Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“But…”
I cut off Hyde before he can finish, raising a hand. “We can’t jeopardize Kinkaid’s chance. All it would take is for her to tell one person, and everything would unravel.”
“But how will he find her on the outside?”
“We ask for an address… say we want to write her.”
“Have you noticed that she hasn’t shared much about herself since she’s been here? I don’t even know her last name.”
“Then we ask her. If she doesn’t want us to know, she’ll make an excuse, and we’ll let her go.”
“I want to tell her how I feel,” Hyde insists.
“You shouldn’t,” I say. “Not before she leaves. Save it for the letters. The rest we have to keep to ourselves.”
“I’m not a fucking patient man.” Hyde stands and strides back towards the bedroom where Lory’s sleeping. “I can’t wait.”
“You’ll have to, Hyde. You’ve got to keep it together. It’s the only way this has a chance of working.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t go,” Kinkaid says, stopping Hyde in his tracks, paused with his hand on the door.
“You’d stay?” He turns and his face tight with shock.
“I won’t leave you to spin out and do something that will keep you in here for longer. I’ll wait.”
“No fucking way,” Hyde growls. “You take your chance.” He stares at Kinkaid, really stares. “I’ll be fine.” He disappears inside the room and closes the door.
I meet Kinkaid’s worried eyes, shaking my head. “You’d give up your chance?”
“We’re a team,” he says. “That doesn’t end now.”
“It has to be every man for himself,” I say. “We have to take our chances when they come. This place, it doesn’t give us the luxury of choices.”
“If I go, I’ll do whatever it takes to get ready for you when you’re released. I’ll protect Lory.”
“I know you will.”
Before he has the chance to respond, the sound of the bed smacking rhythmically against the wall interrupts our flow. Hyde is taking his chances now. We all have to because this isn’t a thirty-day gratitude-enabled paradise anymore. Things are about to get real.
19
KINKAID
TOTAL POSSESSION
Lory's leaving. We have so little time left, and I'm more on edge than I've ever been. I've lost a handle on my state of mind, and I have no idea what to do. If I risk an escape, there’s a real chance that I’ll be discovered, and my sentence will be increased. I have one opportunity, and if I take it, I have to face the reality that I'll be on the run for the rest of my life.
Rock's so certain that I should do this because if I don't, I'll be forty before I'll be released. Forty years old. And Lory will most likely belong to someone else.
Maybe there are other men out there who are better than me—than us—but no one is going to love her like we will. It’s obvious in the way Hyde watches her with a small smile playing at the edges of his usually grim mouth, and how Rock touches her like he’s forgotten what landed him in this shithole. It’s in every molecule of my body, every fiber of my consciousness. She’s ours—our woman, made to fit with three broken men who never thought they’d find a real connection in this godforsaken life.
For the first time, I’ll have something sweet waiting for me on the outside. Something untainted. Someone who has the power to lift me up, not drag me down. And I can’t let it slip away.
I think about the money I have waiting for me. It’s dirty cash, earned doing things I’m not proud of now, but it’s enough to get established. I can support Lory while we wait for Hyde and Rock to get out. I can help her with her sister and do some good for once. I can be what she needs.
But right now, I’m almost scared to touch her. We haven’t told her Grady’s coming for her yet. There’s no point—it’ll only stir up questions we can’t answer and drag us all into that dark pit of dread that comes with an unwelcome deadline. And I’m afraid that if I hold her, touch her, kiss her, fuck her, she’ll feel the shift inside me. She’s more intuitive than any woman I’ve ever known.
None of us can stand the thought of seeing her break down, of watching her walk away. I can tell Rock feels the same; he wears his heart on his sleeve. Hyde clings to her like she’s the only thing keeping him steady, his desperate way of holding on before she’s ripped away. But we all need our time with her, our chance to show her what she means, in our own way.
I knock on the door, not waiting for Hyde to tell me to enter. I find him sleeping in his happy place, his face pressed against Lory's chest. She turns and smiles at me, and I crook my finger, encouraging her to disengage. She manages to slide from the bed, naked and beautiful, without waking him. Her dark hair cascades over her shoulders, practically to her waist, leaving tantalizing inches of her breasts exposed. I watch her walk towards me, trying to memorize the gentle sway of her hips and the way she places her pretty feet on the floor like a runway model who's totally unconscious of her beauty. I wrap her in my embrace, breathing in the scent of her hair. It's not floral or feminine—not using prison shampoo—but it's clean and layered over the scent of her body that I want to nuzzle into and cover myself with like an animal.