Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Shock tore through me, and the question shook. “All of you…that’s what you do?”
My brother and his friends are exactly who you should turn to if you’re in trouble.
Raven’s encouragement from that day flashed through my thoughts.
“Yes. Each of us has different responsibilities. Kane funnels the money where we need it, Theo temporarily shelters them at his motel until we can get them moved to their new homes, Cash creates new identities for them, and Otto gets them to where they’re going to be.”
My eyes searched the grave lines of his face. “And what’s yours?”
I somehow already knew what his answer would be.
“I get them out. By whatever means necessary.”
He didn’t need to say what was clearly implied.
He killed whoever tried to stop them.
The air wheezed from my lungs, words locked, uncertainty unending.
He gripped me even tighter, drawing me toward him an inch. “Say something. Please fucking say something.”
I blinked through the reservations and doubt. “I’m terrified.” It choked out of me, and he started to pull away, only I dragged him back by the shirt. “I’m terrified and awed.”
A frown curled his brow. “You should be disgusted.”
“How could I be?” Maybe I was all wrong. It wasn’t like I didn’t know his actions were criminal. But even if I hadn’t met him and I read about what he and his friends did? I think I would…understand it. Secretly applaud it. Because if you were exposed to the type of depravity they worked to save the vulnerable from? You understood saving them was worth it. Understood going beyond the laws that had been set to offer a justice that would rarely otherwise be found.
It seemed insane that I had tried myself. Tried to fight for what was right.
Only, I’d failed and had lost everything.
At that time, I would have given anything for someone like him. For someone to have helped me. Guided me.
My hand slipped up and splayed over the booming of his heart. “I told you I recognized what was here. Recognized who you are. And maybe that’s why I was drawn to you to begin with. Because I’m no different than any of those women and children you’ve helped, and I knew, even though there was a part of me that was terrified of you, that I’d be safe with you.”
River curled his hand over mine that remained on his chest. “We don’t let anyone in, Charleigh. Because the more people who know what we do the likelier it is we’re going to get caught. Because what we do is dangerous. Because of things like what happened tonight. Because of a thousand reasons.”
His hand cinched down. “I’m not supposed to keep you, but I don’t know how to let you go.”
“Then don’t.”
He groaned as if my words caused him physical pain, then his hands were in my hair and his mouth was on mine.
His kiss was crushing.
Bruising.
Desperate in its demand.
His tongue was hot as it swept over mine, an anguished searching that had me whimpering into his kiss.
Pleading for it as I kissed him back.
His fingers drove into the locks of my hair, alternating between gripping and splaying over my head. Every move was wrought with the need to get me as close to him as he could.
“I won’t. I fuckin’ can’t.” He rumbled the words at my lips. “Can’t let you go.”
His hands clamped down on the sides of my head and he pried himself back so he could look at me. Our breaths panted between us, and those stormy eyes raged.
Torment twisted his expression. “Because I love you. I’m so fucking in love with you. So caught up I can’t see a future where you don’t exist in it. I can’t imagine a day that I wake up without you in my arms. You fuckin’ struck me the first time I saw you, Charleigh. Pierced me all the way through. Stole some part of me when I inked myself on you. But you have all of me now. If you want it. If you’ll take it.”
Emotion rushed, careening through my veins. It washed away every last question and reservation.
My words were a jumble of desperation. “I’ll take it. I need it. Because I love you, too. I think maybe a part of me fell for you that night. Because I was dead inside. So dead, and you lit the last vapor of hope that I possessed. Stoked it and brought it back to life. And I want to live. I want to live. And I want to live it with you.”
In grief we must live.
I just had never known that in it I might find joy, too.
He pulled me all the way to him until our noses were an inch apart, and he uttered, “It’s you and me, Charleigh. From here to eternity.”
Then his mouth was back on mine.