Total pages in book: 213
Estimated words: 202770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1014(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 676(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 202770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1014(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 676(@300wpm)
Falling off a cliff. These words rip through me and I can feel my fingers digging into her arms. She didn’t mean to connect dots to my past, to my brother. I don’t sense that in her. I don’t believe she’s fucking with my head, but still, I let her go. “I’ll order coffee.”
She doesn’t walk away. Her eyes search my face. “My turn. What just happened?”
“Nothing happened.”
She grabs my belt and I don’t believe that’s an accident. It’s her trying to tell me she really is here with me. “What just happened?” she presses again.
I stare down at her and I can feel the edge inside me ripping and cutting from words that mean nothing to her and everything to me. “Nothing that coffee and you can’t solve.” I strip away the throw blanket, cup her naked backside, and carry her toward the shower. We both need to fuck. And after that, I’m going to find the person, or persons, who fucked my brother and fuck them, too, but unlike Emma, they won’t enjoy it.
I enter the bathroom, still holding Emma as I turn on the shower and then set her on her feet, kissing her as I do. Getting rid of my pants is fast, and I all but carry Emma into the shower with me. When cold water hits us, she cries out with the shock and I grunt, righting the water, and just that easily, we’re laughing—I’m fucking laughing when a minute earlier I was coming out of my own skin. And she was, too, for that matter.
I press her into the corner, and somehow, we end up just staring at each other, seconds ticking by, lust and anger shifting, changing to something different, something I don’t recognize as familiar. My hand slides to her neck, under her hair, and I drag her mouth to mine. “What are you doing to me, woman?” I ask, my mouth closing down on hers, and when I kiss her, it’s a tender stroke of tongue. And when I enter her, when I slide deep inside her, it’s not fucking. It’s raw and real, a deep hollow inside me where anger and a burn for revenge have lived fills with her. She’s my motivation now. She’s changed why I’m here.
I leave Emma in the bathroom, finishing her morning routine, which isn’t an easy task, considering she’s wearing a tiny pink silk robe that makes me want to take her back to the shower. Once I’ve stepped away though, entering the bedroom, I slip into action mode and waste no time dressing. Out of the necessity of time, I skip shaving, but dress in an expensive navy pinstriped suit that says I’m ready to do business, be it with York, Emma’s brother, or Eric Mitchell on this financial deal I’m negotiating with him that gets more complicated the closer I get to Emma.
Next up, I order coffee, a selection of pastries, and then step onto the patio to dial Savage. He answers on the first ring. “Morning, sunshine,” he greets. “How do you like your eggs?”
“The same way I like my life, right side up. What do you have for me?”
“I’m an ass man myself, hardboiled.”
“Am I supposed to know what that means?”
“One day you will,” he says, whatever that means, and thankfully he moves on from the nonsense. “As for what I have for you? I homed in on York as the active aggressor. He met with his aunt Marion last night, minus her husband. After that meeting, Marion called Emma’s brother and then he called and texted Emma’s phone.”
“I know about the attempted call and the text. Chance and Marion want to meet Emma this morning. She believes Marion wants to silence her.”
“Because she knows Knight Senior was having an affair with Marion.”
“Yes,” I say, impressed at how quickly he got to that information. “York is threatening her to keep her quiet about it, coming at her like a freight train. I’m gambling here and saying my brother knew, too, which means York went at him, too.”
“I’d say that’s a good gamble. We hacked York’s, Chance’s, and Marion’s calendars. Interesting thing about Marion’s calendar—the month your brother died, you know what we found? Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing, but she has a full calendar now.”
“She wiped evidence,” I say following his lead. “But she was also having an affair. That’s a good reason to wipe her calendar.”
“An affair that she was desperate to hide. That leads me places but we’ll go there together later. Our team has only been on this for a few hours. We’ll know more soon.”
“I’m escorting Emma to work and then headed to meetings,” I say. “Make sure she stays safe.”
“Safe as an angel in a savage heaven. What exactly is York using to threaten Emma?”
“I don’t know.”
“I thought she told you everything?” he challenges.