Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
“I wet your shirt,” she whispered, plucking the fabric from my damp shoulder.
I shrugged. “It’s just a shirt, cupcake.” I brushed my fingers over her bruised neck. Fuck, I hated the discoloration there. Hated that they’d marred her beautiful skin like this. “You okay now?”
She nodded. “For now,” she whispered. She swallowed thickly, pain flickering across her face for a moment. Her throat would hurt for a while, no doubt. The bruises were dark and covered most of her neck. “Is there a chance I can get into the shop today?” She scrubbed her hands over her bruised face, hissing after and quickly yanking them away. She’d probably forgotten about the bruises lingering on her face. A deep frown pulled at her lips. “God, there must be so many repairs—”
“Don’t,” I quietly stopped her. I gripped her hips and tugged her closer to me. Tears welled in her eyes, but I shook my head at her. “Sophia, this falls on the club. You took that hit because of us.” She opened her mouth to protest, but I placed a finger over her lips, shushing her. “We already looked into it, Sophia. You were targeted because a rival club thinks you’re my woman.”
Her lips trembled, and I fucking hated myself. Closing her eyes, she drew in a deep breath. When she opened them again, the tears were still there, but she didn’t let any fall. “I won’t let you blame yourself, Chase.”
I sighed and leaned my head back, staring up at the ceiling. She grasped my face in her hands, pulling my head back up so I was forced to look at her.
God, her beautiful face was fucking wrecking me right now.
She shook her head at me. “Don’t,” she pleaded. “Maybe if I had remembered there were true monsters in the world,” her voice wobbled, “this wouldn’t have happened to me. You put protection on my store, Chase. You protected me, and despite you being extremely persistent, you never did anything to me.” She closed her eyes. “Not like they did.” She drew in a shaky breath. “I let myself get too comfortable.”
What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Too comfortable?
“Sophia—” I rasped, but she shook her head again.
“Chase, this isn’t on you or me. We did everything we could. And Scorpion obviously thought it was safe, or he wouldn’t have pulled the protection off my store. Off me,” she added. I sighed, not agreeing with her, but I wasn’t going to argue. She didn’t have the strength for it. “This lies with the fuckers who did this to me.” She brushed her lips to the corner of my mouth, and I groaned, my hands tightening on her already bruised hips. But she didn’t flinch. Leaning back up, she looked down at me, a tear running down her cheek. My chest ached when I drew in a ragged breath.
She was slowly killing me, and she didn’t even know it.
My cupcake was broken. Falling apart. All because I hadn’t handled this entire situation correctly. All because I hadn’t said fuck Scorpion and done what I wanted, what I should have.
“Just please make sure they can’t do this to another woman,” she pleaded with me.
Clenching my jaw, I nodded.
That I would be able to do.
She had my fucking word.
7
Sophia
I poked at the food on my plate, not really hungry. Before Chase left with Halo and Elias, he’d gone out of his way to make me scrambled eggs and had asked me to eat. But I wasn’t sure if I could stomach anything.
I could still feel them touching me, and my stomach was rolling with nausea. My entire body ached from the beating I’d taken. I was just appreciative of everyone at the clubhouse still treating me as if everything was okay. They didn’t treat me differently just because of the hell I’d endured. Here, I was just another woman.
If they walked around me like they were treading on eggshells, I might very well lose my mind. I needed some kind of normalcy. I already couldn’t go back to my shop until all the repairs were made, and even then, Chase might make me wait until after they took care of whoever came after me before he let me out of the clubhouse. Here, he knew I would be safe. I could be protected. Out there, back in the real world, there were too many variables to consider.
It was clear Chase was protective over me, and I could see the blame he placed on himself in his eyes, even if he tried to hide it from me.
It wrecked my soul. It hurt me to know he was hurting, too. And no matter what reason those fuckers had for doing this to me, the blame would always lie with them for making the decision to rape and beat me.