Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
“You wouldn’t take that fucking test, so I thought…” He stopped.
“You thought that I was lying. That I had slept with other people, and what, they were going to prove your theory correct?” She shook her head as he didn’t deny it. “Wow. Really. Wow.”
“You can’t go, Alex,” Antonio said. “The threat is very real.”
“Alex will not be leaving,” Liam said.
She spun toward her father. “Dad?”
“Alex, go on inside because we don’t know the extent of this threat.”
She wanted to argue with him. She was so sick and tired of being told what to do. One look at her father’s face, and she knew he had nothing to do with this. He was angry, the rage clear to see.
Like so many times before, her father was going to take care of her. She moved toward him, and he wrapped his arms around her.
“I love you, sweetheart. Please, go inside.”
“Dad, don’t do anything stupid.”
“I won’t.”
Alex moved past Roman, and when he tried to reach for her, she pulled away. There was no way he was going to touch her, hold her, or get into her heart, not ever again.
Stepping into the main house, she looked up to see Lucas. He had paled. He hadn’t expected Liam to find out.
Without another look in his direction, she made her way up to the bedroom, but with one look at the room, she felt sick.
In her mind, she saw Roman moving over her, kissing her, and heard the laughter she had shared with him. Then, as she stepped forward, something moved behind her and slammed across her head, sending everything black.
Chapter Sixteen
Roman couldn’t believe Alex heard his father! Liam had stepped out for just a minute to take a private phone call, and then Lucas had wanted to know progress, which had turned into him berating him for fucking failing.
Staring at Liam, he knew he was in for a world of pain. The man removed his jacket and started to roll up his sleeves.
“I’m not going to fight you,” Roman said.
“That’s assuming you will get any hits in.”
He didn’t want to fight her father. “It was all a mistake,” he said.
That didn’t stop Liam from advancing toward him. Hitting Alex’s father wasn’t going to fix anything.
“Mr. Smith, I suggest we go in and talk.”
“Do you think I will have anything to talk to you about after what I just heard?” Liam charged at Roman, but he didn’t put up his fists or block any of the hits.
He took each blow.
Liam wasn’t hitting lightly. He was angry, and Roman understood the rage. The hits sent him to the ground.
“Get the fuck up.”
He expected Liam to hit him while he was down, but the man actually had a fucking code.
“I didn’t know about the kids,” Roman said. “I wanted to adopt them because they are fucking amazing.”
“Get up! I already knew they were Greco brats. Alex shouldn’t have known.”
“And there was a file,” Lucas said. “I have no idea how she got this as this was locked up and secured in my office at home.”
Roman frowned and looked toward his father. “What?”
“This file, I keep a record of every single child that was placed in foster care or sent to an orphanage. I do keep an eye on them. I’m not heartless. Well, not completely. They could be soldiers one day.”
At that moment, he hated his father. There had been moments throughout his life that he hadn’t liked the man in front of him, but it had never been downright hatred, not like this. Alex had looked so fucking broken, so sad, and so lost. That had been on him, and he didn’t know what to do to bring her back to him.
He’d fucked up big time. He knew that.
Now all he had to do was figure out how to fucking fix this, but how did you fix lies?
“But if you said that it was at home, back in your office, how did it end up here?”
Liam hit him again. He lost his train of thought and glared at Liam. “For fuck’s sake, I love your daughter, okay?”
This time, Liam went to kick him, and Roman spun out of the way, getting to his feet, ready to defend himself.
“Do not fucking lie to me.”
“I’m not lying. I love your daughter. I love Alex, and I will do whatever it takes to protect her.” His nose was bleeding, and from the last blow, he felt like he might have a bit of a concussion. His vision was a little messed up, and he was seeing everything in little spots.
“Phillip. Fucking Phillip!” Roman said.
“What’s your brother got to do with this? Antonio asked.
“He’s the attacker. The amateur,” Roman said.
“Son, I think that is a reach.”
“Really? Look where he’s reaching from! The second fucking chair. He’s the second son. The one no one wants. The one who is constantly overlooked! Fuck. He knows that if he takes out Alex, war will break out between us. Liam would be on a rampage, like he was when he … lost her mother. We’d die—”