Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 136731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Tone. Innuendo. A false sense of closeness. The short declaration had it all.
I aim for a hit.
And my belly warms as I see my arrow meets its mark.
Ling’s smug expression falters. Her eyes narrow at me then she turns the same look on Julius. “Oh, ‘Jay’ is it now?” Pushing herself off the counter by her hip, she moves to exit the kitchen. “Well, I’m tired. I’ve been up all night.” She glances from me to Julius. “I’ll let you and Jay get back to whatever it was you were doing before I got here.”
We watch her ascend up the stairs, and a full minute passes before Julius comments, “I don’t know what the hell that was about but don’t play with her, Alejandra. She doesn’t do games well, and when she decides she wants to play, it’s only because she plans to win.”
Don’t we all?
My face turns hard as I remark, “Thanks for the warning, but I’m not playing games.”
My life is not a goddamn game. This is serious.
He calls me out with little fire, “Sure are. You did it with me just before in the shower, and now you’re doing it with Ling.”
“No, I’m not,” I speak too fast, my guilt evident.
His full lips tilt in the corner and, raising his hand, he scratches at his five o’clock shadow. “Baby,” he starts. “People like me and Ling invented manipulation tactics. Can’t nobody do ‘em better than us. You’re making rookie mistakes and giving yourself away.” His semismile softens his entire face, and it’s beautiful. “Just stop, and we’ll all get along just fine.”
I frown and turn so he can’t see the internal struggle building behind my eyes.
I was giving myself away? How?
My shoulders droop with the knowledge that he’s been onto me from the moment he woke. The soft clink of his mug being placed in the sink sounds and I feel him at my back.
What he says next has my entire body turning cold with dread. “Want me to off your dad for you?”
My eyes wide, I spin on him and gape, before rushing out, “What? No! Don’t you dare!”
His face expectant, he nods softly, then states, “That right there. That’s who you are, Alejandra. You’re not a seductress. You’re not a schemer. You wear your heart on your sleeve. So whatever you’re thinking, stop, and just be your sweet self.”
He was killing me with his words, and I was ashamed at the hot sting of tears burning my eyes. I blinked them back. “I’m not weak.”
“No,” he agrees without hesitation, but looks at me from a different angle. “And I’d love to get inside that head of yours.” He straightens, taking a lock of my hair between his fingers and tugging gently. “But you won’t let me in, baby.” He let the strand of hair fall to rest on my shoulder and shrugs. “I want to help you, but I can’t do it without what you know. You don’t have a lot of time, so you need to decide what’s worth more to you… your life,” he urges, as he takes a number of steps back toward the stairs, “or your pride.”
As he follows Ling upstairs, he leaves me there, alone, unsupervised, and it’s then that I realize he isn’t insincere. He is confident I won’t leave, and he’s right, because I have no one. No one but him.
Perhaps he really wants to help me. Or maybe…
A cold feeling spreads throughout me from the toes up.
“People like me and Ling invented manipulation tactics. Can’t nobody do ‘em better than us.”
I shake my head at the comprehension that I had just been played like a finely tuned violin.
Julius does not want to help me. He wants to get rid of me. He wants to save his own ass, as I planned to do for myself, not that I blame him. If it were a choice between you or me, I would almost always choose myself.
He’d all but told me the truth in his anger-filled speech this morning that I was nothing but a piece of shit.
If only I could be like Ling, someone with backbone, someone capable. Maybe then I could find my place in this messed-up world of mine. Maybe if…
A light bulb goes off in my head, illuminating my thoughts, making them crystal clear.
Just like that, my plan changes from A to B.
I’m not going to become like Ling.
A secret smile glances my lips.
I’m going to replace her.
“Don’t walk away from me,” I growl, following her through the house. Goddamn little sparrow is making my head implode with every silent glare. If she wants to continue to hold her tongue, I will make her talk. Maybe telling her that I should have just let Gio have her was fierce, but her reaction was one I needed to see. The only person she had that kind of reaction to was whenever Dino’s brother was mentioned.