Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Isla’s eyes widen. “What?”
I stand and walk over, stopping in front of her. “I’m not letting you do this alone. I’m not like my father, or my mother. That baby is mine, and I’m going to take care of it, and you. You’ll move in here, we’ll get married and I’ll take care of my family the way I’m supposed to.”
“You want to marry me?” she asks, her eyes wide.
“I want to do what’s right by you and the baby. So, yeah, I want to marry you.”
She lunges forward, throwing her arms around my neck.
I close my eyes and pray for fucking sanity.
I pray I’m doing the right thing.
9
NOW – MERLEIGH
“How are you feeling?” Waverly asks me as we make the long drive to where Bryant used to live and where we’re hoping to find Cova.
“I’m anxious,” I say, and that’s the honest truth. I am anxious. I’m terrified, actually.
“Of course you are, honey. We’re here, just remember that. No matter what, we’ve got your back.”
I give her a smile. “I know.”
“Nobody is touchin’ you again,” Mykel says from the driver’s seat. .
“Is Bohdi coming?” I ask, wondering if he’s amongst the people following us in trucks.
Waverly glances at Mykel, who says nothing.
Right, what are they hiding?
“What aren’t you two telling me?”
“He’s got Isla and the two boys with him.”
Oh.
We’re staying in the town Bryant lives in overnight, being that it’s such a big drive and we need time. There is a possibility we’re staying two nights. That means Isla is staying with Bohdi. They’re coming together. Staying together. He said they’re not getting back together, but it is his wife and one of those boys belongs to him—maybe he’s going to try and mend fences for them.
He’s missed so much, after all.
I understand it, yet the idea of them two bonding, of him spending time with her, sharing a room.
That hurts.
“I’m sorry, we didn’t want to have to tell you yet,” Waverly exhales. “I know you’re hurting.”
“It’s fine,” I say, my voice flat. “We’re friends. We have made that clear.”
Waverly gives me a sympathetic look but says no more. Neither does Mykel. We just drive the rest of the way in silence. When we arrive in town, memories begin flooding back immediately. I gaze out the window, recalling the few times Bryant would bring us into town, and threaten us that if we so much as spoke a word to another person it would be the end of us.
I don’t think he understood that at that point in our lives, we weren’t going anywhere.
He was giving us better than we could get on our own.
It was hell to most people but, for us, it was a step up.
As we near the house where they rescued Cova and me, my anxiety kicks up a notch. I don’t know what we’re going to find there. Hell, I know they killed Bryant, but that doesn’t mean someone else in his little posse didn’t take over and is doing the same thing. Maybe Cova came back here and is living with them again. Or maybe, she didn’t come here at all.
I guess we’re about to find out.
“You don’t have to come in,” Mykel says when we pull up at the large house.
“I’m okay,” I say, unbuckling my seatbelt, pushing the door open and getting out.
The warm air hits my face and I use my hand to shield my eyes from the sun as all the other trucks pull in and come to a stop. The house is tidy, well-manicured, and seemingly lived in, which means I’m right in assuming someone has taken over it. Are they continuing the same thing Bryant was doing, or is it someone completely unaware of the hell this house held for so many years?
I see Bohdi get out of his truck with his wife and children. It hurts—god, no matter how prepared I think I am, it still hurts. The kids, they’re gorgeous and clearly happy he’s around. The younger boy, and the son that is his, takes his hand and clutches it. Bohdi gives him a warm look, and that expression makes everything inside me turn to liquid.
Isla stays by Bohdi’s side, not moving her expression away from me. The look she’s giving me tells me she is more than aware of the relationship between Bohdi and myself. She doesn’t want me anywhere near him, her expression is making that very clear.
When I look to him again, he’s watching me, that intense gaze traveling over my face, eyes scanning every part of it.
He’s trying to see how I’m feeling.
I look away and face Alarick and Briella as they walk over toward me.
“Are you okay?” Briella asks, smiling at me.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Let’s go and see who’s livin’ here and if we can find out where Cova is,” Alarick orders. “You ladies wait here until we check it out.”