Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 64751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“There just doesn’t seem to be any other reason I can think of why a woman as smart as you would stay with a man like that.”
Oh, if only it were that simple, then the world wouldn’t be full of domestic abuse.
But it isn’t that simple.
It’s never that simple.
“I have to go,” I say, trying to change the subject. “Thanks for today.”
“I can help you,” he goes on, ignoring me. “You would be surprised the things I can make disappear. You can trust me, you can trust the club, we can help free you from this situation.”
Could he?
Is that even a possibility?
I wish I could believe it was, but I just don’t see how they could make this go away.
I open my mouth, the words desperate to come out, but I quickly close it again.
I can’t bring myself to do it, to say it, to take the risk.
It could end so badly for me.
“I should go.”
“Alexis,” he calls when I turn.
I stop, but I don’t look back at him.
“I can make it go away.”
I’m starting to think he really believes that.
And oh, how I wish it was true.
“I wish you could,” I call out. “I really do.”
Then, I get into my car with my gun tucked safely on the seat beside me, and I drive away, not looking back.
If I look back, I’m afraid I’ll turn around, and if I turn around, I might just let him do what he’s saying he can.
I might just let him help me.
We both know that would be a bad idea.
Me more so than him.
I can only hope he lets this one go.
ETHAN’S FINGERS CURL around my upper arm as we walk into the school awards night. It’s a silent warning that he’s here, and with one pinch he can pull me back into line. To others, he looks like a doting husband; to me, he is the devil in disguise. Generally, he doesn’t come to school events with me, but tonight he insisted. I’m wondering if he is suspicious, considering I’m coming home later than usual because I help Hope each afternoon.
Either way, he wasn’t letting me show up alone.
I’m praying with every ounce of my being that Fury doesn’t come. Hope is getting an award, but I told him she could collect it Monday if she was nervous about going up on stage. I’m hoping that I know the rugged biker well enough by now to know that he won’t come to something like that. At least, that’s what I’m praying as we walk through the crowd.
“Alexis, Ethan, how wonderful to see you both.”
The head principal of the school, Roger Hill, smiles as he approaches us. Reaching up, he pushes his thick-framed glasses over his nose, and his blue eyes dance with happiness. Roger is always easy to talk to, he always has a smile. He reminds you of your warm grandfather, like you could go in and tell him anything. Roger is the reason my job at this school is so fulfilling.
I smile as we stop in front of him. “Hi, Roger.”
“Ethan, I didn’t think I would see you here,” Roger tells Ethan, reaching out to shake his hand.
“I miss too many things my wife does; I thought it was time I started getting involved.”
The way he says that, to another might just sound like a loyal husband, but to me, it’s an underlying threat, one I didn’t know existed. He’s suspicious, I know him well enough to know that. The problem is, I had no idea. I didn’t know he was suspecting me of anything, and as my body tenses in his arms, I know that he is well aware of the information he just gave me.
Cold fingers tighten into my side as he puts an arm around me.
Terror washes over me.
Fear of what tonight will bring.
He was scarily calm and cold before we left, and I thought it was merely a bad day at work, but now I’m fully aware that it is so much more. He isn’t just being cold, he’s sending me a warning, a warning that he is onto me and when we get home, it’s going to end very badly. Terror unlike anything I’ve ever felt rushes up my spine, and my brain frantically scrambles for a way out of this.
“You’re a good man,” Roger nods to Ethan, before turning and chatting to someone else.
Ethan leans in close, his breath against my ear as he murmurs, “I know where you’ve been.”
My chest rises and falls with desperation as I try to figure out a way to flee. He’s going to hurt me, in a big way, or worse, he might just expose me and watch me go to prison for the rest of my life. Either way, Ethan holds the power to completely destroy me, and I’m so damned scared tonight will be the night he does just that. I can’t breathe, I can’t get my mind to stop spinning as my knees begin to shake.