Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
“I’m going to give you one chance,” Davis says as he turns to face my grandpa again, his voice a low growl. “One fucking chance. You get back in your truck and get the fuck off my land.”
“Or what?”
My fury is lit as I pull my shoulders back and he darts his eyes between us, I say, “We’re gonna pop all four of your tires. Then you’ll have to call Larry at the tire shop and we don’t want to do that, do we, Grandpa?” I say, cooing, “What will Larry do when he learns that you’ve been bonking his wife every Sunday after Bible Study for the last twenty years? Do we want to see that?”
Davis nods but adds, “And I’ll shoot you as a trespasser.”
“You will not!”
“You want to try me? You break into my home, steal my things and I’m supposed to just let you go?”
Grandpa huffs. “I didn’t break in or steal anything!”
“You took the most precious thing I have.” Davis puts an arm around me. “The two most precious things.”
“What’s that supposed to… You don’t answer your phone, what am I supposed to think? I told you one day I’d call on you and you needed to be there. Tit for tat. I kept your secret but by God, I won’t anymore. I get here and find her gone from where I left her and having a goddamn vacation with you and your fucking brother!”
“You left her for the fucking wolves, old man.”
“I left her to repent! You’re going to jail for the rest of your fucking life, Davis Ray. God only knows what you’ve done to her. What you’ve forced my granddaughter’s soul to endure.”
I fling myself around, arms crossed, and my heart pounding. I feel powerful and exhilarated and utterly…myself thanks to Davis. “I love him. He hasn’t forced me to do anything. And I’m eighteen, anything me and Davis have done is our business—”
“Shut your damn mouth! I don’t want to even think about what you’ve done!”
“You don’t talk to her like that,” Davis growls, stepping forward, raising the shotgun. “Get the hell off my land.”
“Tell her,” Grandpa says, pointing from Davis to me. “Tell her what you did.”
“You’re too much,” I scream, laughing hysterically. “I told you he already told me all about it. I know what happened and it wasn’t his fault.”
Grandpa folds his arms over his chest, glaring at Davis. “Tell her, or I will.”
What is it going to take to get through to him that I know everything and I still love this man? That we’re going to be together forever…
Turning to Davis, his eyes are on the ground, jaw locked. He’s…shaking.
Davis raises his eyes to my grandpa, but his face is a riot of emotion that’s written in the dark lines between his brows and the frown that pulls his lips down into his beard.
“What’s he talking about?” I ask. “Davis?”
I touch the exposed skin of his arm and he flinches, turning with darkened eyes that look right through me. I want to kiss him and take away the pain, but I want to know. I need to know.
“Davis?” I repeat, as he exhales so hard it looks like his body deflates, letting the gun drop. He slides down, sitting on the ground with his elbows on his knees, face in his hands.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry, baby…” Anger contorts his features as a single tear falls down his cheek.
“Sorry for what? Don’t cry.”
“He was going to kill her.” He starts but I’m lost as I stare at the man I love looking defeated. “That guy was pounding on her. His knuckles were bloody, her face…”
“What are you talking about? Who are you talking about?”
He shakes his head. “The man I killed. Not my father, another man. A guy in an alley. He was fucking beating on a girl. Screaming she was holding out on him. All I saw was my fucking father, screaming his excuses for why he was hitting my mom. I lost it.”
“Bullshit,” Grandpa laughs. “Bull fucking shit. You enjoyed yourself. Who knows how any other people you’ve killed.”
“No.” Davis chokes then looks at me. “There’s no one else, baby. I promise you. No one else.”
My heart is breaking as the world seems to dim and sway.
“It’s okay,” I say.
“I saw the whole thing.” Grandpa spits. “He’s a murderer, Marin, and he’s going to go to prison for a long time.”
“You saw?” I turn and gape. “You saw and did you help?”
Grandpa scoffs. “What was I going to do? That junkie deserved to die, waste of the life God gave him but that doesn’t mean the law will let this animal off the hook—”
“You didn’t try to help that woman? You didn’t, I don’t know, call an ambulance? Or the police?”
“Ran off as soon as she got free.”