Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 810(@200wpm)___ 648(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
“And what about now?” I asked. “What are you going to do now?”
“The only thing I can do,” he replied. “Sit here and twiddle my fucking thumbs until I can get a job flipping hamburgers for the rest of my life.”
His words made me realize something. Something that hadn’t occurred to me before.
“Why didn’t they come for you?” I demanded. “If they killed Frankie, why didn’t they come for you too?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I guess Frankie never told them what happened. Maybe it was the only honorable thing he ever did.”
It sounded too easy, but it was a lie Brayden and I both readily accepted. I needed to believe for my own sanity it was true.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Six agonizing days had passed since I’d felt Ryland’s presence near me. He’d continued to text me, to tell me this wasn’t over. That he needed me. That he would come and get me if I didn’t answer him soon.
There were voicemails too. I couldn’t listen to them. But I’d kept my GPS bracelet on. I wanted a reason to feel close to him because he wasn’t there. I looked at it every day, wondering if he thought about it too. If knowing where I was kept him at bay. And if I were to take it off, would he show up at my door?
It was too painful to think about, so I made myself stop. I wasn’t really dealing with anything, I was just surviving on autopilot. I’d been tempted to take a page from Norma’s book and drown my pain in alcohol, but I still wanted to believe I was stronger than that.
Besides, Brayden was doing enough of that for the both of us. And I’d been treading on eggshells as I thought about how to bring it up with him. I was a stranger in my own house, living with two people who didn’t even look at each other but claimed to live by some code of family.
I couldn’t talk to Brayden the way I used to. He was a changed man. One I was afraid I would never really know again. After our conversation that first day, we’d barely spoken at all. I had yet to bring up the subject of Norma though I’d been trying my best to keep her at home as much as possible. She was already sick of me too, asking when I planned to go back to California.
My presence wasn’t a comfort to anyone anymore, and I wallowed in the self-pity. I started sleeping in. Sitting on the couch and shoveling pizza in my mouth while Brayden watched the Discovery Channel. Norma passed out on the laminate table in a plate of cold spaghetti. It had been five years, and nothing had changed. I had no idea what I was doing anymore. But I couldn’t stay here in this smoke-filled, poisonous environment. The walls were closing in on me, and I couldn’t breathe. So I stood up and started pacing.
“What the hell is wrong with you now?” Brayden grumbled.
“This!” I waved my arms around the room. “How can you live this way? How can you sit here all day and watch your life go by in this shitty existence?”
“Well, excuse the fuck out of me,” he snapped. “I didn’t realize it was so goddamned horrible here. You see, I just spent the last five years behind bars… so to me, this is mother fucking paradise!”
“Don’t you put that on me again!” I pointed a shaky finger at him. “I know what you think of me, Brayden. I know you resent me for it.”
“Damn straight I resent you.” He glared. “I went away so you could have a better life, and what do you do? You run straight into the arms of the one fucking man I despise. You fall in love with the sadistic bastard, then you come back here with your tail between your legs, expecting me to feel sorry for you. Well, it ain’t gonna’ fucking happen. So if you don’t like it here, misses high and mighty, go back to your castle in San Francisco. I won’t stop you this time.”
“I can’t,” I snapped.
My eyes burned with tears because I hated fighting with him. I hated that I lashed out instead of telling him the truth. So finally, I collapsed onto the couch and unburdened myself.
“He’s been sending Norma money.”
Brayden blinked as if my words hadn’t registered. But one glance at Norma’s slumped over form in the kitchen was all he needed to put the puzzle together.
The vein in his forehead throbbed as he swung his gaze back to me. “How much money?”
“Enough.” I stared at the floor. “Whatever she asks for I guess.”
He stood up and shook his head in disbelief. “Goddammit.”
“He’s waiting for her to... overdose I guess. Or die from liver failure. Whatever’s quicker.”