Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
He pulls away, and I reach out to him, desperate for whatever connection he'll allow. He doesn't shrug me off when I clasp one of his hands between both of mine.
"I've always loved you," I confess. "Every single day, no matter what life was throwing at me, it never faded. There were a lot of days it kept me going."
"Aspen."
He doesn't say my name with the tone I'd like. He sounds frustrated and a little annoyed to have to bear witness to my confessions.
I drop my hands to my sides when he pulls away.
"Did you move on? Did you find someone else who was worthy of all the love you had to offer?"
He blinks down at me, but he doesn't speak.
I should've figured this out sooner. Any woman would be lucky to have a man like him, and after the way I betrayed him, I don't have a right to be angry about him moving on and finding someone worthy. God knows I never was enough for him.
He walks out of the room, leaving me in tears, without another word.
Chapter 17
Jericho
"It shouldn't be this fucking difficult," I growl, my frustration and anger coming to a head outside on the porch when Hemlock tells me they are no closer to finding my son than they were three hours ago.
"We have over three dozen more places to look," Hemlock says. "We pulled our entire team in Tennessee, and Kincaid is sending many of his team from New Mexico. We aren't sitting on our asses doing nothing."
I don't argue with the man. He understands that my anger isn't geared toward him or any of the people looking for Eli. I'm pissed we can't seem to catch a break. Even with Wren working with both Casper from the Gatlinburg chapter and Max in New Mexico, we haven't found anything that directly links any kids to a certain location.
Teams have been going in and clearing places they discover, but it's a long process. They can't just send a single person to knock on these doors and ask about abducted children. They've cleared half a dozen places and three of them were met with gunfire. Someone getting killed while doing this is a horrible outcome, and not what I want on my conscience.
I know what it takes to do this sort of work. I've lived this my entire adult life, but it doesn't ease the annoyance building inside of me.
"We haven't found any credit card purchases connected to the organization," Hemlock continues.
"That doesn't fucking surprise me. They have enough goddamned cash and liquid assets to disappear those kids for fucking ever. I hate to admit it, but Damien isn't a fucking idiot."
"This would be a lot easier if he was," Hemlock mutters.
"If given enough time, he'll run the entire business into the ground, but it'll be because of his pride and stubbornness rather than his lack of intelligence."
"We have a team gearing up to look into another location half an hour away. I'm going to head out and meet up with them."
I walk toward the front of the house.
"You can't go, Jericho," my boss says, and I turn to glare at him despite the finality in his voice.
"This is my son we're talking about," I growl.
"And precisely why I can't have you in the middle of that shit. You'll stay here with Aspen. We're moving as fast as we can, and your connection to all of this will slow us down. I can't focus on helping Eli if I have to worry about what you might be planning to do."
He makes complete sense. If I weren't Eli's father, this would be a non-issue. If I were in his position, I'd demand the same thing, but it doesn't help me or leave me feeling any less helpless right now.
"I haven't even gotten to meet him," I whisper.
"I'll do everything in my power to make sure you get the chance."
"You have to take that piece of shit with you," I say, pointing toward the door to indicate Samuel. "I don't fucking trust that he won't try to hurt either one of us."
"He'll come with me. I have a few things planned to make sure we know everything he knows anyway."
The glint in his eyes tells me that Samuel is going to have a very bad night if he doesn't start sharing a little more information and, honestly, I don't have it in me to give a shit about the man. His daughter doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her, but this man knowingly joined a dangerous, criminal organization, and there are fucking consequences to that.
"You'll call me with updates?"
"You know I will," he says. "I imagine she's hungry, and she hasn't come out of that room."
Catering to Aspen doesn't appeal to me, despite there being a time in my life when I would've crawled on hands and knees, and positioned myself over a mud puddle just so she didn't have to get her shoes wet. Things are very different now, and with the way she looked at me earlier, as if I was always the one she thought hung the moon, I'm inclined to avoid her for the rest of my days. It gave her too much power—that look in her eyes and the way it affected me. I know just how fucking easy it would be to fall right back under her spell. Despite the tears and the emotion I know is true for how she feels about Eli, I can't chance another round of manipulation at her fingertips.