Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Jake. Always the voice of reason before everything went to hell.
Misty cups her breasts as if holding them out in offering.
I’ve been a hell of an actor up to this point, but I can’t go any further. This is done. Not just Misty and me. This whole fucking thing.
I open the door. “Get out.”
She drops her jaw. “What?”
“You heard me. I’m tired of your games, Misty. Get the fuck out of my room.”
“But you invited me—”
“And now I’m uninviting you. Get out, or I’ll pick you up and throw you out myself.”
“But I—”
“You think you know something about me? Some secret? Take it to hell for all I care. I’m done with this stupid charade. I’m leaving in the morning.”
“But Evangeline...”
“She’ll get paid.” I cock my head, eyeing Misty. Something’s off. “That’s it, isn’t it? You set this up with Evangeline, and you’re taking a cut.”
“I may have set that in motion.” She nibbles on her lower lip. “Evangeline had a match go wrong, and—”
“I know all about that. Brett thought he found her, but you orchestrated the whole thing.” I shake my head. “You never wanted me at all, did you? This is all a game to you, for a cut of profit that you don’t need.”
“No, River. It’s not. It’s not a game. I... I’ve always wanted you.”
“Get out,” I say again through gritted teeth. “Put that fucking robe back on and get out.”
She grabs her robe, slides it over her shoulders. “Please. Don’t make me leave.”
“Then talk,” I demand. “Tell me what you think you know about me.”
“It’s... It’s only that my birth mother had an older child. A boy. And they both disappeared from their small Montana town twenty years ago.”
I already know that. It eats at my soul daily. “That’s it?”
“Not exactly.”
“What else? It’s not like I’m keeping any secrets about who I am.”
She gulps. “It’s your town, River. That was easy enough to figure out. But it’s also where Alex, Sebastian, and Brett grew up. My brother would have been your age, and in such a small town, you must have known him. What happened to him and my mother, River? What happened to them?”
Ghosts...
Invisible ghosts surround me, haunting me.
I can’t escape them. I’ve tried and failed so many times. They’re always there—specters in my mind, just like that hissing cat in the barn that somehow embodied all that was wrong in that old fucking house. The cost... Such a cost... Our antics came at too high a price.
“R-River...?” Misty’s voice shakes. “Do you know?”
I know, but that information goes with me to my grave. I curl my hands into fists. “Why me, Misty? Why did it have to be me?”
“I...”
I’m perilously close to shaking the truth out of her, which means I need to leave.
All those emotions—anger, rage, fear, pure terror—twenty years in the making and aggravated by the near loss of Rachel today, are about to explode inside me, and I’m not sure how they’ll come out.
“You tell me now, or I swear to God I’ll have you escorted off this island tonight. You’ll be on the next ferry to Jamaica.”
Her lips tremble as she ties the sash to her robe around her waist. “It had to be you, River, because when I learned where my mother came from...and then I saw your photo...” She winces, closing her eyes, as if she’s having trouble finding the words.
“What? Damn it, what?”
“I just knew,” she finally says with a sniffle. “You still live there. Where my birth mother used to live. It's you. I just knew it had to be you. You're the keeper of the secrets.”
Her words stun me, and for a moment I tense, ready to pounce. Keeper of secrets? So familiar... But I'm sick and tired of her games, and I’ve had it up to my fucking ears. It’s her. She’s got someone following Shelley around back home. It’s been Misty all along.
I’m out of here tomorrow. I’ll tell the guys what I learned, and they can do what they want. But I’m done.
“You need to be gone by the time I get back,” I tell Misty.
I storm down the staircase, through the mansion, and out the French doors. Emily, in her silk robe, sits on the deck alone.
“What happened to the hot tub?” I ask.
“June’s still there. I had enough.”
I meet her gaze. She’s blond and blue-eyed like Misty, but her hair is paler, and her body is luscious. I’ve seen her tits...and I’d like to see more.
I need to work off this aggression, and sinking into Emily’s hot little cunt might be just the medicine I’m looking for. I narrow my gaze and hold out a hand to her.
“You want to go fuck on the beach?”
She raises an eyebrow as she stands and walks toward me, letting her robe fall off her shoulder and bare her breast. “That’s the most splendid idea I’ve heard all day.”