Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "You're married, right?"
"Yeah. Isla," he says quietly.
"If Isla never wanted to see you again, what would you do?"
"Lose my fucking mind," he growls without hesitation.
"Would you let her go?"
"Fuck no. I'd tear the fucking city apart to keep her in my life."
"Then you understand my predicament exactly. I'm doing what I have to do to make sure I don't lose my wife and baby girl for good," I growl. "She won't talk to me. She doesn't want to see me. I can't kill the prick who ruined our lives because I'm pretty goddamn certain he's already dead. All I can do is what I'm doing. So kindly fuck off and let me do it."
Brant is silent for a moment before he huffs a laugh. "Jesus Christ, man. Just don't fucking get yourself tossed in jail. Memphis already had to bail Dalton out yesterday."
"Don't plan on going to jail." I hang up on him, tossing my phone into the center console. Jesus. I appreciate the fuck out of them for caring, but I almost miss when I had no goddamn friends. At least then, the fuckers weren't in my business, stressing me out.
I'm still staring up at the ceiling when someone taps on the passenger side window. I jump, startled, and whip my head to the side…only to come face to face with Mina.
Fuck.
I'm busted.
She opens the door, climbing inside with a completely neutral expression painted across her gorgeous face. Even then, she looks exhausted, like she still isn't sleeping.
"Mina, I…" I grasp for an explanation as to why I'm sitting in her parking lot, but there isn't one that isn't likely to have her calling to cops. "I can explain."
"Take me home," she says, closing the door while I'm still trying to come up with something that doesn't make me sound like a fucking creep.
"What?"
"Take me home," she repeats. "I assume you know where that is since I saw you out there last night." She meets my gaze, hers level. "And again this morning."
"Fuck. I can explain."
"Just drive, McGregor."
I jerk my head in a nod…and I fucking drive.
She doesn't say a word for the first ten minutes. She just sits beside me, staring out at the city as it passes in blurs. A thousand questions battle on the tip of my tongue, threatening to burst forth, but I fight them back, trying like hell to wait her out. She has that look about her, like she's thinking hard about something.
It was always best to let her work it out for herself. Mina's been stubborn since the day I met her. If pushed, she comes out swinging. She's fiery and passionate and so goddamn fierce she makes my cock ache. But right now, I don't need her feeling like she has to fight me. I need her to bend a little. I need her to want to let me back in, even an inch.
I fucked up in her office yesterday. I was so goddamn desperate to touch her again, to have my hands on her… I knew she wasn't in any damn state for the shit we were doing. But she was begging, and I couldn't tell her no. I let greed get the best of me. With her, it always fucking gets the best of me.
She's the one thing I was never supposed to want. The one thing I wasn't supposed to take for myself. But I was so fucking greedy to touch, to taste…to make her mine. So I did. Maybe I fucked up her life. Maybe I destroyed us both. I don't know. But even now, I don't regret it. I'll never regret her.
I regret like hell that I broke her yesterday, though. She needed me to tell her no. She needed me to be strong and put her first. I have a feeling she's been beating herself up ever since she came apart in my arms. She feels like she betrayed herself. And I let that shit happen.
I can't do it again. When she's with me next, it can't be when she feels like she's splintering apart. It can't be because she wants to hide from the pain. She needs it to be like it was before all this shit happened—when she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that my heart is hers. That it will fucking always be hers.
"Riley says they call you Priest," she blurts, shattering the silence between us. "Why?"
I lick my lips, trying to work moisture back into my mouth. I don't know if this means she believes me…but fuck, hope is a funny thing. It wells in my chest, beating like a second heartbeat. Overpowering it. Eclipsing everything.
Whatever she wants to know, I'll tell her. I'll slice my veins open and bleed for her, every goddamn sin I've committed trying to get back to her, every fucking crime I've committed. I'll tell her everything.