Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 45217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
I march right up to him. “You can give me answers. Jamie, after what you did all those years ago and what we did last night, I’d say you owe me answers.”
“I can’t, not until Kylie and Kyle are safe.”
“Your sister and your nephew?”
He nods.
“When will that be?” I ask.
“Soon, hopefully. They’re packing now. They’re going to stay at her brother-in-law’s lake house. Nobody knows where that is, I hope. Nobody will make the connection.”
“Who’s after her? Who’s after you?”
“I can’t discuss that,” he says, wincing as if angry at himself for telling me no.
“It concerns me,” I reply. “Whoever this is, they showed up at my house.”
“That was the kid, Zack.” Jamie lets out a long breath through gritted teeth. “Takes a real small man to use a goddamn kid as part of this sick game. What’s wrong with this freak? What’s wrong with this world?”
He sounds like he’s talking to himself as much as to me, not genuinely asking for an answer. When he looks at me with that emotion in his eyes, I remember what he said before about being a man worthy of me. It’s like he’s pissed at himself for not being strong enough and unable to fix this situation easily.
“Wrong with who?” I ask. “I don’t even know what we’re talking about.”
Jamie turns away, walking over to the wall of an abandoned house and leaning against it. I follow, standing near but not getting too close. If I do, I know I won’t be able to resist falling into his arms, forgetting all of this. The connection from last night pulses through me, tempting me to forget, to let everything else slide. I don’t have to think about the mystery if we can be together, but I can’t do that. Something strange is happening here. I mean, stranger than falling for my dad’s killer.
“When I was a kid,” Jamie says after a long pause. “I basically raised Kylie. Our mom died giving birth to her.”
When I shudder, he glances at me. Then his features soften as if we’re communicating wordlessly. I’ve never felt a connection like that, an instant understanding.
“Yours too?” he asks huskily, with a surprising gentleness in his voice.
I nod. “Then it was just me and my dad.” I don’t let my mind dance to the dark things, the ugly aspects of my father, the things he did that make mourning him difficult sometimes.
Jamie moves away from the wall and touches my hand. We hold each other firmly, as if pushing all the darkness away, all the doubt and the pain.
“What happened after your mom passed?” I asked.
“My dad was a drunk,” he goes on. “He wasn’t good for much, so I essentially raised Kylie. I took care of her like she was my daughter, though I was only a child myself. I promised I’d let nothing happen to her.”
“What does this have to do with telling me what’s happening?” I whisper.
It’s a cruel question to ask now, maybe, when he’s sharing so much deep emotion, but it’s also one I have to ask.
“If I tell you the truth before she’s safe, I’m not sure what will happen.”
Jamie’s voice gets low. His eyes get dark, like he’s holding onto so much pain. He’s locked it away, but I can see it trying to bubble up, affecting every aspect of him.
“You’re not making any sense. Can you at least tell me why the kid was at my house last night?”
“He wanted to scare you. Not the kid, the person in charge. They’ve been following me. They followed me to your place. They wanted you to assume I was the one sneaking around.”
“But why?”
“Maybe they don’t like us spending time together.” Jamie squeezes my hand. “Maybe they think they can separate us.”
“We shouldn’t even be together. Maybe we should let them separate us.”
Suddenly, he pulls me right up against him. Wrapping his arms around me, he kisses me passionately. The second our lips make contact, the heat erupts, fire burning between us, so much intimacy I ache for him.
“That’s never going to happen,” he growls.
“N-never?” I whisper, hating the hesitation in my voice.
He stares at me, lips red from kissing, his blue eyes even more unhinged and savage than usual. Does he mean it, or was it just a figure or speech? Does he really mean forever?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jamie
I’d step away from Lucy now if I were a sane man, but she’s robbed me of my sanity. The second I saw her, I lost my mind, and I don’t want to get it back, not if it means doubting what we’re doing, her closeness, her warmth, just her. Her everything drives me wild, making my heart shatter in my chest a million times per minute, but I have to slow down. If I told her the truth, she might see it as her own prison sentence. So, instead of unleashing all the possessiveness inside of me, I smirk. I play it off as a joke.