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)
She swallowed.
“Or…” I started, not premeditating what came out of my mouth at all, “Fuck it. We run. I have enough money to set us up. You tell me you can’t do it and we’ll go. We’ll disappear. Forever.”
A minute earlier I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but she started to shake even harder. And she looked shocked. I’d fuckin’ give her anything, anything in the world she wanted.
I got her tighter against my body. I ran my hands up and down her back. She was glued against me.
“We have to stop them,” she said, her voice steady.
I was so fucking proud of her.
“We will get through this,” I promised her and she nodded and burrowed in deeper to me.
“I promise, we’ll be okay.” I kissed her tears away. “And I’m gonna make them pay, Angel. I mean that. I’ve had to play it cool, but do not mistake that. I want those fuckers taken down. I’ll blow the place up if I have to. You get me?”
She shuddered but nodded again. “I just want it over.”
That she wasn’t begging me to fuck her or bring her to orgasm was shocking to me. She held me tight and shook like a leaf, crying quietly. It was almost as extreme as the first night we were here, when I told her that she wasn’t a slave any longer. This news was cutting deep, rocking her fragile world.
There was no way she could handle news about Holly on top of all that. I’d talk to her about that later. Maybe much later. Unfortunately.
More than anything, I wanted to give her life a solid foundation, nothing to fear, nothing but goodness. I wanted that more than anything.
“Tess is really okay?” she whispered.
“She’s gonna be,” I said. “Even if she’s not right now, we’ll make it so she is.”
Angel’s body locked tight, the meaning of my words clear. I didn’t know what the fuckers who had her had done but we’d make them pay, too.
The fact that Romero had helped was still a lot for me to wade through, but one thing at a time. I’d control what I could, one step at a time. And by the end, Kruna would be dust, an unpleasant memory.
And hopefully, my wife would have her baby sister back.
5
I’d just woken up. I was wearing a pair of track pants and nothing else, standing in the kitchen trying to get my first mouthful of coffee into me.
Tia was in one of my shirts, sleeves rolled to her elbows, sitting at the table, munching on toast with peanut butter.
“God, I’m hungry today. I had two bowls of Sugar Crisp before this. I want pizza for dinner tonight, from Venetia. Oh, and what do you think about the name Bella for a girl?”
“Hm?” I was half-asleep, still.
“If we have a girl. Bella. Little baby Bella.” Her eyes were shining with hope but that didn’t occur to me immediately.
“I want her name to have meaning,” she continued.
“Uh, no.”
“No? Why? I think it’s beautiful. It means beautiful in Italian, doesn’t it?”
“A, I fucked a Bella. Twice. The second time was a mistake. Most annoying, grating voice I ever heard. B, we’re not havin’ a girl. Fuck that noise.”
Her face went sheet-white. She looked shocked for a second. And then her eyes narrowed, and I immediately realized my mistake. Shouldn’t talk before coffee. Fuck. Shouldn’t bring up someone I fucked. Ever. Terminator warning screen malfunction.
Her face then went red and shit started flying across the room. The saltshaker, pepper grinder thing, her napkin, the jar of peanut butter. And then the butter knife hit me right in the fuckin’ mouth before clanging to the floor, still covered in fuckin’ peanut butter.
My arms came up to protect my head and I barked,
“Whoa, Tia. Fuck!”
“You’re such a fucking asshole!” she screamed this at me and I heard the disjointed noise of the chair being shoved away before she ran from the room.
Shit.
I followed her upstairs and watched her slam the bathroom door.
“Tia?” I knocked on the door and then jiggled the doorknob. It was locked. “Open up.”
She didn’t answer me. I heard a bunch of shit being banged around in there.
The lock was a shitty bathroom door lock, so I unlocked it with my thumbnail in less than two seconds.
When I got the door open, her eyes were on me and they were on fire. She was pissed at me.
“The second time was a mistake? Only the second time?” she snapped.
“That was a dick thing to say. Wasn’t thinkin’, baby girl. I got a lotta shit on my mind, and–”
She came at me and gave me a shove against my bare chest with both of her palms. She didn’t budge me even a bit and I grabbed her wrists.
“Hey. Chill out.”
She tried to wrestle out of my arms, so I picked her up and carried her out and put her on the bed and pinned her down. Grunting, she tried to shove at me.