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)
The line goes dead, the silence heavy and thick and damn near suffocating, but I ignore it, tossing my phone on the small desk as I kick my feet up on top of it and lean back as casually as ever.
Slowly, my eyes lift, connecting with a familiar pair. It’s damn near comical, the resemblance so fucking obvious now.
This is ’bout to get real fun, real fucking fast …
Rocklin
My mind is running crazy, my thoughts nearly incoherent they’re so all over the place. Nothing makes sense, no thought leading into a moment of clarity. I literally feel blind inside my own mind and I have no idea what I need to do or what I even can do to help me “see.”
My dad is missing, and my guardian might be at fault.
Why else would the man spare his life if they weren’t working together? He wouldn’t.
Or maybe that’s the wrong way to look at it since there were no actual casualties on our team tonight, serious and life-threatening injuries, yes, but no death, at least not yet. The doctors on our payroll are only updating us as their conditions change.
So why did the man leave Sai completely unharmed? He had a gun to his throat, and he lowered it and left him there. It might not seem so odd if he would have at least knocked him over the head with it, left him with a gaping wound like so many of the others, but he didn’t.
He literally let him live, and Sai let him walk away.
God. I run my hands over my hair. I don’t even know how to bring this up to the girls; it seems so unreal, even to my own ears. I’ve seen the man murder in the blink of an eye to keep me safe. He doesn’t even pause but pulls the trigger, sometimes before I even realize there’s a threat. A body would fall and he’d use it as a training lesson, break down what I missed, and teach me what not to do the next time because there was always a next time. I was young the last time I watched him kill a man. Men are less inclined to come at my family nowadays.
This is a man who took an oath in blood, sacrificing a life of his own, family or any relationship whatsoever in exchange for the “honor” of being my guard. He’s the man who took me to all of my diving practices and swim meets and training sessions. The only person around to witness the pains and struggles that come along with this life, the ones we’re forced to hide to save face. The man who is sometimes more like a father to me than my actual one, if only because he was consistently glued to my side in ways my father couldn’t be. That’s essentially what a guard is, a protective figure you’re forever supposed to depend on.
But he’s been missing lately, not at my side or my back or within eyesight. He’s been doing other things while I’ve been left in my father’s care, tucked in the car with his driver rather than my own. I tear through my mind, trying to remember if a conversation existed where my father told me Sai would be busy with other things or if it just happened on its own. I want to call him and ask him, but I can’t. He’s gone and again … what if it was Sai who set him up to be taken?
A blanket falls over my shoulders, and I close my eyes as I wrap my fingers around it, pulling it closer, taking one more moment for myself. Finally, I force a small smile, my eyes opening and landing on Damiano.
His body faces forward, but his eyes flick to mine for a single second as he gives a curt nod, an acknowledgment of my gratitude. I can tell his thoughts are heavy as well, as he focuses straight ahead at the property behind the manor, and slowly, I do the same.
The soft glow of a light in the distance catches my attention, and my eyes narrow slightly. I shake my head, finally seeing out into the dusk for the first time rather than looking or focusing on my inner thoughts. As if sensing my surprise, he nods in my peripheral.
“When did that happen?” I wonder out loud.
“A little over a month ago. Bronx was the first to notice when the garden fountain suddenly flicked on.”
“Someone purchased the property? I thought the deed was missing. Wasn’t that why no one could prove it belonged to the Greysons?”
It takes him a moment, but he lifts a single shoulder and then casts a quick glance over it before I even hear their footsteps.
Bronx and Delta rejoin us, fresh cappuccinos in their hands, and they offer one to me.