Total pages in book: 204
Estimated words: 193115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
“Calm the fuck down,” I shout, pinning her to the bed and seizing her jaw, forcing her to look at me. But true to her defiant ways, she slams her eyes closed, shutting me out. God damn her. I need her to see me—to see the desperation in my eyes. The hurt because we’re fighting. “Open your eyes, Ava.”
“No.”
“Open!” I bark.
“No!”
She’s fucking impossible. “Fine.” So she won’t look at me, but she will damn well hear me. “Listen to me, lady,” I say, locking down every muscle, making her struggles to break free impossible. “You’re not going anywhere. I’ve told you repeatedly, so start fucking dealing with it. I’m going to The Manor, and when I get back, we’re going to sit down to talk about us.” She stills. I have her attention. “Cards on the table, Ava,” I go on. “No more fucking about, no more drunken confessions, and no more holding out on me. Do you understand?”
Her eyes open slowly, and I see desperation to match mine. She wants all of that too. “Come with me,” I beg. “I need you with me.” Walking away from her now just doesn’t feel like the right thing to do.
“Why?”
“I just do. Why won’t you come?”
“I don’t feel comfortable.”
With me? At The Manor? Is it Sarah? I need to know. “Why don’t you feel comfortable?”
“I just don’t.”
“Please, Ava.”
“I’m not coming.”
I inhale, willing myself to stop wasting my fucking time. “Promise me you’ll be here when I get home then,” I say. “We need to sort this shit out.”
“I’ll be here,” she whispers, and I see with perfect clarity that she’s being honest with me.
“Thank you.” Exhausted, I drop my head to hers and take a few moments of peace in our chaos. I then lift from the bed and walk out.
And still, even though she’s promised not to leave, something doesn’t feel right.
36
I look up at my rearview mirror as I approach the gates to The Manor, frowning when I see Sam’s Porsche in the distance, racing up behind me until his bumper is practically kissing the arse of my Aston. I hit the remote to open the gates and slow to a crawl as I rumble down the driveway, the trees lining the way perfectly still, not a leaf moving. It feels somehow eerie, leaving me with a sensation I’ve never felt before. Like I’m driving into an ambush.
I get out as Sam skids to a stop behind me, kicking up plumes of dust from the gravel. “What are you doing here?” I ask, concerned by his apparent urgency.
“Why haven’t you answered your phone?”
“I didn’t hear it,” I say quietly, almost to myself. I think back on my journey from Lusso to The Manor. I can’t remember a damn second of it. I feel unsettled. Completely out of sorts. It shouldn’t be a shocker after my showdown with Ava.
This time tomorrow, I’ll either be walking on air or drowning in the bottom of a bottle of vodka. My skin becomes clammy, my stomach knotting.
“What’s going on?” Sam asks, approaching, his laid-back persona lost somewhere on the way here. “Kate dashed over to your place. Said something about watching Ava. What’s wrong with her?”
I find my feet and take the steps up to the entrance. “We had a fight.”
“About?” he asks, walking on my heels. “Did you tell her?”
“I wanted her to come, and she refused. I’d planned to tell her a few truths this weekend and everyone keeps shitting on my plan.” I push the door open and take a moment to absorb the silence. And maybe to rein in my foul mood. I can’t walk into this meeting with Mike feeling like this. It’ll be a bloodbath. My patience is thin at best, and my need to get back to Ava to fix this shit is all I can think of.
“You were going to bring her here to tell her about this place?” Sam asks. “Why would you do that?”
“Because she can’t run away from me here,” I say without thought, the deepest corner of my mind giving us both the answer. We’re in the middle of nowhere. She can’t walk away.
“That’s fucked up, Jesse,” Sam says over a nervous laugh. “But regardless, she isn’t here, so why the fuck are you?”
I head for my office, and Sam is in quick pursuit. “Mike’s here. He wants to talk, and I need this problem to be gone once and for all.” It’ll be a tick off my endless list.
I stop at my office door and look back, finding Sam’s stopped at the end of the corridor to my office. He thumbs over his shoulder. “I’ll be in the bar. Drew’s on his way.”
Fuck me, it’s like the mounting of troops. “You called the cavalry?” Of course he has. This Jesse is not the man they’re used to dealing with.