Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Kane
Blair isn’t exactly running straight into my arms, but after last night, things feel a little less loaded today than they did yesterday. She came downstairs this morning freshly showered and smelling like the vanilla-scented body lotion I picked up for her the other day. She ate breakfast and didn’t complain about the coffee tasting like “ass.”
She even helped Kylie with the dishes.
All in all, she’s finding her way here.
And trust me, I know what a feat that is for her. Blair might be spoiled and difficult and stubborn, but beneath the snobby exterior lies a woman who has had her entire world flipped upside down. She’s soft and fragile and vulnerable, and I savor every single one of the moments she’s let her guard down enough to just let me hold her.
Because, fuck, that’s all I want to do.
It’s nearing three in the afternoon, and she stands just inside the tree line surrounding the cabin.
Even while she’s dressed in my flannel and sweatpants, she doesn’t look like a woman who belongs in a place like this.
But she’s trying. I know she’s trying.
I can feel the sincerity through her intentions.
Though, she’s also confused and still fighting against our bond. I can feel that too. It’s like an incoming thunderstorm brewing, and you’re not sure whether it’s going to dump buckets of rain and lightning or pass over you without a drop of precipitation.
I walk across the lot in front of the cabin and head in her direction. She turns abruptly when she hears my boots crunch over gravel.
“You doing okay?”
At first, she says, “Yes,” but that’s quickly followed up by, “Actually, no.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“I need to call my mom.” Her voice isn’t sharp at all. If anything, it’s pleading, and that’s what breaks my heart the most. “She has to be worried sick about me, Kane,” she continues when I don’t immediately answer. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a search party out for me at this point. My mom, my dad, my sister Bonnie, they’re probably all losing their minds.”
I don’t tell her there’s no search party. Or that her face isn’t plastered across national news. I don’t tell her because we still don’t know why that’s the case. And the last fucking thing I want to do is make her assume something that’s not true—make her think her parents don’t care about her.
“I know you want to call your mom. I get it. I really do, Blair. But—”
“No,” she cuts me off. “No buts, Kane.” She gestures vaguely at the forest. “I can’t let them think I vanished. I can’t let them think I’ve been, like, left for dead or something. Can you imagine how horrible it has to be for them right now? They are probably worried sick.”
“I know.” I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “You’re right.”
“So, you’ll let me call her?”
My chest aches over what my answer has to be. “No. I’m sorry, but no.”
“You don’t get to say no,” she says quietly, but I can already see the sheen of tears behind her eyes. I can hear the shake in her voice.
“If you call them right now,” I explain, “you tell them where you are. Or you tell them enough that someone tracks it. Then this place isn’t safe anymore. Not just for you or for me, but all of us. For Kylie. For Rook. For Cal. I can’t put them in a bad situation they didn’t ask for.” I’ve sure as shit already done enough by bringing her here against her will.
“Seriously, Kane?” She laughs, and it sounds almost hysterical. “You think my parents are going to send someone here? You think they’re dangerous?”
I don’t answer fast enough, and a small gasp escapes her lungs. “You do. You think my parents are dangerous.”
“No.” I choose my words carefully. “I think they’re involved with people who are.”
“My father is not some criminal mastermind,” she snaps. “He sits on boards. He donates to hospitals.”
“And he walks inside elite vampire circles.”
She stiffens. “That’s different.”
“It isn’t, Blair.”
She shakes her head, stepping back like I physically pushed her. “You don’t know anything about my family.”
“I know enough.”
“Enough to what?” she fires back. “To decide I’m better off cut off from them? To decide I don’t get to hear my mother’s voice ever again?”
The word mother cracks on the way out because it’s the real wound. Her mom is at the surface of all her current turmoil.
“She raised me,” Blair continues, her voice trembling. “She prepared me my whole life. You don’t get to step in for mere days and act like you know better than the woman who birthed me. Sure, she wasn’t always the greatest at times, but what parent is? She’s consistent and only wants the best for me. That’s all she’s ever wanted. For me to have the best of everything.”