Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“Anyone in the same room with us for sixty seconds knows we’re fucking, sweetheart.”
“Don’t taunt him with me. I don’t like that. I don’t want to feel like a weapon between two brothers, not even in a war I invited you into.”
I catch her hips and walk her to me. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Not now. Later. Right now, we have to deal with him so please, zip your pants and put on a shirt before you walk to the door.”
I reach down and zip my pants before scooping up my shirt, my eyes never leaving her face. “You’re going to explain that little weapon between two brothers comment.”
“I will,” she promises. “I’ll tell you.”
“Yes, you will, princess,” I reply and make sure it bites.
Her eyes flare with anger that I don’t stay to answer. Not when Isaac is shouting at the door again and pounding while holding a finger on the bell. “Jesus,” I murmur, running a hand through my hair. “His degree of ridiculousness obviously hasn’t changed.” I take off for the door and this time Harper lets me go.
The ring and knock cycle has started again by the time I get there, along with another shout of, “I know you’re in there, Harper! Damn it, open up.”
I unlock the door, open it, and greet my dear brother. He’s wearing a scowl and a trenchcoat over the same expensive ass three-piece suit he had on at work today. It also, from what I can tell, must have come with a stick up his ass. “You’re here for me, right?” I ask. “Here I am.” I step forward, crowding him and forcing him onto the porch.
“I’m here for Harper,” he says, unbuttoning his jacket and settling his hands on his hips.
After the exchange I just had with her, those words punch me in all the wrong ways. “To warn her away from me,” I state, disliking the obvious history I don’t know about and irritated as fuck Walker Security didn’t tell me about in advance.
“Her mother’s worried about her.”
My lips quirk. “And you’re the superhero here to pretend to save her while saving yourself? How’d that superhero routine work for you in the past?”
“There’s nothing here for you.”
“We both know that’s not true. We both know that’s never been true.”
“You don’t need the money. You want what no bastard deserves and you’re using her and her ridiculous paranoia. She’s your damn stepsister and you’re fucking her, you sick fuck.”
I smirk, unaffected by the ridiculous remark meant to get under my skin. He stopped getting under my skin about a year into this family. The problem for him is that’s when I started getting under his skin. “Harper and I aren’t blood,” I say, “but we are, and we both know that’s why she doesn’t scare you, but I do.” I step closer to him, damn near bringing us toe to toe. “And you should be afraid because we also both know you’re hiding something. One last thing we both know—I’m good at finding out your secrets.” It’s a reference to a shared past that he can’t run from, a past I don’t want to run from. But then why would I? I’d fast-tracked to law school and joined him there. He hated my success. He’d wanted an edge. He even fucked our law professor to try to win her over and destroy me. He almost succeeded.
“I could have ended you.”
“You should have done it while you could because that ship has sailed. Walk away, Eric. You don’t know what pot you’re stirring.”
“But I will.”
“I don’t care about your fortune or the Bennett Empire behind you. Walk deeper into this and you might not walk away in one piece.”
“Are you seriously threatening me?”
“I don’t need to threaten you. I’m stating a fact. Consider this a brotherly warning. The only one you’ll receive. Get away from her before you take her down with you and all of us for that matter.” He pokes a finger at my chest and that’s one thing Isaac doesn’t do. He doesn’t get physical. It’s uncharacteristic and I read palpable panic in him. “Go home now,” he bites out but he doesn’t move. He stands there, glares at me, but in the depth of his eyes, I see fear, the kind of fear I’ve seen in men’s eyes seconds before they ended up dead. He turns and walks down the stairs, leaving every instinct I own saying this is bigger than I thought it was. Isaac is into something he can’t get out of and it’s time I meet with my father and find out if he’s in it, too.
I walk to the railing to ensure Isaac leaves, a muscle in my jaw ticking as I watch him shut himself inside his silver BMW. My grip tightens on the wood beneath my palms with a mental replay of his words: I’m here for Harper. Get away from her before you take her down with you and all of us for that matter. Isaac backs out of the driveway and I don’t move until he’s out of sight, my certainty absolute that Harper is now ten feet deep in something that smells dirty and dangerous.