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)
“I’m going to set the alarm to stay,” I told her, which wasn’t exactly that rare since I always wanted them to have extra protection whenever I was away, but I could see it only conjured more questions.
“Okay,” she said.
I dipped out into the garage, opting to take my SUV. The second I pulled out of the driveway, I reached out to the screen and pushed the button to dial Otto’s number.
Knew he was going to be in a stir over what had happened.
It took all of one ring for him to answer. “You want to tell me what the fuck that was about?”
His voice was hard as it filtered through the speakers. Blowing out a sigh, I came up to the stop sign at Vista View, attention darting both ways to make sure it was clear before I made the left and headed in the direction of town.
“Charleigh thought someone was following her.” The words were gravel, aggression coming back on the second I addressed it.
“Yeah, it was clear she was freaking the fuck out. Suffering a full-blown panic attack. Thing I want to know about is why it sent you bolting out the door like a beast ready to tear someone limb from limb right out in the light of day and with an audience. Looked to me a whole lot like you already knew she was in trouble. Want to tell me why that is?”
Otto was always as cool as they came. He wasn’t acting so cool right then.
A harsh sigh raked from my lungs, and my hands clenched down on the steering wheel as I fought the wave of violence that threatened to suck me under. “When I went after her that Saturday night a couple weeks ago?”
“Yeah?”
Roughing a palm over my face, I let go of a heavy expulsion of air. “It wasn’t because I was lookin’ to get my dick sucked like the rest of you assholes were implying. Followed her because I could tell that something had her spooked.”
Okay, it was only partially a lie. Because I wanted that girl’s mouth wrapped around my cock almost as badly as I wanted to sink it into her pussy. Wanted it as badly as I wanted to go on a rampage to hunt down whoever was causing her this threat.
Wanted it more than I’d probably wanted anything in my life, which was so fuckin’ twisted I knew I was teetering on a quickly crumbling cliff.
No chance was I letting that on to Otto.
“She’d frozen right in the middle of a spin out on the dance floor,” I continued. “Like she’d run smack into a ghost. Then she’d panicked and taken off. Think you and I have seen that kind of fear enough times to know what it means, so I followed her home.”
“Ah, shit,” Otto muttered. Dude was instantly on guard, ready to step in. I knew he’d be. The whole crew would be.
But Otto and I both knew this was different.
She was here.
Friends with Raven.
And the girl had come running to me, not because she thought I was some obscure, faceless lifeline, but because she’d known she’d be safe in my arms.
And that was exactly where I wanted to keep her.
“I have no idea who it is, but I know enough to know she’s afraid of someone. Apparently, she’d gotten the same sense she might be being followed earlier today, and that’s when she came into the shop.”
“Came into the shop? That’s putting it mildly, River. That girl was in straight-up distress.”
I sighed. “Know it.”
“And?”
I didn’t hesitate when I said, “And I took her back to my place.”
Disbelief gusted out of him, and his tone lowered in concern. “You took her back to your place and not to the motel?”
It was against protocol. So against it, I deserved to get my ass beat. But there’d been no stopping myself from making that choice. Knowing there’d be no letting her out of my sight until I knew she was safe behind the walls of my house.
“You know I can’t just roll up there without a plan,” I defended.
“Oh, I think you had a plan, River, and I’m pretty sure that plan was to get that sweet little thing all to yourself.”
“Like you don’t go around getting attached.” My words were barbs.
He scoffed. “I get attached because I’m worried about them. Because I care. Because I want to be sure they get on with their lives and they have the resources to do it. I still follow the rules and I follow them to a T, and I’ve never once dipped my dick in any of them.”
“She came to me, not to Sanctum.” I flexed my hand with the stacked Ss tattooed on the back.
Sovereign Sanctum.
My gut twisted. The rules were there for a reason, and I was the one who’d written them.