Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 127941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Still feeling Cruz’s stare, I turn toward him and narrow my eyes, hating how fucking bitchy I feel today. “What?” I snap, only to watch his stare harden and instantly feel like shit about it. I let out a sigh and press my lips into a tight line. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
Cruz just nods, always so quick to shrug off my moods when they come up to bite us all in the ass. He scoots back in his seat, leaning his head back and keeping his curious stare on me. “The other day when you were describing to Scardoni exactly what you were going to do to him …”
Cruz pauses and I narrow my eyes. “Spit it out, Cruz.”
His lips press into a hard line, and after releasing a soft sigh, he finally lets out whatever has been plaguing his beautiful mind. “What you said about the video and torturing his wife with it; that was some dark shit, Winter. I was expecting some fucked-up, twisted things to come out of your mouth, but I’m not gonna lie, what did come out of your mouth … that fucking shook me, babe.”
My lips press into a hard line and I reach across the backseat to grip his big hand. It curls around mine as though it was made for me. I quickly glance up only to notice both King and Grayson watching intently, making it obvious that the same thing has also been on their minds. “I know, I’m sorry, but I was desperate,” I tell them, now sensing Carver watching me through the rearview mirror. “I said what I had to say to get a reaction out of him, and I was hoping that he would cave and talk. I pushed him too far, and because of what I did, we don’t have the answers we need.”
I turn to King. “I’m sorry,” I say, fighting the tears and forcing myself to remain strong. “I know you were hoping that Preston might have gotten us one step closer to whoever killed your dad.”
King stretches his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into his warm, inviting chest. “Don’t stress about it, babe. We’ll find who killed my dad, but that’s not what we’re asking you right now. We don’t care that Scardoni is dead and it puts us five steps backwards. Fuck, babe, I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to end him myself. Every time I went down there to get answers, he’d just fucking smirk at me … shit. I’ve imagined all the ways I could have killed him, and it would have been sweet.”
“King,” Grayson grunts, wanting to keep him on track.
King sighs and pulls me in a little closer as Cruz’s thumb roams back and forth over my knuckles. “His death is not your fault. He took his own life—that’s not on you. What we care about is just how fucking dark you were willing to go to get what you wanted. That wasn’t you, babe. That was some fucking dark shit … and well, are you good?”
I let out a breath and relax deeper into his side, loving the boys’ concern, but it’s not warranted. “Look guys, I know that I’ve been through a bunch of shit that no teenage girl should ever have to face, but I’m fine. I had absolutely no intention of bringing his wife into it. I don’t think I’ve officially met her yet, and even though she looks like a bitch and probably knows something we don’t, I have morals. I know they’re hard to see sometimes and, fuck, I even question them myself, but they’re there. There are lines that not even I would cross. I had no intention of torturing her with that video. Hell, there wasn’t even going to be a video. I mean, I know I’m new to this whole … killing people thing, but I think hacking someone’s fingers off with a blunt blade and gouging out eyes with spoons is a little … beyond my expertise. That seems more like a Carver move.”
Carver narrows his eyes, hating the jab, but he deserved it. He was an ass this morning, and instead of having my back when I insisted that I didn’t need to go back to school, he stood by his boys and forced me into the back of the car. Apparently, my education is somewhat important to them, and seeing as though there’s only a few weeks of school left, they’ve decided that now’s the time for me to focus on it.
So much for them all being on board the ‘stay home healing until I die of boredom’ train. It seems that we’ve all switched roles, which makes me wonder if something must have happened. The boys aren’t known for easily changing their minds about shit. I usually have to beg and plead to get them to do anything.