Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
She had sucked and fucked a guy to tell her how to mess with my security system. Damn slut. Levi was never going to want her. He had only been messing with her because he liked threesomes and she was willing and convenient.
“Garrett isn’t going to let you live.” I told her what she already knew.
Madeline was going to beg me, so my saying it was more for her sake than Gina’s.
Gina nodded.
Madeline was looking at me like she wanted to punch me in the face.
“Seeing as how only the three of us have seen her,” Huck said, “don’t think anyone has to mention it. Madeline will take it to her damn grave. Fuck knows I don’t want to see a bullet in Gina or be the sorry fucker ordered to do it.”
I shifted my gaze to Huck. He shrugged. Damn asshole had known if he said this in front of Madeline, he was making it near impossible for me to do what needed to be done. I shook my head at him.
“Your call, boss,” he said, although his eyes were telling me he wanted me to let him drive away and take her somewhere far from this place.
“Blaise.” Madeline’s pleading tone sliced through my chest. “Please. I’m safe. I got to meet my real father. We have no secrets between us now, and you know I love you completely, knowing it all. Is what she did really so bad? I think she made us stronger.”
There were unshed tears in her eyes. I still had my secrets. I’d always have my fucking secrets. In my world secrets were a part of life. I would fucking lie to the Pope than tell Madeline all the shit I’d done.
“Come here,” I told her.
She looked hesitant.
“Madeline,” I said, then held out my hand.
She looked at my hand, then at me.
“Do you trust me?” I asked her then.
She turned back to Gina and hugged her tightly. I didn’t hear what she said before she stepped out of the vehicle and walked over to take my hand.
I threaded my fingers through hers and lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it. “Let’s go.”
She frowned. “Go where?”
“Inside,” I replied and started walking.
She kept up beside me as I pulled her along.
“What about Gina?” she asked.
I shrugged. “She ran off. We can’t find her.”
Madeline stopped then and pulled her hand free of mine before throwing her arms around me. “I love you,” she said fiercely.
I wrapped my arms around her and held her to me, burying my face in her hair. The SUV’s engine started, and I continued to hold Madeline while she lifted her head and watched it drive away over my shoulder.
Thirty-Five
Madeline
I stood inside the entrance of … our house. The ceiling was high, and there was a chandelier that hung much like the one at the Houstons’. A wide spiral staircase was to my right, and everything was bright and cheerful. It smelled like fresh paint and shone as if it was brand-new.
The past month, Blaise had brought me over here several times while they worked on the house. He’d had me choose paint colors, and we had gone shopping for furniture several times. It took a lot to fill a house this size. My favorite part had been decorating the nursery.
Knowing that our little boy would be brought home to this house after he was born made my heart swell. He would have more opportunities than I could have even dreamed up as a child, but more than that, he would know he was loved by his parents. He’d never experience a day when he was scared, or lost, or felt alone.
The fact that he would one day be a Mafia boss? I didn’t want to consider that right now. That was the one thing that I had struggled with since they had told me it was a boy. He was the heir. But first, he was my little boy.
The door opened behind me, and Blaise stepped inside, smiling at me. He was wearing his cowboy hat and jeans that hung on his hips just right. The butterflies were still there at the sight of him. I wondered if that would ever go away.
“You lose your shirt?” I asked him.
“It’s hot as fuck out there,” he replied.
I reached out to run my hand down his abs.
“Easy, baby, unless you want to be bent over those stairs,” he warned me.
I looked up at him and smiled. “You say that like it’s a threat.”
He pulled me to him and covered my mouth with his. I sank into his sweaty chest and inhaled him. Even after working in the heat with horses all day, his smell still turned me on.
“I’m distracting you,” I whispered. “What was it you came inside for?”
Blaise kissed me one more time, then nodded his head to the far right of the house. “Water,” he said. “But this was much better.”