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)
“Nate?” She barely breathes his name. Fear takes residence in her expression. A crease settles in my forehead as my brow pinches. Is she so afraid she needs me to come with her? What did Aria tell her?
The bed groans as I lean back against the headboard and lay an arm out. “Come,” I command gently.
I’ve never thought of Braelynn as frail or weak. Never once until this past week. I thought she simply needed to recover, but the woman who lies beside me, closing her eyes the moment her side meets mine — she’s broken.
Her heart beats so fast and hard, I can hear it before she swallows thickly. “I don’t want you out alone …” I nearly tell her about the feds and the depositions. I nearly confess that there’s a very strong chance she’s going to be questioned about Scarlet’s death. But peering down at her, she already appears on edge. Carter’s words haunt me: she’s fucking terrified.
“I wanted to go home and grab some things, swing by my mother’s and if I—”
“Nate can take you or I can when a few things blow over.”
Her deep brown eyes stay wide open, staring aimlessly at my chest.
I pull her closer and hold her tighter. I run my hand through her hair and attempt to comfort her.
“Could you take me tonight?” she questions and her voice is tight. As if she needs my answer to be yes.
McHale told me to stay in. Not to go anywhere. There’s a high chance of a raid soon in The Club. How do I tell her that? “I’m stuck here too tonight, my naïve girl.” Nate’s deposition is scheduled, so there’s no risk for him going out. She’ll stay away from all the bullshit that being out with me puts her at risk of witnessing.
“You’re stuck with me?” she questions in a raspy voice.
“It all needs to die down for the moment, so I’d rather we didn’t go anywhere tonight or at all this week.”
With a kiss on her temple, I expect her to understand but she doesn’t.
“I can’t stay here forever,” she whispers.
“Whatever you need from your house, Nate can go get,” I offer her.
She squirms uncomfortably. “I don’t want Nate to take me anywhere or …”
“Nate is going to look after you and do whatever I order him to do. You are mine,” I tell her, gripping her chin and tilting it upward so she’s forced to look at me. She averts her gaze until I run the pad of my thumb over her lips.
“He scares me,” she confesses.
I almost ask her why, because I’m a fucking fool. She witnessed him murder her friend in cold blood. Even if she was a rat, it’s something she’s never seen. He was there in the room when everything happened to her … when they tortured her.
I bring my lips lower, the tip of my nose brushing along hers and speak lowly and carefully so she hears every word. “Do you believe me when I tell you I would kill him if he ever made you feel uncomfortable?”
The thought enters my mind that it would ease so much of her worry if I simply let him go. If I slit his throat and he was eliminated from this complication. But everyone knows he has a deposition. The feds as well as my allies. It wouldn’t be a good look in the least for me to kill three of my own men in a single week while cops are rounding up the others.
The web we’ve weaved is far too tangled.
“Yes,” she answers and gives a short nod, her expression softening slightly. It doesn’t ease my own irritation in the least.
“I told you, no one is going to hurt you.”
“If that were true, though, I could leave … unless this is a test. Unless I’m locked in here for some other reason,” she tells me. Staring me in the eyes, as steady as can be.
“My sweet naïve girl, you say the quiet part out loud too often.”
With that, I kiss her gently and as I do, she trembles in my embrace and I fucking hate myself all over again.
“Take your medicine,” I tell her, wishing she could sleep through all of this.
BRAELYNN
I could tell that he didn’t want to leave me, and yet he did.
What does that say about him? What does it say about us?
At least he told me he wished he could tell me everything that’s going on but he said it would be better if I didn’t know.
I’m inclined to agree with that.
I’ve spent the last hour wondering if I simply waited in the foyer or the kitchen, if Aria would come. I bet they’re all watching and waiting. The men would leave me alone to see what I’d do. But I don’t want to be left alone. It would almost be better to be locked in here because then the thought of running wouldn’t exist. I’d know I’m not able to.