Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Bonnie’s face popped into my head as I felt the dog tag’s metal cutting into my palm. I glanced down at my fingers and relived them playing the keys. Tattoos of skulls, and of the ID number that meant the most to me in the world, looked back at me. They mocked me.
It had to have been Bonnie Farraday who had walked in. At midnight, when everyone else was out at the bar or in bed, it had to be her who stood at the door. The one girl who had managed to get under my skin. To make me feel things I had never wanted to feel. I shook my head and ran my free hand over my face.
It had started with a message in my mailbox…
Drop by my office at five,
Professor Lewis.
I’d gone there and taken a seat in the chair opposite his. He had stared at me quietly. I’d met him a couple of times in my life. Mostly when I was young…then just before…
The first time I’d met him, I’d gone with my parents to see him conduct his work at the Royal Albert Hall.
He’d heard of me and had invited us all along.
Then years passed and I heard nothing again. Not when I’d wanted him anyway.
Right now, I barely knew him at all. “How are you doing, Cromwell?” he asked, his accent similar to my mum’s, although hers had been diluted through too many years in England.
“Fine,” I muttered and looked at the certificates on the walls. At a picture of him conducting an orchestra playing his music at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall.
I remembered how the place had smelled. Wood. Resin from the bows.
“How are you finding Jefferson?”
“Dull.”
Lewis sighed. He leaned forward, his face apprehensive. It became clear why a few seconds later. “I noticed the date this morning.” He paused. “I know it’s the anniversary of your father…” He cleared his throat. “I know I only met him a couple of times. But we spoke often. He…he believed in you so much…”
I paled. I didn’t know my father spoke to him often. I closed my eyes for a second and inhaled.
It was as simple as a Google search to see how and when it happened. People I didn’t know—or barely knew—could find out every detail if they got hold of my father’s name. They could read his death like they knew him. Like they were there when it happened…
But I couldn’t do it right now. I wouldn’t face this with a professor I didn’t know from Adam. He might have offered me a scholarship, but the guy didn’t know me. He had no right to stick his nose in this.
I jumped to my feet and stormed out of the door. “Cromwell!” Lewis’s voice trailed off to nothing as I got the hell away.
Students gave me a wide berth as I stormed down the corridor. I shouldered some arsehole, who spun on me. “Watch it, douchebag.”
I slammed my hands into his chest and threw him up against the wall. “You watch it, wanker. Before I rearrange your face.” I needed to hit him. I needed to get this surge of anger out of me before I did something I’d regret.
“Cromwell!” Easton’s voice cut through the gathering crowd. I yanked the prick in my hands off the wall and threw him to the ground. He looked up at me, wide-eyed I turned and burst through the door, looking from left to right, just wondering where the hell to go.
Easton caught up with me. He jumped in front of me. “East, I swear to God. Get out of my way.”
“Come with me,” he said.
“East—”
“Just come with me.”
I followed after him.
Some chick waved at me. “Hi, Cromwell.”
“Not now,” I snapped, then jumped into Easton’s truck. Easton pulled out of the campus, and for once in his life had the sense not to open his mouth.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. My mum was calling. She’d been trying all day. Gritting my teeth, I answered.
“Cromwell,” she said, relief in her voice.
“What?”
There was a pause. “I was just checking you were okay today, honey.”
“I’m fine,” I said, shuffling in my seat. I needed to get the hell out of this truck.
My mum sniffed, and ice-cold fury swept through me. “It’s a hard day for us both, Cromwell.”
My lip curled in disgust. “Yeah, well, you got your new husband to make it all better. Go pour your heart out to him.”
I hung up, just as Easton pulled up to a wooded area covered with thick green trees. I jumped out of the truck and stormed forward, not knowing where I was going. I burst through the trees and came to water. I stopped dead.
I closed my eyes and just stood there trying to calm the hell down. I breathed in, tensing my stomach when I felt all the pain I knew would come today.