Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
“Well, Riley is upstairs. Why don’t we talk in your car?” I ask.
“Fair enough. Come on. I parked over here.”
I follow Gunnar to the lot where he’s parked a red BMW sedan.
“How many cars do you have?” I ask.
“Hey, fighting pays pretty well,” he replies with a wink that reminds me just how good-looking he truly is.
He and I hop in the front, and Neve climbs in the back.
“So I brought Neve here with me so she can clear some things up for you. I assume you read some things that mentioned a minor female and made some claims that I sexually assaulted her?”
For some reason, I feel guilty admitting this, but I nod. Gunnar motions to Neve, who raises her hand and smiles.
“Yeah, that would be me they’re talking about.”
“You?” I ask, completely confused. “Wait—what!?”
“Remember I told you the defense was trying to put out false information and get me sent to prison?” Again I nod, feeling my heartrate rapidly rising. “Well, part of that has to do with them twisting the story about what really happened to my sister. You wanna tell her, Neve?”
I glance back at Neve again, feeling my head begin to whirl.
“Well, I had this boyfriend named Tucker. We were only dating for three weeks when he took me to this party. He must have put something in my drink because next thing I know, I’m upstairs, barely conscious, and he’s trying to take my shirt off.”
“A party she’s too young to have been at, too young to have been drinking,” Gunnar chimes in.
“Anyway,” Neve continues, “Captain America here”—she points to her brother—“turns out he was watching over me all night like a bodyguard–”
“As a good older brother should.”
“And he comes storming into the room, sees what’s going on, yanks Tucker off of me, and beats him within an inch of his life for trying to do what he was trying to do to me.”
“Jesus Christ…” I mutter.
“Only Tucker’s parents are a couple of high-powered attorneys at Neve’s school,” Gunnar says. “So they press charges and try to say it wasn’t their perfect, angelic little son who tried to rape my sister–it was me–in some kind of weird, Game of Thrones incest-type shit or something.”
“Disgusting perverts,” Neve mutters.
“The league, not wanting a scandal, suspends me until the case is resolved and I’m found innocent.”
I can practically feel the cogs of my brain spinning as I process what Gunnar just told me.
“Are you two serious?” I finally ask once it all sinks in. “Like…this really happened?”
“Deadly,” Gunnar replies.
“Yup.” Neve nods.
I turn to her. “Neve, I am so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She shrugs. “I don’t remember most of it, and Tucker didn’t get away with anything serious thanks to Big Bro here. I guess it pays to have a pro MMA fighter in the family.”
“I guess so… And you guys haven’t gone to the media with this? Given them your sides of the story?”
Gunnar shakes his head and scoffs. “Why? So they can spin it and twist everything we have to say to fit their agenda? No thanks. I don’t trust the media.”
A smile crosses my lips as a thought enters my mind. I reach out and take his hand in mine.
“What if there was a reporter you could trust, Gunnar? Someone you knew wouldn’t twist your words for her agenda? Someone you could tell everything and would report it just the way you told them? Both for you and your sister?”
Gunnar opens his mouth like he’s going to scoff and blow me off, but then, when his eyes meet mine and he realizes what I’m saying, he closes it and smiles.
“Oh, you know someone like that, huh?”
I nod. “I sure do. And she would absolutely love to cover this for you and get you and your sister’s truth out to the world.”
Gunnar smiles, leans in, and kisses me, deeply and passionately. My whole world lights up as our lips meet.
How could I ever have doubted him?
He pulls back and stares into my eyes, and I see something there I’ve never seen until this moment.
“I love you. You know that?”
My heart swells with warmth, and I feel my eyes filling up with tears. I nod. Somehow, I did know it. Maybe that’s why I listened to Riley when she told me to give him a chance to explain himself.
“I know.” I nod, all choked up. “I love you too.”
Gunnar leans in again for another kiss, but there’s a quiet cough from the back seat.
“You guys know I’m still here, right? Would you mind not doing that right now?”
EPILOGUE
GUNNAR
Five years later…
This guy is fast, I think, ducking another right hook and stepping back as he follows up right with a blow that would have certainly cracked a rib if I hadn’t anticipated it.
I counter with a hard left to his stomach that connects and sends him staggering back.