Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 124923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 416(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 416(@300wpm)
“I really need a shower,” I tell him. I still haven’t showered since before the accident. I was able to change my clothes and wash Samuel’s blood off my skin, but it’s not enough. It’s the only thing I want to do before crawling into bed and sleeping for two days straight.
“I can arrange that.”
Holden
I turn the shower on, making sure the water’s hot before helping Valen undress. She has a bruise from her seatbelt across her chest, a few small cuts on her face, and the guilt for what happened to her hits me all over again. I thought I might lose her twice in a twenty-four-hour span. Once in the river, and again when I thought Christian wasn’t going to make it in time. If he had been half a second later…
“Don’t,” she tells me, reading my mind, stopping that train of thought.
I nod, helping her into the shower. I undress quickly before following her in and standing under the spray of water. She crosses her arms, pushing those pretty little tits up, water cascading down her body as she gives me a look I can’t quite decipher. “You left me.”
I shake my head, pulling her in by her waist. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to. He would’ve never stopped if I didn’t end it for good.”
“I thought you were breaking up with me.”
“Never.” I take her face in my hands, kissing her wet lips. “Leaving you in that hospital was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m in love with you, remember?” And I am. So fucking much. And if I had any doubt before tonight that she loved me, too, I sure as shit don’t now after watching her use herself as a human shield to protect me.
She nods, her face still in my hands. I reach for the body wash behind her and she leans into me, closing her eyes as I start to wash her body.
“I knew if I told you I was going after him that you’d try to stop me.”
“Obviously,” she mumbles against my chest. “Because it was a stupid fucking idea.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“Don’t ever do it again,” she warns.
“Done,” I say. “Anything else?”
“Take me to bed.”
“Gladly.”
Valen
Six months later
If you would’ve told me a year ago that I’d be at my father’s wedding with Holden as my date, I’d have laughed in your face. But here I am, slow dancing to a song called “Daylight” with the boy who took my frozen heart and made it burn for him.
After my dad came to the hospital, he did exactly as he said he would and took care of my car—and by that, I mean he bought me a new one. Along with a phone. I finally came clean about the night I stood him up and how I saw his fiancée and her daughter at the table. He asked for a do-over, and I agreed. Holden urged me to open up to my dad about the things my mother had said and done over the years, and against my better judgment, I agreed to that, too.
Needless to say, he was angry, with both my mother and himself for letting me down, with the half-truths and outright lies my mother fed me. All of it. I haven’t talked to my mother since the day I walked out her door. I’ve heard through the grapevine that she’s telling an entirely different version of events, but I can’t be bothered to care.
As for Samuel, the stuff with Hillside was only the tip of the iceberg. He ended up getting twenty years for a laundry list of crimes, including money laundering, racketeering, fraud, extortion, bribery, and more than I can even begin to remember. Cameron James went down with him and is now currently serving time for his part in it. He’s also serving time for a video that was found on his computer of him with a teenage girl. Sick fuck.
On a more positive note, once Holden and Thayer have forgiven Christian for his part in Danny’s death. I don’t know if things will ever be like they were before, but they all seem happier than they’ve been in a long time. Even Grey comes around more often now, and Shayne loves it. Until they all team up against her.
They might not be my blood, but they’ve become my family all the same, and I wouldn’t trade our dysfunctional group for anything in the world.
“Summer’s almost over and I still owe you that tropical vacation,” Holden says. “Have you made up your mind?”
I shrug, looking up into his light brown eyes, my arms around his waist, my chin resting on his chest. “I was thinking we’d just hang out in the conservatory. Or maybe the cabin in Vermont.”
He arches a brow. “When are you thinking?”