Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Tanner! You would not!”
“Why not? I’ve done it before. Mostly to Jardin. He’s a pretentious ass.”
“Who is Jardin?” she asked.
“Didn’t you hear me? He’s a dick.”
“No. I mean . . . who is he?”
“Oh, just one of our cousins. The New Orleans Malones. All of them are assholes. Well, except Lottie. She’s a sweetheart. Where was I? Oh yeah, your asshole of a father. Fuck, what sort of family did you grow up in? Sounds like the fucking mafia.”
Oh hell.
She’d said too much. She’d known that as she was talking.
His eyes widened. “Oh, fuck.”
Tanner started to pace.
“Please don’t go looking into him, Tanner. That will just alert him to where we are. He’s clever and he has people searching for us. Please.” There was a reason she’d always been careful not to say his name. Even though Tanner didn’t know her real last name it might not take much to find Stefan.
“Hey.” He walked over to her, sitting on the bed and facing her. “I’m not going to do anything rash.”
She eyed him doubtfully.
“Sheesh, you do a few impulsive things in your life, and you get labelled as a hothead,” he teased.
She laughed, then snorted before putting her hand over her mouth. “Oops. Sorry.”
“I’ve missed your snort-laugh, pretty girl.”
“Tanner,” she moaned.
“I won’t go looking for him. I promise.”
She breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“But I can tell you right now that when I find this fucker, he’s a dead man for touching you. For hurting you.”
“No! No, you won’t. You’ll go nowhere near him. He’s dangerous. If he knew how I felt about you, he’d . . . he’d hurt you. That’s what he does to keep me in line. After my dad died, he moved away from punishing me by destroying my stuff and moved onto destroying people. I couldn’t make friends with any of the staff because he’d use them to punish me. He finally figured he could get me to do what he wanted by threatening people I cared about.”
“That motherfucker. He needs to die, Lilac.”
“I know.” It was the only way they were ever going to be free of him. That she would ever be free.
“I take it that’s why you disappeared on me six months ago?” he asked.
“Yes. I was going to tell you some of it when I saw you that night. But as I was heading toward the bar to meet you, I spotted one of his men stepping out of a car. I knew I had to lose my phone and get out of there. I rang Opal and Ryleigh before I turned it off and shoved it in a bin. They picked me up and we fled. I’m so sorry, it wasn’t until we were on the outskirts of town that I realized I should have texted you too. But if they were tracking us through our phones . . . I don’t know. My brother has his ways, and I couldn’t have you involved with me. So, I took off and I . . . I’ve regretted it ever since. I hated hurting you. Lying to you. God, so much that it felt like it was a cancer growing inside me.” Her voice cracked as she finished her explanation.
“Baby, fuck.” He cupped the side of her face. “You don’t know how much it kills me that you didn’t know you should run to me.”
“I had to protect you—”
“No, Lilac,” he said firmly. “No. That ends right now. You don’t protect me. Understand? You. Do. Not. Protect. Me. I look after you. That is the way it works from now on. And if you take away my opportunity to protect you, I will not be happy.”
Looking up into his face, she knew he meant every word. Her mouth was dry as she tried to get out the words to explain why she had to protect him. “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
“Then why come here?”
She sniffled. She couldn’t tell him that part. It wasn’t her secret to tell. “I know it makes no sense.”
“Why? Why come here? Was it for me?”
“Yes, it was for you.” It wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t the whole story.
“Because you knew I’d protect you and your friends. That the entire town would.”
“We did some research into Haven, although I wasn’t sure I really believed that a town like this could truly exist. I know it was wrong and selfish to come here. I’ve probably put you all in danger.”
Fuck.
He couldn’t stand this. Tanner knew he had to get her to calm down. To eat some food. He was doing a terrible job of looking after her.
But this was the most he’d gotten out of her, and he was loathe to stop her from talking.
“You don’t need to worry about us. We can take care of ourselves. And protect you guys.”