Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“I don’t think that’s the worst,” Astro whispered. “My wife reads a bunch of those books, and she says the worst is the type called a storm or something. I don’t know what that means.”
The deputy sighed. “Yeah, it’s a weird night. Come on, you two. Your wives should be here any minute.”
“I’m trying to help you,” Keane said between clenched teeth. “You don’t know how bad this can get.”
“Uh, we could stay longer,” Ranger admitted. “No need to call the wives.”
“Come on.” The deputy opened their cell. “Go out and wait with Tanya.” He looked back at Keane before sliding the key into the lock and opening it. “You need to stay here until I talk to my boss. Livie, you want in?”
She nodded. “I do. I have some things to say to my Dom. Could you check and make sure my dad doesn’t come in to try to rescue me from the man I love? Well, one of them. You might check and make sure he didn’t already alienate the other one. Were you as mean to Garrett as you were to me?”
He held firm. “I do not want her in this cell. Take her out.”
Her eyes rolled. The brat. She simply pushed and slipped in. “You can lock us in until the paperwork clears. Make sure Garrett doesn’t run. Bring him in here if you have to. I can only keep eyes on one of them at a time, it seems. I don’t know how my momma does it.”
The sound of the lock clicking closed was even worse now because she was here with him.
“You have to leave.” He could remember everything. He dreamed about it at night when he could sleep. He learned sleep was his vulnerable time, the time when the predators came out.
He felt soft hands on him. “It’s okay, Master.”
It wasn’t. It never was. It was pain and horror and violation. The first time he’d been slammed down and woken up in the infirmary, he hadn’t known what all had been done to him.
The second time he was pretty sure.
“Master, I’m not letting them take you,” she said soothingly. “I won’t allow them to hurt you again.”
Things he should be saying. If he was a man. Had he lost that in prison, too?
She wrapped her arms around him and held him so tight. “I’m not letting you go. You spit all the bile you need to, Master. Say it all. I can take it. But what I won’t do is leave you. If you run, I’ll follow. If you hide, I’ll find you and make sure you’re taken care of because I love you. Even if you can’t love me.”
The horror of it all seemed to wash over him like it had been held back because he couldn’t handle it all at once, but she was here now. She was here and he could let it go. He clutched her so tight and felt his tears.
That wasn’t manly either, but it felt good.
“Let it out, Master. Let me share it. It’s what I want. I want to share everything with you. All the joy and all the pain. It’s ours.”
“Olivia,” his voice sounded raspy, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t admit this if he was staring at her face. But with her wrapped around him like the warmest, safest blanket ever, it came out. “They…they hurt me in there.”
Her arms tightened. “I still love you. I hate that it happened, but I’m glad you’re here, Master.”
“Olivia…” He couldn’t say the words.
She leaned back so she could look at him. “They raped you. They beat you. It doesn’t make you any less my Master, but not accepting my love and comfort does. Not accepting our help does make you less. You are not less, Keane Rollins. You have survived things no one else could. So stop this whole martyr act and accept that we are a family and that means we’re together no matter what.”
Family. He never had one. His mother tried, but she was so young and he’d been a burden, proof that she was everything her parents told her she was. He could still remember how peaceful she’d looked when she died.
And then it was endless rounds of people who never got to know him.
Then there was Garrett. Stupid, fragile Garrett, who in the beginning thought someone would change their mind and come for him, but no one ever did.
So they found each other. And then it happened and he was sure Garrett would pull back, but he never did. Even when he went to law school, he never hid his best friend from his fellow students and later his coworkers. He’d been there the day they’d released him, driving up from Houston in a beat-up sedan with a bag of tacos from some fast-food place because that was what they ate when they celebrated.