Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 151304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 605(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 605(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
I silently prayed he’d be the bigger man. I should have known better.
Roam looked at me a while, and when he slid his hands into his pants pockets, he blew out a breath and spoke frankly. “Well, that’s a shame, because”—one shoulder lifted unflappably—“you’ve pretty much solidified my need to have her.”
Oh God.
No.
My chest ached.
What have I done?
I turned to look at my sister and found her looking right back at me.
We were in trouble here.
Roam’s eyes darkened. “If I don’t get her, you don’t get work. Ask yourself—how desperate are you?”
Desperate as hell. But not desperate enough to gift him my sister.
I was already shaking my head and saying, “No. You can’t have her,” when from the far side of the sofa, Anika looked down at her lap and let out a low, hushed, “I’ll do it.”
“What?” I exclaimed with fury, my harsh gaze snapping to hers.
“Anika, no,” my father said irately, standing.
Mother cried out, “No!” And when she looked to Roam with tears in her eyes, she put her hands together in prayer and begged, “Please. Not my daughter.”
Surprisingly, Roam looked over my mother’s delicate form, and his face softened very, very marginally when he replied, “She will be safe with me.”
Of all the lies….
I made the short distance over to my sister and knelt in front of her. “Anika. Don’t do this.”
And when her eyes met mine, a serene smile of acceptance spread across her lips as she uttered low enough only for me to hear, “Finally doing my part. Sharing the load. I told you I can heft some weight.”
Jesus. She thought she was helping me by sacrificing herself to this evil shithead.
I never wanted this. “Not like this.”
“Hey.” Obviously sensing my distress, she put her hand to my cheek and reassured, “Everything’s going to be fine. Just—” She seemed to hesitate a moment. “—no matter what happens,” she whispered, “don’t call him.”
I barely heard what she said through the blood rushing through my ears.
“Anika,” I called when she stood and walked over to the man who claimed her, leaving a small gap between them.
“I would like to talk terms.” She sounded so confident, so unlike herself, that a solid frown was pulled from me.
And Roam’s eyes swept over her a moment before his lip twitched. “Good girl. Smart.”
“I will spend some time with you, but I’m not a dog. I won’t be leashed or petted or played with without my permission. You will not touch me unless I allow it.”
Roam looked her over appreciatively, and it took everything I had not to fly kick him in the face. He returned a controlled, “Likewise.”
Anika raised her chin and looked down her nose at him. “And I won’t allow it. So, whatever plan you have for me, I can tell you right now that you will be sorely disappointed.”
But Roam wasn’t deterred. “Oh no. I’m already very happy with this transaction.” He watched her closely before ordering, “Get dressed into something nice. I’m taking you out to eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” was her immediate response, to which Roam looked down at her overly lean body and uttered an unkind, “Yeah, well, you look it.”
Asshole.
Her cheeks flushed, and her lips parted in what I could only guess was minor outrage before her mouth snapped shut and she all but stomped out of the room, Roam’s eyes followed her. When she was gone, he waited a moment before he turned to me and said, “See? Easy. I get her. You get work. Everybody’s happy.”
He spoke about my sister like she was an object. As if she was a car he’d bartered for and bought. It grated on my every nerve. I vowed, “You touch her and I’ll kill you.”
But Roam, the cocky fuck, uttered a bored, “Yeah, I know you want to believe that, but the truth is, if I touch her, you won’t do shit. Because if I do touch her—” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “—she’ll have begged me for it.”
Anger burned a hole in my chest, and I rushed him. “You piece of shit.” My father stood lightning-fast, wrapping his arms around me, whispering words of assurance as I struggled in his hold and thundered, “Keep your paws off my sister!”
His lips tipped up in the corners, but one could hardly call it a smile. It was slimy and arrogant and enraging. I struggled in my father’s hold, and when I managed to shrug him off, Roam’s dark gaze dared me to rush him. It took a willpower I didn’t know I had to force my feet to stay put.
I don’t know how long we stood there, staring holes into each other, but I got the distinct feeling that whatever Roam was playing at, he was quietly reaching his goal. And when Anika returned wearing a modest black dress with long sleeves and a hem that came to just above her knees, she took one look at the tense circle we had formed and made her way over to our mom. Anika embraced her as Mother whispered words of apprehension, and I watched my sister grimace at whatever our mom was telling her. She then walked into our father’s hold and spoke only for his ears. He nodded, and then she was walking toward me, wearing a sad smile.