Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Aria reached out and snatched her hand, the cruciality whipping from her tongue. “Tell me.”
A tear streaked down Dani’s cheek, and she sniffled around what she believed could not be stopped. “Your brothers. Your sister. Your mom. It will be a massacre.”
It was the blow that dropped Aria to her knees.
A guttural wail broke from her chest. “No!”
No.
She would stop it.
She had to.
She had to.
Pax knelt in front of her, taking her by the face. “Aria, it’s okay. It’s okay.”
Only they both knew that was a lie.
It wasn’t okay.
And she wondered if it was the grief that carried her, what catapulted her from one realm to the next.
Because the next second, she woke up gasping on her back, gazing toward the ceiling of the dank motel room with one of Pax’s arms belted across her chest.
Chapter Forty-Two
Pax
I awoke to her in a frenzy, jumping to her feet and charging to her duffel bag, which was packed and zipped where I’d left it at the door in case we had to flee in the middle of the night.
She knelt, and the sound of the zipper ripping open bolted through my body and shot me upright to her frantically digging through her things.
“Aria,” I called, voice hoarse with the aftermath of everything that’d gone down tonight.
It didn’t even come close to breaking into her alarm. Wasn’t even close to touching the chaos that swirled like a tornado around her body, a force of its own that hammered against the thin walls.
Shaking out of control, she tossed a shirt over her head.
I was on my feet and across the space in a second, flat. Leaning over her from behind, I curled my arms around her shoulders, trying to drag her back from the tumult. “What are you doing?”
Without looking at me, Aria gave a turbulent shake of her head, the words cracking on her tongue. “I have to go back. Don’t try to stop me.”
I could feel her turmoil race through me, my blood poisoned by her grief and my spirit bound by her sorrow.
I experienced it as if it were my own, and I knew after what we’d done earlier, I’d be tied to her in an entirely different way, because this girl now beat through me like she’d become the blood in my veins.
Every thud of my heart was a resonance from her chest.
Every breath of my lungs fed from the oxygen she emitted.
My bleeding spirit sank to the pit of my stomach, and I fell to my knees behind her. I tightened my arms around her as I brought her back to my chest.
Holding her so fucking close there would never be any prying us apart.
I put my mouth to her ear. “Then we go together, and we end this thing.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Pax
We drove straight through, and we made the trip in just under twenty-four hours.
Exhaustion had set in hours ago, but it was the antsy kind. The kind where reality was skewed and you fought to keep your eyes open, but you knew even if you did let them drift closed, your heart would be pounding so goddamn hard there wasn’t a chance you’d be able to sleep because of the drumming in your ears.
Aria had slept on and off, fitfully, her body twitching in tumult and not allowing her to fully rest. We’d made our plan during the trip, and decided it was best that I didn’t sleep at all since I basically was going to need to go to sleep on command.
Now both Aria and I were wide awake as we took the exit off the freeway that would lead to the neighborhood where she’d grown up.
She itched in the seat beside me, sitting forward, clutching at the dash as she peered out the windshield, like sitting that way might get her there a second faster.
I reached over and wove my fingers through her hair, rubbing my fingertips into her nape like I might be able to soothe the riot inside her, which was probably faulty planning, considering the way I was vibrating like a beast released from its cage into an arena.
Ready for the fight even when it knew it was about to get slaughtered.
I didn’t like it.
This fucking plan.
Aria was the one who had insisted on it, told me it was the only way and there was nothing I could do to sway her from it. Truth was, she was the only one who was capable of seeing this through, if seeing it through was even possible. She was the one with the strength.
But knowing that didn’t do shit to calm the piece inside me that wanted to wrap her in fucking bubble wrap.
I could barely stomach the idea of her putting herself in harm’s way like this. But I knew her loyalties. Knew what she would give, just the same as I would do for her.