Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Tyler flinched. “I’m sorry, sir.”
“My name is Theo, not sir.”
“Theo, then.”
Theo’s gaze flicked to Eve, and she could see his past catching up to him all in one blink. Sometimes, that was how it worked for Theo. He could go years and not think of a single thing that hurt him from his past. And other times, it was always present, hurting him terribly.
“He just needs some help,” Eve told him.
Theo nodded.
Like he had needed help.
*
Tyler had been the first.
But he wasn’t the last.
Evelina and Theo never had children of their own, but over the decades, more children came in and out of their home than they cared to count.
Children with broken bones, and black eyes.
Children with burns, and night terrors.
Children to hit them, who cried in corners, who hid in closets, and some who wouldn’t even speak.
Eve had never seen her husband more tender than when he rocked a toddler to sleep after she had woke up screaming for her daddy to stop.
She had never seen him stronger than when he sat on the edge of a tub, bandaging his bleeding arm after stopping a young boy from harming himself.
She had never loved him more than in the moments when he healed himself by helping others, because he had been so unable to help himself.
Each child broke Eve’s heart a little more.
It made her hate people.
It made her cry and wonder.
It shook her beliefs and her faith.
Innocent children.
Broken teenagers.
Abused babies.
But Theo worked to help them every single time.
With every child they took in, helped to mend, and then watched as they went again.
He fixed it.
Why did they need their own children?
There were so many others in the world who needed them more.
“Hey,” Eve said, leaning in the doorway of their spare bedroom.
Theo kept the rocking chair moving as he glanced up. “Hey, babe.”
In his arms, a baby boy slept.
Just four months old.
Kalen was the youngest child they had ever taken in.
He had been born to an addict mother, high on meth from the moment she was pregnant to the day she gave birth. Sometimes, Kalen screamed until he was red all over, and he shook himself to sleep. Other times, he was failing to grow and catching every little cold there was to catch.
He didn’t sleep well.
He was irritable.
He had been born addicted, too.
“Want me to take a turn?” Evelina asked.
Theo shook his head. “No, I got him. He just wants someone to touch him as he sleeps. That’s all.”
Eve smiled. “Okay.”
She watched her husband for a little while longer, soaking in the knowledge that Theo’s past had taken him down the wrong path.
He’d been so lost.
It just took him a little while to be found again.
Tommas | Abriella
Lines and Games
The lines were clearly drawn in Abriella Trentini’s life. Lines she shouldn’t toe, and shouldn’t cross.
Tommas Rossi, Outfit Capo and a man eight years older than her, was one of those lines.
Yet there she was, for the third weekend in a row, at the man’s club, watching him interact with people while she stayed off in the corner of the room, rejecting drinks and advances because her attention was somewhere else entirely.
Like on Tommas.
Tipping up her glass of sour puss and 7Up mix, Abriella took another sip. She wished that she had some kind of good excuse for her sudden obsession with Tommas, but she didn’t. Three weekends earlier, he’d saved her from a beating at her brother’s hand. Then, he urged her to keep doing her own thing, regardless of the opinions from others.
So, that’s why she was there again.
At his club.
Drinking when she shouldn’t be.
Dancing if someone asked.
Hoping he might notice.
Abriella took another large pull from her glass, letting the liquor settle heavily in her stomach. The truth was pretty simple.
Tommas was far better than Abriella at following the rules.
Clearly.
He pretended like he didn’t notice her at all.
Except ...
Abriella glanced over her shoulder, searching in the direction she knew Tommas had been last. He was still there, chatting with a server about something or other.
Jealousy burned in her gut hot and stinging.
The server was young and pretty.
But Abriella took a little solace in the fact that Tommas might have been talking to the server, but he looking across the room.
At her.
*
“You do realize how much shit I would get in if they found an eighteen year old drinking in my club, right?”
Abriella shivered at the dark voice whispering in her ear. “How much?”
Tommas reached over her shoulder, picked up her nearly empty glass, brought it to his own mouth, and downed the rest of the liquor in one go. Then, he put the glass back to the bar top.
“A lot,” he murmured. “Lost liquor license, fines out of my ass. And that’s just me. That doesn’t include what they’d do to you.”
Abriella shrugged, and waved at the bartender before waving at her empty glass for a refill. “I’ll take that risk.”