Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“That’s for the medical examiners to determine.”
“There’s still self-defense,” I say.
She shakes her head. “At the moment, I’m more concerned about your parole violation. You know they can revoke your parole, don’t you?”
I say nothing.
“Was it worth it to go back to prison?” she asks.
I run my hands through my hair and sigh. “You don’t know the whole story. Yeah, I missed some appointments, but I had a damned good reason. I was protecting someone.”
“Who?”
“It’s a long story, Lola.”
She takes a sip of coffee. “Then you’d better start talking, because I can’t help you if I don’t know.”
16
SAVANNAH
The basement is dark and dank. It’s not finished, and the floors are concrete, the walls bare wood, with insulation tucked in between the two-by-fours.
A water heater and furnace stand in the corner, the furnace gyrating to make the air-conditioning unit go.
But no air-conditioning is needed in this basement. I rub my arms against the chill.
My brother stands next to me, his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
His full beard covers his handsome face, and it makes him look older, wiser.
And I imagine, after seventeen years in Europe on his own, he’s gained some wisdom that I don’t have.
On the other hand? Being here with my family? I’ve gained some wisdom he doesn’t have.
And it’s probably about time that we compared notes.
Besides, it’ll give me something to do to keep my mind off what’s happening with the police upstairs.
Because I already know why they’re here.
And it’s going to kill me when they take Falcon away.
It crossed my mind more than once while we were at the safe house for two weeks. Falcon is supposed to be going to parole meetings with his new parole officer.
I didn’t mention it to him, because frankly I was afraid of him leaving me.
I should’ve mentioned it to him.
I should’ve seen that he did what he needed to do. I should’ve seen that he kept himself out of prison.
That’s the reason I made the deal with that asshole Miles McAllister in the first place.
“Tell me what’s going on, Sav,” Vinnie says.
I pace the basement. “You know as much as I do. Falcon and I were in the safe house for two weeks. He and Leif rescued me from right under Miles McAllister’s clutches. I don’t know how they got into the house, but Leif seems to be able to do pretty much anything. They call him Phoenix. He always rises from the ashes. Gets out of scrapes, apparently.”
“He technically hasn’t done anything wrong,” Vinnie says. “I mean other than the breaking and entering.”
“According to Falcon, he’s not going to get caught. He disabled all of their systems, and we got the hell out of there before they figured out what was going on.”
“That’s good.” He looks at the floor. “God, Sav, I’m so sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” I shake my head. “Nothing happened to me, Vinnie. He didn’t rape me. He tried, but he didn’t. I puked all over him before he could get in.”
“You and your quick-thinking stomach.” Vinnie smiles weakly.
“Fight or flight, you know.” I shrug. “I couldn’t fly. He was stronger. So my body fought back the only way it could. By hurling at him.”
“Hey, it worked.”
The familiar feeling of nausea creeps up my throat, but now it’s for a new reason.
“I can’t believe Grandpa… And I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, Vinnie…”
He lays a hand on my upper arm. “I can talk about it. It was a long time ago. It took me a while to get over it, but I’m whole.”
“I just can’t imagine. So Grandpa likes men?”
Vinnie shakes his head. “No, this had nothing to do with his sexuality. Like I said, he didn’t use his own dick, thank God. It was a power play, pure and simple. A power play to get me in line, and he expected me to do it to others.”
“He said that?”
Vinnie nods. “To whomever was next in line to lead the family, next in our bloodline. If I’d had a son, he would’ve expected me to do the same thing to him. And no way in hell was I going to do that.” He sighs. “I knew then that I had to get the hell out.”
“It’s strange,” I say. “When I went with Miles willingly, in exchange for him making any charges against Falcon go away, he took me to his father’s house. And his mother, Maggie, is a really sweet woman but is unfortunately a product of the system. She told me I was safe for the night. That Miles wouldn’t come to me until we were legally married. I took her at her word. Turned out she was wrong.”
“Perhaps her husband didn’t take her until they were married. I don’t know,” he says. “All I did know is that if I ever have a wife, she won’t be some subservient little housewife like Mom.” He frowns. “Don’t get me wrong. I love Mom and I always have.”