Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Chapter Ten
When he first got back home from Vegas, Caleb had to deal with sending a message to all the men on their payroll. First, he discovered everything about each of them, especially the men that were close by. He even picked one of their kids up from school and made the man in question meet him in the park, letting him know that he could have buried all of the man’s kids, and to make it a warning to all of them. Fuck with the Carsons, and they wouldn’t just kill them. They would keep the men responsible alive while they tortured every single family member, and only when they were begging for death, hurting in more ways than they could imagine, would they bring death to them. Caleb had a gift for getting the message across.
After that, he was able to relax, knowing that only a stupid fucker would try to test him. Beast was always the first to know whereas Caleb was just the messenger, and he didn’t mind that. He’d never wanted Beast’s role in their world.
The days, weeks, and even months blended together, and throughout it all, Caleb’s life began to change. It wasn’t anything big. Faith stayed in his bed, and was always home when he got there. Hope helped her to catch up on most of her studies. She still had several exams to take in order to actually graduate. Hope and Dwayne already had graduated from high school.
His nephew decided to stick around close to home and go to a local college. He’d also moved out of Beast’s home. At first, he asked to move in with Caleb, but Caleb liked dismissing all of his staff so that he could fuck Faith in every single room of the house. He didn’t like to do that just once either. He enjoyed doing it regularly.
Anne was all for their relationship, and whenever Faith wasn’t around and he stood in the kitchen, she encouraged him to take it to the next level.
“You’ve got to stop your meddling,” he said, taking a grape from the bowl on the counter next to Anne.
She slapped his hand away and he chuckled, moving toward the window to watch as Faith once again replanted another rose bush. She had a love of planting roses. They were her favorite.
“I’m not going to stop until you realize that you love that girl, and that she loves you.”
He turned toward the older woman, who was now chopping up some chicken breasts to put into a salad.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“And you’re both blind. She’s worried because she was a debt. You can’t see past your own nose to what is right in front of you. Both of you are too damn stubborn. Faith could have gone months ago, but she doesn’t. She moved into your room, didn’t she? She sleeps in your bed every single night, and you wake up with her in your arms. That girl does nothing now but smile, and you’re the reason that’s happening.”
“You’re getting way too romantic in your old age.”
“It’s about time you start to realize that you’re lovable, Caleb Carson. Faith is a one of a kind woman. She can handle every single part of you. The soft parts and the hard parts.” She finished the salad and served them up. “One day I want to have little Calebs and Faiths running around. You’d make the cutest kids in the world.”
He took the salad and joined Faith in the garden. She washed her hands and sat at the table with him.
Caleb watched her. Her dark hair was pulled back, and she no longer tried to hide that scar, not that he minded. Her scar never bothered him.
He always found her to be utterly breathtaking.
Like now, he could just sit and watch her. She gave him peace when nothing else could.
“Are you happy here?” he asked.
“I’m starting to get a complex with how often you ask that. Do you expect a different answer?”
He chuckled. “You’re right. I just … you don’t have to stay here if you don’t want.” He didn’t like how his chest seemed to tighten, and there was a spike of pain rushing through him at the thought of her leaving.
Caleb couldn’t ever remember wanting someone with the kind of passion he felt for Faith, and this wasn’t just about bout sex either. This was about something far more.
For a long time, he’d been denying his feelings for her. He didn’t like to get attached to people. When he was younger, he’d found some kittens in an old barn, and brought them home. He took care of them for eight weeks. Then one day he came home, and found they were missing. His father taught him a stern lesson that day as he’d drowned each one of the kittens in the bath, and made Caleb clean them up.