Total pages in book: 170
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
I’ve always been there for the women they love. They’re family.
I need Braelynn. I need her in my life and even if I’m no good for her, now she needs me too.
“She’s scared.”
“We already knew that.” Daniel tells Carter as he takes a seat on the ottoman in front of the fire.
“I think she’s less scared than before.” Jase offers.
I nod, listening and knowing, although that’s not what I meant. I have to bite my tongue not to ask them questions they’ve asked me before. Questions like: do you think she loves me? Do you think we’ll be all right?
Instead I clear my throat and add, “She’s definitely better than she was.” I grip the crystal tumbler and swirl it gently, watching the liquid twirl in the glass. “She’s loyal,” I add, talking over Jase who started saying something. “She may be scared but she’s loyal. She’d rather die than upset me,” I tell them and the pain ricochets in my chest.
I hate myself for it. For everything I’ve done to her.
The agony that hasn’t left me tightens its grip and it feels like I can’t breathe.
Thankfully, Jase offers a solution to the problem at hand. “Shotgun wedding?”
“She won’t be forced to testify,” I state clearly, very much anticipating the answer they’d have.
“It needs to be done immediately,” Carter says and I nod.
“Paperwork can be done in forty-eight hours according to McHale’s contact.”
“I haven’t discussed it with her yet, but she’ll do what I ask of her.”
It’s quiet and I wonder if my brothers question whether or not she will go along with it. It fucking guts me and I don’t have the balls to ask them. I already feel as if I’m at death’s door and I don’t want to know the truth.
“Once that’s taken care of,” Carter pauses, his gaze falling on me, “we won’t have anything to worry about on that front, right?”
“She’s not going to say anything. I don’t think she ever did.” I push the issue once more. It wasn’t her that leaked to Scarlet. I fucking know she didn’t do it.
Jase glances at me from his periphery, his brow arching too much for my comfort.
“There’s a rat somewhere in that bar; it’s not her though,” I tell them and stress it, my voice cracking.
“All that matters right now is getting you both the paperwork so the feds leave her alone.” He breathes out heavily before asking, “I imagine she has an idea of what she’s agreeing to?”
It’s a blow to my chest. They might protect her, but it’s only for me.
I have nothing in me now to fight or to argue. “Marriage is a contract and she understands the terms,” I tell them.
I’ll take care of her in every way she needs. I will carry every burden and love her in every way I can. And she’ll stay by my side…whether or not she wants to.
They’ll get to know her. We’ll figure out the truth. Or else I don’t know what will happen once all of this blows over.
My throat tightens when I add, “It’s not like she has much of a choice.”
My brothers are quiet. I wish they’d fucking say something.
“Is she okay?”
“No.” I put it bluntly and when I do, everything feels as if it tumbles out of me. “I wish I’d never touched her. She doesn’t deserve this.”
“No you don’t.” Jase leans back, huffing a humorless laugh. “We’re all too selfish to wish for something like that,” he murmurs and then, and only then, does he look at me. “All love is selfish.”
“Just make it better. Make it right and it’ll be okay,” Daniel tells me and his expression is sincere.
“I don’t know how to make it right in the ways that matter.” Carter opens his mouth to say something but I cut him off, “But I know there’s hell to pay and I want the fucking station to run red with blood.”
Carter’s lips slip into an asymmetric smile.
“I’ll happily help you there,” Jase says with a grin.
“Let’s start with that fucking detective,” I tell them and they nod, “he’ll lead us to the rat.” They don’t stop nodding in agreement and for the first time I feel slight relief.
“Ransack his office? Beat it out of him? What are you thinking?” They ask and I answer, “I’m thinking I have a lot of pent-up anger right now, and there are a lot of pricks I can take it out on. I’d like to do that personally and I made a fucking list.”
BRAELYNN
I wake up to a soft noise in the room. At first, it’s gently pulling me from slumber…but then I remember.
My eyes snap open. The covers are pulled up tight around me warm and comfortable, although my heart is racing. Declan’s room.
The sound happens again.
I turn over and push myself up on my elbow. It’s early. The sun coming in through the windows is only just starting to come up, but Declan stands near the closet. He has pants on already and pulls a T-shirt over his head.