Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 20358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
She has me feeling like the king of the universe.
“You know it just occurred to me,” she says as she starts whisking the eggs. “All my things are still at Berry’s.”
My jaw clenches just at the sound of his name.
“Don’t worry about that.” My blood pounds through my veins. “I’ll just break in and take them. They belong to you anyway.”
Ava smiles but shakes her head. “No, don’t risk it. I don’t need them anyway.”
“You know what I need?” I ask, rising and wrapping my arms around her waist.
“What?”
“You, and only you.”
I’m just about to kiss her when the whole house shakes. A loud crash comes from the front door, and I race into the hall to see four suited men pointing guns at me.
“Get down!” one of them orders.
Heart pounding, I glance over at Ava, who is already shaking. Then slowly, I sit on the floor as these men storm into my home.
At first, I don’t know what’s going on. But then I see him.
“Berry,” I growl as he steps through the shattered door. He puffs a cigar and looks down at me as his men drag Ava from the kitchen.
“Where’s that middle finger now?” He snorts.
“Get off me!” Ava screams, causing every muscle in my body to go tense.
I have to do something. But with two guns pointed at me, I’d be dead before I could even move.
Berry reaches into his pocket and pulls out a phone. He shows me the screen—a map showing my house, with a blinking red dot on it.
“They make it really easy to track your wife these days.”
“She’s not your wife,” I snarl, on fire with rage. “Just because the law says—”
“The law says she’s mine,” he laughs, shrugging and taking a puff of his cigar. “And there ain’t shit you can do about it.”
“Rick! Help me!”
I glance at the barrels of the two guns aimed at me, grinding my teeth. If I move, I’m dead.
But just seeing those other bastards with their hands on my future bride has me raging inside.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” I warn Berry. “I’ll make you a deal. You let her go now, and I won’t come after you. But if you take her, I will rain down hellfire on you.”
Berry looks at me and laughs, then signals one of his men, who clocks me in the side of the head with the butt of his pistol.
“You are gonna make a deal with me? Give it a rest, pal. It’s over. She’s mine. And there ain’t shit you can do about it.”
My vision starts to blur. I feel dizzy.
Ava’s voice rings out in a distorted echo.
“Rick, don’t let him take me!”
I have to help her. I have to do something. Losing her is not an option.
But the next thing I know, the world is going black. All I see are silhouettes.
If I live, I’ll kill him.
My body gives out, and I fall to the floor.
But I don’t even feel the impact because I’m out cold.
10
AVA
“You thought you were pretty smart, didn’t you?” Berry smirks, sitting beside me, his eyes on my exposed legs. “It’s not your fault. Your brain just isn’t the size of a man like mine’s.”
I want to snap back at him. Spit in his face. But I just don’t have the energy.
My body feels heavy. Like my soul has been crushed to pieces and pulled out of me.
Why didn’t Rick fight for me back there?
He’s done it before. Why not now?
It’s been almost twenty-four hours since Berry took me, and Rick’s just gone. Was all that talk about me belong to him now just that—all talk?
I screamed for him as Berry’s men snatched me up, their filthy hands all over me, dragging me out the door. But he did nothing.
His T-shirt and shorts are all the cover my body, and it pains me to think that what we had together was nothing…
…just a game. A game with no conclusion.
No. It can’t be. He loves me!
Tears swell in my eyes, but I hold them back. I can’t cry in front of Berry. He can’t see my despair. He’d just enjoy it.
We’re in the living room now. He sits like a king in his recliner while I have my knees curled up to my chest on the couch.
Like always, he’s proudly puffing a cigar. Everything about Berry—from the silk shirts to the gold chain necklaces and cigars—is like a man who styled himself from the movies.
With Rick, it’s like I could feel his strength and his soul radiating out from within him. But with Berry, it’s like sitting across from a black void of nothing.
“I’m going to bed,” I tell him, standing. But before I can move, he’s up and has his hand around my wrist.
“That’s what you think.”
My body trembles as I stare up at his threatening eyes.