Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80572 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Heart check,” I say, reaching for her hand.
“My heart is good,” she says gently.
“Something on your mind?”
She pauses before she shakes her head. “It’ll be okay.”
That isn’t really an acceptable response. We just made love and she’s withdrawn and anxious.
“Worried?”
She shrugs.
“Eden.” My voice is edged with warning.
“Yes?”
“Talk to me.”
She holds my hand. “I have to go back for Starla. Whatever this is—I can’t stay.”
“We’ll go back together.”
She shakes her head. “And then what? I bring my sister back to the club? No, Sergio, I can’t do that. I won’t do that. I just… I don’t want to talk about this right now. We just had the most perfect moment ever, and I don’t want to destroy that.”
She nestles herself in the crook of my arm. I love the way she feels lying next to me. What we shared was amazing. What we shared was life-changing.
You don’t just go back to the way things were when life itself has been altered.
But I know she's letting her fear get the best of her now.
"I don't trust things that are good," she says simply. "Things always go wrong for me. I hate talking like this, I hate being negative. But it's the truth. Whenever I had a friend, my friend was taken away. Even my pets. I don't want to talk anymore about what happened to me, but I'll just say that I've become... guarded when I find happiness."
I hate that for her.
And I know then that, for the first time in my goddamn life, all I want is the one thing I can’t have…her.
"You've been taught to ignore your own needs. You've been taught that you don't matter. I want to spend the rest of my life showing you that you do matter and making it my life's mission to give that to you."
When she leans her head on my chest, I stroke her hair. It’s as soothing to me as it is to her. I know she’s crying. I can hear the hiccups and see her wiping her cheeks. Eventually, she quiets and her breathing slows and steadies.
She’s fallen asleep.
I close my eyes and try to imprint this moment on my mind.
With me, she’s safe. With me, she’s secure. No one will hurt her.
She deserves more than that, though. She deserves to be treasured and understood, respected and loved.
Loved, goddammit.
Here, in the safety of this cocoon, she’s laid everything down for a while. I want to give her protection and safety that lasts forever.
And there’s only one way to ensure that.
So I tuck the blanket around her and push myself out of bed.
I turn my phone back on.
I have one text. From Mario.
I found him.
My fingers fly over the keys as I respond.
What the hell are you doing working while you're supposed to be recovering?
My pulse gallops. My vision blurs. The screen I’m staring at shakes because I’m shaking with fury, because I know who he found and what I need to do.
Dude, I can’t stare at a fucking wall one more second, I’m fine. Anyway, Gloria helped, thanks to you. Do you want me to assemble a team?
I grit my teeth. I stare at Eden, sleeping peacefully in the bed.
You’ll have your peace, lovely.
No matter what.
Do not assemble a team.
I’ll handle this personally.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Eden
I wake early in the morning. I'm back in my room at the club, expecting to feel the warm, comforting presence of Sergio beside me.
We discarded any pretense. Everyone in the club knows we’re a couple, even though it makes me uncomfortable that we’re not married. I try to put away any thought in my mind about my husband. But I can't. Every time I wake up next to Sergio, the guilt that I grew up with consumes me. He's not my husband, so it feels like we're living on borrowed time.
My husband, Seth, is an angry man. I don't understand why, but I know that he doesn't let things go easily. I don't know what he's capable of. And if it came down to a fight between Seth and Sergio, I know for a fact who would win. Sergio is stronger, more powerful, and dangerous.
But Seth has the power of the fellowship. And no one truly understands how powerful that group is.
I do. The longer I’m away from the fellowship, the more I realize what a stranglehold they had not just on me, but on dozens, even hundreds, of people.
When I roll over, Sergio isn't there.
"Sergio?"
There's no response. The unsettling feeling in my stomach grows.
I realize it's still early morning. The sunlight hasn't broken through the clouds yet, and it's still faintly dark out, though there's a sliver of sunrise on the horizon. My shade is partially open, so the early morning sun illuminates just a bit of the room.
Daisy’s still sleeping soundly in her crate. Last night, Sergio and I fell asleep late, and I remember discarding our clothes somewhere in the vicinity of the hamper.