Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“How about you think for a minute what I’m going through, you selfish son of a bitch?”
I growled as my hands fisted at my sides. “All I’ve done is think about you, and that’s why we’re in this bullshit to begin with.”
“Are you just going to sit there and be all you?” She gestured her hand toward me, working it up and down.
“You’re not going to ask any more questions—”
“The hell I’m not!”
“If you interrupt me one more fucking time, Hennessy, I’ll gag you. Do you understand me? Nod your pretty little head if you do.”
I could see it in her eyes. She wanted to defy me. However, she reluctantly nodded instead.
“Good girl.”
Her jaw clenched.
“Trust me, Hennessy. I know this is really hard for you, but you have two choices here. You can either listen to every order I give you or…” I paused, letting my words sink in. “You can be silenced.”
She opened her mouth but quickly remembered my warning.
“Good girl.”
She scowled at me, mouthing, “Fuck you.”
I sighed, unwillingly giving in to her. “Ask.”
She didn’t hesitate. “Now I’m just expected to trust you?”
I didn’t waver in my reaction. “I’m not who you think I am.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t understand.”
“And you’re not going to.”
“Try me. Please. I need to know you’re not going to hurt me.”
“For now, you’re safe with me.”
“For now?”
“You’re going to have to trust me.”
“Don’t you dare tell me that… not after all this.”
“You fell for the man you think I am.”
“That’s not true.”
“You can’t be this naive.”
She winced, not trying to hide it from me. “So what? I’m just a job to you?” Her eyes widened in disbelief.
It was blatantly obvious that her mind was spinning out of control. The realization of my statement caused her more turmoil than it did ease.
She peered around the woods, avoiding my eyes. Her emotions were getting the best of her.
“I just want to go home,” she whispered so low.
She wasn’t talking about her uncle’s. “You’re not safe there right now. You need to be here with me.”
She frowned, tears pooling in her eyes as she bowed her head, defeated. “With you?”
“Yes. With me.”
She peered up at me through her long, dark lashes as a few tears streamed down the sides of her face, but she instantly wiped them away, not wanting me to see her looking so weak.
Again, fear was a hell of a drug, and I understood that too. She was probably crying from the adrenaline coursing through her veins.
Still, she didn’t understand I could read her like the back of my hand without even trying.
“You’re safe here for the time being,” I answered her question the best I could.
“With a man like you? A Brotherhood member? You’re precious Blood Oath Brotherhood?”
“Something like that.”
She gave me a questioning stare. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you in danger too?”
“I’m always in fucking danger. It comes with the territory of who I am. I thought you understood that.”
It hurt her to hear the truth out of my mouth. I could tell she felt bad for me, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t faze me.
It did.
Much more than I cared to admit.
I couldn’t remember the last time someone did.
“Why were you ordered to watch me?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me. Do you have cameras in my house?”
Dealing with the tantrum she was about to throw, I spoke another truth, “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”
Her face dropped. “The food… it was you?”
“It made you happy.”
Her eyes widened, realizing what this meant. “So you’ve watched me shower?”
Being the asshole I was, I acknowledged…
* * *
“Among other things.”
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Onyx: When someone tells you, “You’ve changed,” it might simply be because you’ve stopped living your life their way.
She gasped. “You shameless bastard!” She went at me again. This time, she lunged for me, getting on top of me.
In less than a second, I flipped us over, gripping her throat with my bloody hand, marking her. “Who do you think you’re fucking with?” Unable to resist provoking her, I insisted, “I’m going to need that dagger back now. You can keep the belt.” Licking away her tears from her cheek, I bit, “I’ll tie you up with it.”
All the color drained from her face. “It was you… How did—”
“Hennessy,” I half sang, purposely trying to taunt her. If we were going to have it out, then I was going to enjoy it. “You haven’t been paying attention. I fucking warned you.”
“But you showed me your hands.”
Cocking my head to the side with an evil grin, I confessed, “I just showed you what I wanted you to see. Haven’t you met the makeup artist?”
She rasped, “You fucking asshole.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “How many ways do I have to prove that to you?”
“Why?”
I maliciously smiled. “We’re bonded for life now. You’re mine.”