Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
And that’s what I was for her. A boulder, guaranteed to sink, regardless of how hard she tried to keep me afloat.
I was almost thirty years old.
A felon.
A murderer.
Homeless.
Employed out of pity.
For fuck’s sake, she’d had to buy the clothes on my back for me. And it wasn’t going to change. Sure, in three years, I would be done with parole, but the stigma of my crimes would follow me for the rest of my life.
And after seeing what I’d done to her like a dog on the floor of her living room, the way I’d touched her and the bruises I’d left on her silky-smooth skin, in a sick way I thought maybe it was for the best.
Maybe she would finally fucking give up on me once and for all.
I purred, unfurling from a ball like a kitten as fingers sifted through the top of my hair.
“Ramsey,” I breathed, forcing my lazy eyes open.
“Sorry, babe. It’s just me,” Nora said, squatting in front of me.
Blinking, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the bright lights of the hallway before sitting up. I winced when the devastating weight of last night’s events crashed over me.
Nora’s gaze searched my face, and she reached out with a single finger to touch my neck. “Knowing you were alone with Ramsey all night, I want to say this looks really fucking good on you. But since you’re sleeping in the hall outside his door at three a.m., I’ll save the party banners for later. You want to talk about it?”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what there is to say. I was so close tonight. Ramsey was here. Like really and truly here. First, we were laughing. Then he got pissed. Then he couldn’t keep his hands off me. It was as if all the stages of our relationship had been wrapped up into one conversation.” I rubbed the side of my neck where his mouth had once been. “He thinks he hurt me.”
Offering me a weak smile, she tapped a finger over my heart. “Good, because he has hurt you.”
“Not like that.” I closed my eyes, my body coming back to life as the memories rained down. “He was jealous. He wanted to know if I’d been with anyone else.”
“Please tell me you told him you had a line of guys circling the block and not that you turned into a crazy cat lady minus the cats.”
I shook my head. “I told him the truth. And then he had some sort of meltdown and things got rough.” I sighed and let my hand fall away from his teeth marks on my neck. “I was ready for it though. Every single bit. And when I told him to stop, it was because I thought I was hurting him. Not the other way around.” I bit my bottom lip, tears welling in my eyes again. “He called me Sparrow.”
She grinned. “Well, duh. That’s your name, silly.”
“It used to be. But he won’t let me in. He wants me. He made that clear. He just won’t open the damn door. I could fix him. I could fix us.”
Her face got soft as she put her palm to the door and gave it a shove. “His door’s open now.”
My back shot straight. “Did he open that? Is he awake?”
“Nah, I used a bobby pin to unlock it so I could check on him. He’s racked out. A marching band could come through the house right now and he wouldn’t wake up.”
My shoulders sagged. “He doesn’t want me in there.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. He doesn’t want to be in there.” She cut her gaze over my shoulder. “Ramsey never wanted to let you go, but he couldn’t stand the idea of you stuck in a different kind of prison for sixteen years, either. I’ll be honest with you. Twelve years ago, I hated it and it broke my heart to watch you mourn his loss, but I kind of understood where he was coming from. Now though? He’s lonely. You’re lonely. He won’t let you in. You won’t let go. Everyone is so damn miserable.”
She rose to her full height and then backed toward her bedroom door, her brown gaze locked with mine as she went. “You told me once a long time ago that you would switch places with him if you could. But that still would have left the two of you in separate prisons, when all you really need to be happy is to be together. What if maybe all you have to do is join him? It’s not like your side of the bars is any better than his at this point.” She jerked her chin toward his door and then offered me another weak smile. “I love you, Thea. And there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t wish I could magically fix all of this. Unfortunately, my only super power is a bobby pin. Don’t let it go to waste.” And with that, she walked into her room and shut the door.