Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 159420 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159420 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
“But then, everything happened, right? Arsen broke into our ranch and attacked my dad. We were sent to live out in the city, and I thought things would be fine now. I thought my mom would be okay, that she’d finally escaped, and for a few months, it looked like she had. But then I saw my dad’s doctor leaving our house one day when I was coming back from school, the one who gave pills to my mom, and that was it. That was my last clue. I didn’t need more evidence after that. I understood, really understood, that my mom wasn’t free. She hadn’t made her escape. He still had her under his thumb; he still had me under his thumb. No matter what happened to him, no matter what happens to him in the future, he’ll always be powerful. He’ll never leave us alone. We’re tied to him, my mom and I.”
I take a deep breath and blink my eyes to get rid of my tears. I keep myself wrapped around the man, the first man I’ve told the truth to, and whisper, “My mom, she lives up in the mountains now. She had a… she had a stroke a couple of years back and everyone keeps saying it was an accident, but I think it was the pills. I don’t know what they are, but they aren’t good for her. She’s more or less catatonic. She has care around the clock, but they all work for my father so even in this state, she isn’t free. I go up there every summer to spend time with her, even though she never knows I’m there.
“We tell everyone that she’s out globe-trotting, but it’s a lie. And I can never tell the truth because if I do, he’ll kill her. I can never go against him or his wishes, or he’ll kill my mother. Those men he forces me to go out with, I can never say no to that. I can never say no when one day, he’ll ask me to marry one of them. It’ll probably be for more land because that’s why my dad married my mom. For more land. And maybe the man I marry will do the same thing to me that my dad did to my mom and I’ll never be able to tell the truth about that either. Because if I did, he’d push me off the horse. And I’d die.”
After I’m done talking, I feel such relief that all I do is breathe. It feels like the first free breath I’ve taken since I was ten. Ever since my world fell apart around me and monsters came crawling out. Real monsters. Who hurt people for money and power. Like my dad. And it wasn’t until he came into my life, my Phantom, that I realized not all men are monsters. Some men are good. Some men are gods, kings. And Radisson King is one of them.
I don’t know how much time has passed since I stopped talking, but it seems like a long time and when I come back to myself, I realize something. I realize that his hold on me is stronger, much stronger, than mine on him. And I was holding him with a death grip. I also notice that he isn’t frozen like he was before, no. He’s shaking. There’s a tremor running through him, and since his body is so large and muscular, thick arms, thick neck, bulging thighs and boulderlike torso, it feels like an earthquake. It feels like the ground is shaking with him.
I tilt my face up to his ear and whisper, “Radisson?”
I hear a low growl.
And I push myself away from him to look up at his face. My own must have blanched because I’ve never seen him look like this. He looks darker somehow, and it’s not his Stetson casting a shadow or his skin being bronzed by the sun. It’s something else. It’s him. It’s like the blood in his veins is rushing so fast and so close to the surface, painting the harsh lines of his face, his scar flushed. Even his eyes that are staring into mine are pitch-black, and I thought I’d seen him go dark before. But not like this, never like this. It’s like his fury is a living thing inside of him. It has a heart and a thousand degrees of heat. His fury is fire, and it’s ready to engulf the world in its flames.
I put my hand on his cheek. “What’s wrong? What—”
His arms around me squeeze me hard. “You know, I’m goin’ to end him. For this.”
His voice also sounds darker, lowest of the low and the roughest it’s ever been. And he says it so slowly, pausing at every other word. They settle into me, into my bones, heavily. But I don’t let it slow me down as I shake my head and tell him, “You can’t. Radisson, you promised your sister. You promised—”