Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 35602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Groaning, my fists stretch and pump with blood. I want to smash something, break something valuable.
There’s a knock on the door. I lift my head and look up at the man standing in my door frame. I’m sure Saul will have more questions about what happened with Tallulah and how I’m planning on going forward with her capture. But honestly, I’m too tired. Tired from everything she’s done to me. Tired from all the turmoil I’ve gone through because of her.
“What are you doing?” Saul asks me, his eyes zeroing in on the notebook in my hands. “I recognize that… Are you going to call somebody? It's about damn time, Xavier.”
I don’t know what to tell him. I was thinking of calling Selena but I don’t think it’s a good idea when Tallulah is still on my mind. And it feels like a betrayal to her. If I contact someone else and do something with them... it'll be like admitting our story is over.
“Who are you thinking of calling?” Saul asks me again when I don’t answer his question. “Are you finally getting over that little bitch who fucked you over so much? I think it’s time you found someone else to fix your obsession on. Let’s be real, padron, you’re never going to find her. She’s so far away now. She could be anywhere in the world. Even if we put our best men on the job, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. She’s long gone by now, Xavier, you need to give up.”
I respond by slamming my fist on the desk. I fight every bone in my body not to throw a punch. There’s so much anger and rage boiling inside me. I want to scream, break things. I want to tell my partner that I’ll never give up. Not until we find her and bring her back here, where she belongs. Where I’ll start punishing her and torturing her for everything that she did to me. All the ways in which she betrayed me, repaid. The debt that her parents gave her up for has just grown bigger. And I’m not about to back down on the promises she made to me.
She’ll still be my wife. She’ll still wear my ring, and I will marry her. I will knock her up. I will do everything in my power to make Tallulah mine again. And there’s nothing anyone can do to stop me.
I toss the notebook to the floor. I still haven’t replied to Saul. But he seems to sense that something’s off with me, that my mind is still preoccupied with a gorgeous blonde who abandoned me to seek a better life for herself. Who abandoned our relationship, our dogs, our home and all the dreams we built together.
“Are you going to answer me? Or are you just going to sit there and mope?” Saul demands when I don’t speak up. “You need to get over this girl. It’s been too long. It’s been eighteen years of you obsessing over her. Trying to make her your wife. You never should have made that deal with Heath and Rain. They were always going to fuck you over.”
“Are you trying to get hit right now? Because I’m more than prepared to break your jaw for speaking to me like that,” I hiss at Saul. “You forget your place in this house, boy. You forget that you’re just my right-hand man. And I still single-handedly run this cartel. You should watch your tone when you speak to me. Because I have every intention of taking out eyes, chopping off arms and ripping out tongues of every single person who doubts my decisions. Now, are you ready to change your tone? Or are you going to keep being a little bitch?”
Saul laughs at me, and after a moment I can help but chuckling myself. This whole situation is insane. I never knew what I was getting into when I brought Tallulah home. Saul walks to the bar set up in my office and pours us each a drink. I don’t argue or hit him when he approaches me with the glass tumbler filled with amber liquid. Instead, I drink the whiskey in one gulp, filling my stomach with a fiery sensation that makes me feel better about my mind going places they shouldn’t.
Saul has a point anyway. I’m still obsessing over my ward, even though she’s betrayed me in the worst possible way. I’m still daydreaming about bringing her back, somehow convincing her I’m the right man for her.
After her trials and tribulations, maybe I’ll finally let her go. But even as I think of it, I already know I’m lying to myself. There is no way I can give up Tallulah, not after everything we’ve been through. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’ll have to pay for all her misgivings once she returns to the house. I will not let her go unpunished.