.
Somehow, I manage to stand. My legs wobble, but I brace myself and stare at him. “This job is tomorrow?”
He nods. “Yes.”
“And that phone call you took yesterday? That was one of your guys? Part of your crew?”
“Yes. He got himself busted and brought the heat down on all of us. Since then, I’ve been trying to find a way out.”
“A way…out?” I ask. “You mean, not robbing the bank? Going away with me like you described?”
“That’s right.”
I look at him, the man with ice-blue eyes and scarred knuckles, and think back to the first time he caught my eye at the bookstore. The first time he kissed me, made love to me.
“And you still want that? The house, waking me up in the morning, showing you how to cook eggs?”
He nods firmly. “Yes.”
“Then you can’t walk into that bank tomorrow, Chris. You can’t have me if you’re dead or in prison.” I put my hand against his chest. His heart is pounding so hard I actually can’t believe it. “I don’t care about money, Chris, or some dream house on the water. I just need you, alive, so you can wrap me up in your arms.”