Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“You weren’t there…you didn’t see what I saw.”
“I know that was traumatic for you—”
“Cauldron, those guys were something else.”
“And you killed them—so what does that say?” He turned to look at me.
“He didn’t know I was there.”
“Doesn’t matter. You still won.”
The dread still impaled my heart like ice crystals.
“You saved my brother for me, right?”
After a long bout of hesitancy, I gave a nod.
“I have to save him too.”
Fall deepened with the arrival of mid-October. Green leaves were now gold and red, and the wind didn’t carry the summer heat like it once did. A fog drifted over the property from the ocean in the morning, and with every passing day, it took longer and longer to burn off.
Now that I was free to go where I wanted, when I wanted, I took one of the cars and did my shopping. Cauldron was usually occupied during the day in his office, his eyes either glued to the screen or the phone to his ear, so I kept myself busy with my own hobbies. I went shopping and had lunch alone, one of the few people in the restaurant because all the tourists had left for the season.
I got a hot coffee before I headed home, flavored with pumpkin and cinnamon even though it was still a little too warm for that. When I returned to the house, I walked past Cauldron’s office, and he was still inside talking on the phone, sitting on the couch facing the burning fireplace.
I headed upstairs with my bags and entered my bedroom.
But it was different.
All my stuff was gone.
The books beside my bed had disappeared. All my makeup and toiletries were missing. When I opened my closet, I saw that all my clothes had been taken. “What the fuck…” I slammed the doors shut and tossed my bags on the bed before I stormed out and flew down the stairs to the bottom floor.
“The idea is bullshit,” Cauldron said. “You know it’s bullshit, but you still told me anyway—”
“What the fuck?”
Cauldron shifted his eyes to me.
“You have something to tell me? Be a man and say it. Don’t toss all my shit.”
His eyes narrowed like he was pissed off. “I’ll call you back.” He hung up and set the phone on the coffee table in front of him. “Toss your shit?”
“My bedroom is empty. All my stuff is missing.” From the first word I spoke, I yelled, and I was still yelling now. “You wait for me to leave the house and then order Hugo to clear everything out? That’s just sleazy.”
Cauldron got to his feet, in an olive-green long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. He immediately towered over me, his eyes shifting back and forth as they peered into mine. “Baby, what are you saying? That I’m kicking you out?”
The second he called me baby, my temper felt out of place. My feet had been firmly planted against the floor a second ago, and now I was in free fall.
His eyes continued to switch back and forth as he waited for my response.
“Then…where’s all my stuff?”
He stared at me for so long it seemed like he would never say anything. “Look in my bedroom.”
The warmth I should have felt was swallowed by humiliation. Potent and heavy humiliation.
“I mean, our bedroom.”
It was like a slap in the face.
He moved back to the couch and sat down again. He grabbed his phone and tapped the screen so it lit up. Now he ignored me, like I wasn’t even there, like that conversation never happened.
“I’m sorry…”
He hit a button, and then the phone started to ring once he made a call. He put it to his ear. “You should be.”
When I stepped into the bedroom, it felt like a place I’d never been. Instead of just his masculine energy, there was another presence. The books that had disappeared were now on one of the nightstands.
I guess that was my side of the bed.
I explored his bedroom, something I’d never done before because it’d been prohibited. Now I opened his closet and saw all his clothes carefully organized hanging from the rack and his shoes on the shelves and his watches in the glass case. It was all consolidated to one side of the closet—to make room for my things on the other.
My dresses and skirts were hung up, my heels underneath, my jewelry pieces in the glass case. He must have tossed half of his wardrobe to make room for mine. My other clothes were in the drawers, my loungewear and underwear.
The invitation was so surprising that I still couldn’t believe it—even when it looked me straight in the face. I turned off the light then headed to his enormous bathroom. There were two sinks, two vanities, a gigantic bathtub that looked like a spa, and a walk-in shower with two showerheads. When I opened the cabinets, I found all my toiletries organized inside.