Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
“So you’re saying he’d be better off without you?”
His thick throat bobbed as he swallowed, wavering, hesitating, his attention back on the child.
He was so conflicted I was surprised this man didn’t cut right in two.
“No.”
“Then love him, Silas. Love him with everything you have.”
I gulped and pressed forward, laying myself bare.
“Love me.” The appeal croaked from my mouth.
Silas froze. Torment seethed in his being, and his eyes pinched closed as he muttered, “I can’t.”
It was a blade stabbed directly into my heart.
A violent evisceration.
But I expected it, didn’t I? I knew there was no place this could go but to its end, and I’d begged for it, anyway.
Somehow, I managed to keep it together enough to nod, though I could barely speak. “Goodbye, Silas.”
I hurried across the hall and into his room, frantic as I gathered a few things, stuffing what I could into my duffel and leaving the rest.
I had to get out of there.
Far freaking away.
I wasn’t about to go back to the room over the club.
I was going to disappear.
From everything and everyone.
Dereck could fend for himself because it was time I looked after myself.
Time I went after the things that I deserved and the things that I wanted.
Too bad what I wanted was the man who stood as a dark silhouette in the middle of Kai’s doorway when I flew back out of his room.
I nearly stumbled with the look on his face.
Crushed all over again by the absolute devastation carved in the slashed, explicit lines. I guess he was right, after all. We both were going to end up ruined.
I forced myself to drop my head, slinging the strap over my shoulder and beelining for the stairs.
Head down as I raced to the bottom, holding onto the railing to keep myself steady when I felt every inch of me falling apart.
“Brinley,” he heaved from over the upper railing.
Misery lancinated out.
I shook my head with the impact, swallowing down the sob that thickened at my throat.
I hit the landing and rushed for the door, trying to keep my movements quiet since Elena and Meems were trying to sleep. I didn’t want to disturb them, but I was pretty sure whatever Silas and I were emitting was likely rattling the walls.
I pulled open the door and slipped out into the night. Bugs trilled in the trees, and I could hear the faint echoes of the party happening at the clubhouse in the distance.
I diverted course, ducking under the cover of branches and heading up the shortcut that led to the front of the property.
I knew I was going to have to go toe to toe with some of Silas’s men, but they weren’t going to stop me.
I was leaving.
Silas had made it clear there was no place for me here.
I realized I didn’t want shelter.
I wanted a home.
I was finally almost free, and I didn’t want to go anywhere.
The full realization of that bled out. Rolling off me in staggering waves. The thought of never seeing Elena and Meems again splintered my heart.
But the thought of never getting to hold Kai again? Of never seeing Silas again?
It was gutting.
Knowing I’d never get to experience the high I felt when Silas walked into the room. Of never getting to feel that sense of surety. Of completeness. Of someone fully understanding me, and I didn’t have to be afraid or ashamed of it.
A sob hooked in my throat, and I attempted to smother it as I ducked through the shadows that played through the night.
That was when I felt a flashfire of heat roll over me from behind.
A shockwave that torched the air.
“Brinley!” The shout hit me from behind, an echo that reverberated through the heavens.
I stumbled a step.
Knowing Silas, he was setting out to stop me. A job he had to see through.
No more.
I hurried faster, the sandals I’d quickly shoved my feet into slipping over the damp grasses below.
My heart thundered and my senses whirled.
His aura caught up in a flash.
“Brinley!” he shouted again, that time closer.
And I got the same sense I had the night he chased me down when I initially tried to escape.
The fear that I was about to be destroyed, but this time it was a completely different form of annihilation.
“Brinley, please. Fucking stop.”
I fumbled, and one second later, I felt him like a landslide. His presence was nothing but domination.
Taking hold of the air that shivered with his potency.
White-hot lightning licked across my flesh, and every hair on my body lifted in awareness.
I inhaled a fractured breath, drawing him into the aching well of my chest.
Sweet, liquored cherry always muddling my mind.
I shouldn’t have looked back, but I couldn’t have stopped myself even if I knew the sight of him would prove lethal.
Not with the way he had a hook in my heart.