Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
He loves me. He loves me.
My throat gets tight and my nose tingles. I feel hot and cold and light and heavy all at once. I want to cry, long and loud and ugly, and I don’t know why.
“You love me?” I ask, and he smiles that crooked smile. “I know, I know, that’s not what a girl should say after a profession of love.”
“You’re not just any girl.”
And that’s why I love him.
“I love you, Cain.” I’ve never told anyone I loved them before. No one, not anyone in my entire life. I wish it felt better than it does, but for some reason, it makes me ache inside.
Loving someone makes you vulnerable. So fucking vulnerable. And I don’t like that.
He holds me to him, his fingers tangled in my hair as if to keep me here.
“Why are you shaking?”
“I don’t like the way it makes me feel and I wish I did. If I’m honest… and I always want to be honest with you… it scares me.”
“I know, baby. Me, too.”
He holds me in silence for a moment, and I can’t help but give thanks that he gets that this is hard for me. I love that he doesn’t question me, or act defensive, or make me feel like shit for admitting that loving him scares the living shit out of me. Cain has too much integrity to act like a pussy when we face hard things. It’s one thing I love about him.
“Violet… what does that mean for you?”
I never expected a question like this.
“To love someone?”
“Yes. Tell me, Violet. Tell me what it means to you.”
“It means… accepting someone no matter what. It means loving them for who they are. It means… it means working through everything that’s difficult and threatens to tear you apart, because if you love someone, you make it fucking work. It means helping the other person become the person they were meant to be.”
“Yes, baby.” He kisses my cheek. “All of that.”
He releases me with reluctance, concern in his eyes. “Violet, I—” He pauses.
“Yeah?”
His phone rings. Henri.
“We’ve got intel, sir. Serious. You on your way?”
“On our way.”
He hangs up the phone and nods.
“Cain,” I say in a little voice. “We need to bring something with us.” I reach for my mother’s diary. He holds my hand and at first doesn’t respond. Then he takes it in his free hand. My heart pounds harder knowing that my two worlds have somehow strangely collided.
“No matter what, Violet. No matter what happens, trust me. And remember what you just said.”
I can’t help the feeling of foreboding that builds in my belly.
“Of course,” I tell him, but my words feel hollow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Cain
I woke up with a plan.
Violet needs to know everything.
I’ve put this off long enough, and now there’s a threat to her finding out in a way I do not want her to. She has to know, because I’m not letting her go. She has to know I’ve wanted her from the first time I ever saw her. She has to know I knew she was the one for me.
But Jesus, the timing on this…
I told her I love her because I do. And when the truth comes out, I need to believe that it’s enough, even if I have to fucking grovel on my knees for her.
We walk hand-in-hand to my office. The house is oddly quiet today, and it isn’t until we get to my office that I see why: all hands are on deck.
Claude, Henri, and Joe, as well as all of my new hires and trainees, and even our damn doctor, wait for me in my office.
Violet whistles. “Whoa. Now this is quite a greeting, you guys.”
I meet Joe’s eyes. He looks grim, goddammit. I run my fingers through my hair and grit my teeth.
Claude stands and gestures for Violet to take a seat, but I shake my head. “She’ll sit with me.” I want her to be as close to me as possible when we hear whatever it is they tell us.
I sit at my desk chair and she perches on my knee, alert and focused, but her hand rests on my thigh. My fingers wrap around hers.
“Not gonna waste time, boss,” Joe begins. Everyone quiets and looks at him. “We found Armand tracking you last night. Seems he hasn’t gotten over being let go, and he’s got an ax to grind.”
I nod. Figured as much. All of my men, like me, were former military. We all have a history together, too. But when Armand threatened Violet’s life last year, I’d had enough. I wanted her brought here, but safely and on her terms. He got her in a car accident and could’ve killed her.
He was the first one I’d ever fired.
“Understood.”
“Armand was the one who got into an accident with me,” Violet says. She frowns. “Kinda thought he was a douche.”