Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
"You remember all those girls at all those shows when we were younger?"
"Vaguely," he admitted, having the good sense to look chagrined at the sheer number of them.
"I wanted to claw their faces off."
"Well," he said, grinning. "It's a good thing you didn't find your killer instinct until later in life."
"So many lives saved," I agreed.
"You ready?" he asked, jerking his head in the direction of the hotel. We'd already checked in before we headed to the store. We'd ordered our food to be delivered to. I think we both knew that once we got in that room, once we cleaned up, once we refueled, we were going to pass the hell out and not wake up for a solid twelve hours.
"What?" Vance asked a couple hours later, our bellies full, our bodies cleaned, our clothes changed, our evidence-filled clothing tossed, my father called, everything handled.
I pressed my lips together, looking over at him in the bed, not sure how real I wanted to get with him right then.
"Come on, Ace. Give me something without making me pry it out of you," he suggested, lying flat, placing a hand behind his head.
That was fair. Especially after the night he'd just had because of me.
"I've never slept with a guy before. In the literal sense," I clarified, since it was clear I was no virgin when we'd hit the sheets.
"Really?" he asked, eyes going soft.
"Really," I agreed, nodding. "Men, ah, you know... things were always casual. For obvious reasons."
"I know a thing or two about casual too," Vance agreed, clearly trying to remove some of my discomfort in the admission. "But you know what?" he asked, waiting for me to answer.
"No, what?"
At that, he knifed up, grabbing me, pulling me down onto his chest, anchoring me with his arm as though I had any intentions of moving.
"I like this infinitely more. And don't try to tell me there is no this. Because we both know there is. And you can't say I only want it because I don't know what you've been up to, or because I haven't seen it with my own two eyes. Because I know. I've seen. And guess what, Ace?"
"What?" I asked when he waited again for my answer.
"I still fucking want you."
My heart and belly skipped and fluttered at that, those words I had wanted so badly to hear for so many years.
"I've always wanted you," I admitted, voice small.
"Well, you got me now. Like it or not."
I liked it.
God, I liked it.
I maybe even kind of, well, loved it.
Twelve
Vance - Present Day
I didn't want to go back to Navesink Bank.
And, what's more, I didn't think Ferryn wanted to either.
We seemed perfectly content to stay in bed late, only taking a short break to go down to the dining room to grab the complimentary breakfast, taking it back to our room to eat in bed while watching Saved by the Bell reruns.
Eventually, I climbed up to grab a shower. Which she joined.
And it all just felt right.
Her and me.
Without any outside influence.
But this was an illusion—a vacation from what was going to be our real life.
It didn't escape me, either, that our real life would mean that we were going to have to break this news to everyone.
To be perfectly honest, I think Summer and even Lo already suspected something. And who knew what stories West had been telling them since we took off.
But I would have to tell Reign.
And all the guys in the club. Who I thought of as brothers. But whose loyalty to her as their niece could mean that some serious fucking talking-tos were in my future.
I'd do it all. Take it all. If that's what was necessary for us to go public with this, to not have to hide it.
A part of me was worried that Ferryn preferred it this way. A dirty little secret. Something that maybe felt more temporary to her.
It didn't escape me that she was struggling to let herself put down roots. That she wasn't sure how to make her mission and her life work together. A part of her was maybe even convinced that it wasn't possible to marry those two things together, that they were too opposite, that one couldn't exist alongside the other.
And for any normal relationship or any normal family dynamic, that was probably true. But there was nothing normal about her family full of bikers and bomb makers and paramilitary leaders.
There wasn't a single person in that group—and I was even counting the sweet, soft souls like Rey—that wouldn't openly embrace her mission if they knew what it was, why she was doing it, what kind of rabid dogs she was putting down for good so they couldn't keep going along hurting innocent people.
To be fair, at first, I hadn't been sure how I truly felt about it. I didn't know how I could rationalize it, even knowing she was serving a greater good.