Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
“You’ve been sitting beside me for four days,” she says. “I can’t imagine the new world you’ve found can run smoothly without you in it.”
My lips twitch when Bastian responds with, “You have no idea.”
“I object to that statement.” All eyes look to me, and he sighs, narrowing his eyes a little, and I pause where I stand.
Something about this moment feels too intimate, I’m not really sure I should stick around for it, so I spin on my heels to leave, but just as I reach the door, it opens.
The head of the Brayshaw family steps in, and then I get the first glimpse of the man behind him. My eyes fly wide as I look into the deep-set, rage-filled ones of my father.
“Oh shit,” I mutter, breath lodged in my throat.
His gaze slices past mine and I know exactly where they’re focused, on the tattooed, black-haired boy behind me. I don’t look, so I have no idea if Bastian stares this way or what expression he wears, but when he speaks, it’s not a request.
“Take it outside,” Bastian orders my father, the head honcho where we come from. The man who has killed more men than I could ever guess. Who makes cartel soldiers cry and weep at his feet. The whisperer behind my every move and the true controller behind my role as a Greyson. “Now.”
And holy. Shit.
My father turns on his heels and walks out of the room.
It could be because we are out of our jurisdiction, so to speak, our word meaning nothing in this town as theirs means nothing in ours, but I can’t be sure. It takes me a moment, but then I get myself together and quickly follow him out into the hall, but he’s already curving to the waiting room, so I have to pick up the pace to meet him there.
I’m expecting a gang of guards to be standing around him, but it’s only him, his anger, a freshly pressed suit, and two black eyes?
He knows I’m following, and as soon as we’re out of ear and eyeshot, he turns with open arms and I readily throw myself into them, hugging him back as he does me, his chin pressing to the top of my head.
“You’re okay?” he whispers instantly.
I nod, pulling back. “You’re okay?” I worry, looking him over, but outside of a few red marks on his neck and the dark circles around his eyes, he looks unscathed, not exactly what I expected for a man who was kidnapped right in front of me.
He doesn’t answer, and suspicion slowly grows within me as I release him, taking a step back.
“Dad, what happened?”
No sooner than the last word leaves my lips, he’s gripping my wrist and tugging me down the hall toward the elevator, but we don’t make it three feet before Bastian’s clipped voice comes from behind.
“Bad fucking move.”
I turn, looking toward him and then my dad’s chest hits my back, his arm wrapping around me as he takes slow steps away. My eyes narrow, but Bastian isn’t looking at me.
His chin is low, nearly touching his chest, as he eyes my father through the thick sweeps of his dark lashes.
He stands careless and calm, though his expression is anything but. I tug from my father’s hold, my body pulled in the opposite direction on its own accord, and my dad’s grip flies to my arm, tightening.
I see the second something slips into Bastian’s mind. I don’t have time to panic before he’s flying this way. He has me released, spun and tucked behind him, my father by the throat and slammed against the wall before I can even breathe.
My dad’s lip curls, his own arm shooting out to wrap around Bastian’s neck just the same, but Bastian doesn’t fight him. He lifts his chin, the same way he did at the gala, speaking beyond the powerful grip threatening to close off his airways.
“From now on, your hands don’t touch her without permission. Keep it up, you won’t see her without permission. Fight me on this, you won’t see her at all,” he tells my father.
My heart beats heavily as I look between the two, shocked and confused at the apparent change in power.
My dad doesn’t respond, but it doesn’t seem he was expected to as Bastian lets him go and steps back, reaching behind to wrap his arm around my waist. He pulls me into his side.
My dad’s face is stone cold and unreadable as he stands silently in front of us.
Bastian reaches out, but my father doesn’t flinch as his long arm moves past him to press the button on the elevator door, and when it dings, almost instantly, there’s no argument from any of us as we all know any conversation that needs to be had cannot happen here. Bastian might trust these men, and Calvin may have some of that trust as well as part of the council, but our business is our own and nothing changes that.