Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
I stood up. “Let me go talk to her,” I told him.
Jessie shook his head. “She doesn’t open up to anyone.”
I shrugged. “She willingly told me about granddad,” I informed him. Jessie shot his wide eyes up at me in shock. “I think I give her some sense of security.”
Jessie shrugged. “If you think you can, go for it. She needs to tell someone.” Though I could tell that the fact that it wasn’t him she would confide in was bothering him.
With a small sigh, I turned on my heel and walked down the hall to her room. I lightly knocked on the door. Her music paused, and a moment later, she opened the door, her tired, green eyes meeting mine. “Want to talk?” I asked her quietly.
She shook her head. “Nothing to talk about,” she mumbled, moving away from the door and back into her room, but she left it open for me to come in, not completely shutting me out as I had honestly expected her to do.
I stepped into her room, stuffing my hands into my pockets. “Doesn’t seem like that, West.” I told her gruffly.
She chewed on her bottom lip nervously, her face giving away that she was trying to decide on what to do. Finally, she grabbed her phone and unlocked it, handing it to me.
Unknown
Tsk. Tsk. You just can’t fucking stay away from him.
I angrily clenched my jaw as I tightened my hand around her phone, forcing myself to rein in my temper. “Who the fuck is this from, and who are they talking about, West?” I demanded, my voice giving away just how pissed I was.
She sighed. “Jay; he doesn’t want me around you.”
I tossed her phone onto her bed before I stalked over to her, gripping her chin between my thumb and forefinger, forcing her eyes up to mine. Her eyes were deeply guarded, not letting me see a damn thing. It was unnerving that she was so good at hiding away her emotions from others.
“Do you want to be around me, West?” I asked her. There was a fight in her eyes before she swallowed hard and nodded. I pressed my lips to her forehead. “Then don’t worry about him,” I told her. “If that son of a bitch dares to come anywhere near you, I’ll take care of it.”
“That’s a fucking cozy position,” Jessie commented as he leaned against West’s doorframe, making her jerk back from me. I rolled my eyes at Jessie. He just smirked, but there was a bit of coldness to his gaze that surprised me. “I heard the last bit of that conversation.” He turned his eyes to West, the coldness in them softening as he looked at her. She relaxed slightly. Those two really did have a different dynamic together, regardless of how much they butted heads. “Who’s bothering you, girly?” Jessie asked her.
“Jay’s threatening her away from me,” I informed him.
Jessie looked over at me for a moment before he looked back at West. “You know that as long as you follow the rules, that mother fucker will never have a chance to hurt you again, right?” he asked her. She nodded at him. “I’ll always do my best to keep you safe, West, but you’ve got to do what’s expected of you for me to do that, got it?”
She nodded at him again. His lips tilted up slightly in the corners, and it brought a beautiful smile to her face.
Had to admit, I was a bit jealous that I wasn’t capable of making her smile like that.
I wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against me. Her breath hitched in her throat as I tugged her further against me, watching as Jessie’s eyes hardened. He obviously had feelings for West just as I did, but for some reason, he wasn’t acting on them.
But that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t.
I looked down at the beautiful redhead that I was holding. “You know the no-strings thing is null and void, right?” I asked her. She just cocked her head to the side and arched a brow at me.
Not giving a fuck that Jessie was in the room, I leaned down and slanted my lips across hers.
And with that kiss, I sealed the vow that I would do whatever it took to protect her.
5
West
I sighed as I turned the corner around the school building, thankful for the small thirty-minute lunch break away from the rest of these fuckers in this hell hole they called school. I hated that they made it a stipulation of my probation to fucking graduate from this place.
“Going somewhere, sweetheart?”
I jerked to a stop, my eyes landing on Jay’s little brother. He was the same age as me, and he was just as twisted and sadistic as his older brother. Seeing him made my stomach turn. If he was talking to me, that meant Jay had put him up to something.