Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
The fear in his eyes should give me some pleasure, but I would feel none. She’d robbed me of ever feeling any pleasure again.
“Kash, don’t—” she began to plead.
“If you beg for his life, it will be more brutal,” I warned her.
Tears filled her eyes, and she trembled. Did she love him? Her gaze dropped to his, and when his locked with hers, my grip on the blade in my hand tightened, and I shoved it through his ribs and pierced his lung. The moment it sank inside the organ, I let out a savage growl. His breathing instantly became fast and short. I thrust harder. I heard Cressida say my name, I heard her crying, but for once, I didn’t care. She would watch him die. Right here in the room she’d betrayed me in.
Present Day
“Where were you last night?”
I hadn’t heard Oz enter the kitchen, but then I hadn’t even known he was here. I stood, staring at the espresso machine as it filled my cup. I’d not fallen asleep last night. My inability to take a goddamn shower and wash her scent from my body probably didn’t help.
“Where were you?” I shot back at him.
He let out a heavy sigh. “Why can’t you stay the fuck away from her?” he asked in a whispered growl.
Fuck. He knew I’d gone to see Cressida. That meant Bane most likely knew too. Dammit!
“I don’t see anything wrong with visiting an old friend,” I replied, taking my cup, then turning to look at him.
Oz ran a hand through his hair, frustration marring his brow. “Because you are a fucking psycho when it comes to that girl.”
I shrugged, trying not to show him how close to the truth he was. “I was a kid. I’m not that kid anymore. I was curious as to how her life had turned out and why she was at Aunt Glenda’s, working as a sitter. I don’t see any issue with it. No one has to know. I got my answers, and I don’t plan on seeing her again.”
I’d also kept the used condom because it smelled like her cunt. Yeah, not psycho at all.
“She’s not good for you. Seeing her isn’t good for your mental health. You were toxic together. Where she was concerned, you were insane. You stabbed her goddamn brother in her bed and watched him bleed to death.”
I took a drink before responding, “Thanks for the recap. I was there. I’ve also stabbed other men and watched them bleed to death. We all have.”
Oz shook his head. “Not the same thing, and you know it.”
“True. I didn’t cut him in pieces and toss him to the hogs.”
“Fuck, Kash. Don’t you want to come home? Stay?”
I nodded. “More than anything.”
“Then act like it!”
Did that mean I had a chance at getting to stay? Cressida’s face last night when she’d come with my cock buried deep inside her flashed in my head. I’d be near her. Could I stay away from her? I’d spouted some shit about closure last night and let her think I’d left so that I could calm down. Get my head on straight. Watching her wipe tears from her cheeks as she walked into that house alone about broke me. But it had to be done. My staking a claim on her and carrying her off like a caveman wasn’t an option.
I had stood out there in the woods, watching her window well past the time her lamp turned off. The sun was threatening to rise when I finally walked back to my Hummer. I’d typed out and deleted at least ten text messages to her.
“I will. I am. Like I said, just went to talk to her. See how she was doing. Nothing more.”
He said nothing as he studied me for any sign of a lie. He wasn’t going to get one. I took another drink.
“Is that all? Can I go get a shower now?” I asked him sarcastically.
Hopefully, he left and didn’t hang around because I wasn’t taking a shower. Not while her scent clung to my skin.
“You promise me you’ll stay away from her?” he asked.
“Scout’s honor.”
“Funny,” he drawled.
I smirked and walked past him. He needed to leave so I could decide just how I was going to kill this brother of her stepmother’s once I found out who he was and where he lived.
Sixteen
Cressida
If I’d been asleep, I wouldn’t have heard it. The smallest creak of the floorboard outside the bedroom door. Wiping at my tears, I sat up, clutching the covers to my chest, and stared at the closed door. Nothing happened. Had I imagined it?
The doorknob turned then, and I held my breath. I knew without seeing him who it was. Kash had texted me again today. Told me to meet him outside at midnight. I hadn’t. I went to bed, only to lie here and cry. Midnight had come and gone. It was almost one thirty.