Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“Not in Rockvale. Go back to your friends, Rez.” The post-funeral gathering couldn’t be over already. He said he’d be there late. “I’m tired and heading to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“The fuck you will. I’m not leaving. Your only choice if you want me to stop pounding on your door is to let me in.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “A choice is not a choice if it doesn’t have more than one option.”
“I’ll give you two options, then. Open the door or I’ll kick it in. There. Now you have a choice. Choose wisely.”
He would go nuts when he saw the bruise on her face. Then he would demand she tell him what happened and if she told him the truth, he would lose his shit even more.
She did not want him confronting Taint and putting himself in a position where he might do something to cause him to lose his job. She didn’t want to be responsible for him becoming unemployed. It was bad enough she was now jobless.
“We can talk tomorrow.” Maybe tomorrow she could hide the bruise better with a thick layer of makeup and he might not notice. If she was careful.
“We’re talking tonight!” he yelled. “Open the fucking door!”
“You’re scaring me.” While not true, she hoped it would make him back off.
“Now, I know that’s a fucking lie.”
Suddenly it was so quiet, she could hear her heart beating in her ears.
“Fine. You don’t want to open the door?”
Oh shit. What was he going to—
The sound of the door frame splintering was deafening.
She quickly took a step back. “Rez!”
With one more good kick, it burst open the rest of the way.
“Jesus, Rez! My landlord will evict me for that!” Plus if she wasn’t working, she wouldn’t have funds to pay for the damage.
He stepped inside. “No loss. You’re done living here, anyway.”
She was what? “That’s not for you to decide.”
“The fuck it isn’t. If you can’t make the right decision, then I’m going to make it for you.”
Oh. No. He. Didn’t. “You’re not my husband. You’re not my boyfriend. We’re not even dating! We’re…” She almost said “nothing,” but that wasn’t true, either.
They were something they hadn’t defined yet.
And maybe after tonight there wouldn’t be any need to.
His head jerked back. “Fuck that, Phire. Fuck. That. And you’re done with The Peach Pit. You are so fucking done there.”
Well, that they could agree on. “You’re right, I am. But not because that’s what you want, but because that decision was taken from me.”
After scanning her from her head to her bare toes, he ordered, “Pack your overnight bag. You’re not staying here in an unsecured apartment.”
“It’s unsecured because you kicked in the damn door!” she yelled at him.
With his mouth tight, he went toe to toe with her, tucked a finger under her chin and tilted her face upward so he could get a better look at the bruise that appeared after Taint backhanded her.
A growl escaped him. After closing his eyes, Rez pinched his nose, took a deep breath and dropped his head forward.
When she tried to pull away, he tightened his grip on her chin, opened his eyes, locked gazes with her and ground out, “That motherfucker.”
He knew how she got the bruise, the same as he knew she was home. How? Or was he just taking a very good educated guess on who struck her?
“Let it go, Rez. Don’t lose your job by doing something stupid. He’s not worth it.”
“But you are.”
But you are. Those three simple words speared her right in the heart.
And it made her realize something had changed between them. Their loose and easy “relationship” was no longer that. His reactions tonight proved they were no longer simply friends with benefits. They were so much more.
But that didn’t mean he could dictate her life. “Then let it go. For me. You wanted me to leave The Pit. You got your wish.”
He released his grip on her chin and took a step back, but it was obvious his anger still simmered under the surface. “But I didn’t want you to be injured, Sapphire. Did I like you working for those motherfuckers? No. Despite you thinking otherwise, I wanted you to quit on your terms.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Or your terms, right?”
His mouth tightened.
“Tell me, Rez… How did you know what happened?” Did someone call him? And if so, who had his number? Had one of the other dancers been keeping tabs on her and reporting back to Rez?
If so…
“Since you’re no longer working there, I guess I can tell you… The task force had cameras installed at the club after the original stash van showed up in the back parking lot. We needed to gather solid evidence of them running a drug dealing operation from The Peach Pit.”