Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“I know you don’t have a hand in the drug business, but if you pushed to eradicate it, what would happen?”
He didn’t blink or pause. He didn’t even question why I was asking. “A new drug would happen. There’s always something new coming down the pipeline. New guns. New drugs. New form of sex slaves. That’s just the tip. There’s gambling. Black market for organs, for bodies, for anything you want. Credit cards. ID theft.”
“Do you control all of that?”
A beat. Two. Then, “I know enough about it.”
I gave him a rueful grin. “That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
“Why are you asking?”
I pressed a hand to my chest, as if to keep it from exploding. “I thought I could help do something. Anything. But learning about it all, I’m left with this helpless feeling of how can anything be made better when the bad is always there?”
He held my gaze. The way he paused was significant before he reached over to cup the side of my face. His thumb ran over my lips, his eyes darting to them before rising to look tenderly into my eyes, taking my breath away.
“In the world I live in, it’s hard to be good. But I will try. For you.” He tipped his head down, his forehead resting on mine. “I’ll do what I can. I promise.”
I closed my eyes, his words filling me up inside.
He wiped away a tear on my cheek.
That meant more than I could put in words.
It meant the world to me.
It meant that I could stay.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Brooke was drunk, dancing alone beside the table.
Jonah was also drunk. He kept giggling, resting his head on his arm braced on the table, his shoulders shaking. He would stop, stare off, and repeat.
It was past midnight now. The beer garden had closed. I was sure Kai bought out the rest of it. Most of the staff had gone by now, but the manager remained. She approached to let us know she’d kept a lone chef on in case we wanted anything from the kitchen.
Brooke’s hand shot up. “Ooh! Quesadillas! Please.”
People still walked along the wharf, but most everything closed at midnight. I looked over at bright lights moving around at the end of the pier—some kind of event. We had watched couples walk past us in formal dresses and tuxedos. Glittering gowns. Pink. Black silk. Sequins. The rich and powerful. A few looked our direction with quizzical expressions, but none came over to investigate. Heads bent together. Hands came up to cover their gossiping mouths.
Maybe they’d been wondering, while attending their extravagant event, about who had been in the beer garden. There would be rumors that it was someone famous, a celebrity, or perhaps even a government official, because that’s what they did. I remembered that from my time with my family.
There’d been whispers and rumors about my mother too.
The two girls approved to go shopping with me in the mall had proved that. They’d asked if it was true that my father caught her having a torrid love affair and she’d really died trying to run away with her lover.
It twisted me up, remembering, and it didn’t help that I could’ve sworn one of those same girls had walked past us twenty minutes ago. Her hand had been tucked in the arm of a middle-aged man. Slender. Beautiful. And hungry eyes, because she’d been one of the ones to watch us for a bit.
“Did you see him?” Kai asked.
I whipped around, wandering farther down to the very edge of the beer garden. I wasn’t even sure if I was still within its borders. I’d taken some stairs down to a sidewalk. I could still hear Brooke’s laughter in the background, mixing with music and mingling with the beat coming from the event.
I sighed. “How long have you known?”
“That your father is supposed to be attending that event or that that’s the real reason you asked Jonah to play tourist for the day?”
“Both?”
He moved to my side, but he didn’t touch me.
For some reason, I appreciated that. He let me stand on my own, not overwhelming me.
“The second the guards told me where you were going.” He slid his hand into his pocket, tipping his head back, still eying me. “It’s public knowledge that he’s supposed to be attending tonight.” Kai smirked. “If he didn’t show up, people would notice.”
People would notice regardless—I realized what he was saying. I gaped at him. “You’re going to take him tonight?”
But of course. That was why he’d come here. Not to spend time with us, his brother, his sister, but because of my father, because it was already in the plans.
It burned.
I looked away. “Jonah and Brooke have both told me how much you usually aren’t around. Tonight meant the world to them.”
“Hey.” He cupped the back of my head and turned me toward him. “Look at me.”