Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44774 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
“Ain’t no one ever hurtin’ you again, Jolene,” I snapped. “Not fuckin’ Avery Hatfield or his fucking family, not me. No one. You hear me?” I didn’t sound calm at all.
She gave a terrified nod immediately, and I realized she didn’t get me at all. And, sweet Jesus, she was so fucking beautiful it hurt. Even covered in bruises, her face half swollen, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“Fuck,” I muttered, scrubbing a hand over my face to clear it of the spray from the shower. “I’m sorry. I ain’t gonna hurt you, Jolene. And I’m gonna find my kin and take care of this shit.”
“They’re bad people, Styx,” she said, not using my given name. Which I was fine with. “I knew they hurt women. Just guess I ignored it when Avery took a likin’ to me. I thought he was different.”
“He’s rotten from the inside out. Just like the rest of ’em in that area. Both families, Jolene. At least, in Williamson. Met others in different parts of the state and country who are decent people. Ain’t sure why this bunch is bad, but they are.”
I stepped forward and urged her to turn around to put her back to the shower spray. “Lean your head back. I’ll get the soap out of your hair.” Surprisingly, she did it with no fuss. She still trembled a little, but I thought it was the aftereffect of adrenaline, both from the previous night and her fright now. Her body expected to have to make a run for it and hadn’t yet caught up with her mind. “You ready to get out or do you need more time?”
“I’m done,” she said. I got out before her and reached for a towel to hand her. She took it, wrapping it around her immediately. I sighed, then handed her another one.
“That was a dick move on my part,” I muttered. “I don’t like you seein’ me same as my half-brother, but you don’t know me. Why wouldn’t you think I was like him?”
“You’re not,” she said softly. “You’ve been nothing but kind.”
I snagged my own towel and pulled off my wet shirt, drying as I went. “You’ve got your backpack on the table. If you need anything else, there’s another backpack by the door. Mama got the ol’ ladies to bring you anything they thought you’d need.”
I thought she’d scurry away from me, but she didn’t. “You’ll need clothes, too.”
“Yeah. I’ve got some lounge pants in here.”
“You’re wet.” She looked like she was in a trance as she looked at me. Her gaze was glued to my chest and, as she approached, she reached out to lay one small, pale hand over my heart.
“Yeah, baby,” I said, my voice gone husky. This girl didn’t need me like this. She needed tender and gentle. Someone to keep her demons away, but from a distance.
She met my gaze, her one good eye sparkling at me. “You’re beautiful.”
“Not me, honey. That’s all you.”
She flinched back like I’d struck her. “Don’t lie,” she hissed. “That’s what he did.”
“Ain’t lyin’, Jolene. You’re a beautiful girl. Always have been.”
That made her gasp in surprise. “I was a kid when you were last in Williamson.”
“Never said that. I seen you. From a distance, but I seen you. Didn’t recognize you earlier ’cause of the beatin’ you took, but I know exactly who you are. The only McCoy or Hatfield in the whole fuckin’ town who didn’t belong.”
“No, I guess I didn’t.”
I was fucking this up. Royally. “You’re special, Jolene. Everyone in town knows it, but they’re too afraid of your family and mine to admit it.”
“They show me favorable attention, they bring down the wrath of both families,” she muttered. “Mine because they hate me. Yours because they hate McCoys.”
“Pretty much, baby.”
She would have dropped her hand, but I covered it with my own. I didn’t force her to keep it there. I would have let her go if she’d tugged. But she didn’t. She just looked up at me with that one blue eye. I reached out with my other hand and gently stroked the skin underneath her swollen eye.
“You have no idea how it pains me to see this.” My voice was huskier than I wanted her to hear. “It’s an abomination.”
“It’s life.”
“Ain’t neither.” Fuck. I’d been in South Florida for years. I’d lost my accent years ago. Now, I sounded just like every Hatfield in West Virginia. “God as my witness, Jolene. This’ll never happen to you again.”
A single tear dripped from her good eye, and she stepped into me. I wrapped my arms around her gently, not wanting her to feel like she couldn’t get away from me if she needed to. She was tentative, not sure of herself. Probably still half afraid I’d hurt her.