Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
I didn’t know what he was gonna do about this. He said he’d mull it over. We had enough shit on our plates as it was.
I headed back to the condo and said goodbye to the guard who met me at the elevator and gave me a rundown. He had another guard outside, watching the building. Nothing out of the ordinary at home. Inside, I found Angel curled up on the sofa, asleep with her e-reader in her drooping hand, a half-eaten sandwich on a plate on the cushion beside her. I leaned over and put it on the coffee table and then lifted her up and carried her to the bedroom.
She smiled as I lay her down in bed and climbed in beside her.
“Hi,” she whispered sweetly.
I gently pulled the elastic out of her hair and watched her fiery curls tumble down around her shoulders. Fuck, but I loved her curls.
“Wanna fool around?” she asked me and chewed her bottom lip.
“Mm,” I took my blazer and tie off. “Always. But we have to talk about a few things. Maybe we oughta get that outta the way first.”
Her expression sobered. “Or let’s fool around first and then tell me the bad news? Wait…it’s not your sister, is it?”
“Tess is okay. We’re getting her back. As for the fooling around, you’re probably gonna need it in the middle of this news,” I said and her expression dropped. We both knew what that meant.
I took my shirt off and stripped down to my boxers and got into bed and pulled her close, arranging the blankets over us.
Normally, I avoided all negative talk about her triggers and her outbursts in order to deter them from happening. She knew she was under orders from me to not have meltdowns in public and her having those orders seemed to help keep her even keeled.
But twice so far in our short time together, I ordered her to let it go in private. She’d held firm and strong so many times that I’d worried I was doing something bad in getting her to bury it.
So, I gave her a safe place where she could let it out. Where she could cry or tremble, or where I’d encourage her to tell me what she was thinking, what her bad dreams were about. She never volunteered much about her thoughts; sometimes she opened up with vagueness. Sometimes she just cried herself to sleep tucked tight to me after begging for what she needed, whether it was sexual, spankings, cuddling.
I hoped I was doing the right thing. Now, right now, though… she needed to brace and I wanted her to trust me completely. I knew there was a greater chance of earning that trust if I didn’t blindside her about shit.
“You need to come with me to Zack’s office tomorrow morning.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“The partner summit in Thailand is in a few days. He needs to brief you. They need us to go, baby.”
She nodded blankly but then lines appeared between her eyebrows as she tried to process what I was saying.
“Go?” she finally asked.
“To the partner summit. We need to go.”
She did the slowest blink I’d ever seen in my life.
Fuck.
I saw a swallow move down her throat and then she blinked again. And then a few more times. Rapidly.
“Angelbaby. I promise you, promise you, they’ll know you’re off limits. If any one of them even think about laying a finger on you…” I felt her body rev up into a full-on tremble.
I put my arms around her and pulled her to straddling on my lap. “Hang onto me, my baby. You’re safe. Talk to me.” I backed against the headboard.
She started to gasp for air. “Can’t breathe, ah –”
“I don’t want this for you. I don’t want this for us. But my baby, this could bring those fuckers down, set all those girls free. You know? And it could help us get out of the dirtiest shit Pop stuffed us in.” I ran my hand up and down her back.
She was nodding and gasping and trembling in my arms, her eyes shiny.
“Breathe, baby,” I cupped her cheek. “I put you first. You’re number one, you got me? I am taking all this shit very fuckin’ seriously. This is not what I want for our lives. But the sooner we shut this shit down, the sooner these sick fucks are out of our lives. You know?”
She was trying to nod but she was trembling so hard that her movements were jerky, erratic.
“We go, we’re there a few days, we gather information, and then we leave. In a couple months you may need to take the witness stand and tell the judge what happened to you. I don’t know yet how it’ll all play out because we don’t want to reveal we helped take them down but that’s to be determined and might not be in our control. But right now, we just control what we can control. We take a step at a time and you do so knowing you got me with you every single step that you take.”