Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 73230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
***
I looked at the knife in my hands with a critical eye.
How deep would I have to cut to make myself bleed out?
Would it hurt?
Then I realized just what I was thinking and tossed the knife across the room with a pounding heart.
“What am I thinking?” I asked in alarm.
Nobody answered me.
Because I was alone.
All alone.
***
Casten
I breathed out a sigh of relief as I saw her throw the knife across the room.
It hit the floor with a soft thud as the point of the knife embedded itself in the wood floor like she’d done it on purpose.
“Can I get you anything else, sir?” the nurse asked.
I shook my head.
“No. Not tonight.”
Apparently, I would have to keep a close eye on her, because I really didn’t like the way she was looking at that knife as it swung back and forth before finally coming to a stop, leaning slightly to the left.
“Don’t give up on me,” I whispered to her.
Her head lifted as if she’d heard me, staring straight into the camera as a lone tear streaked down her face.
“Fuck.”
“That wasn’t very nice of you to do,” my sister said, turning from the window to glare at me.
My lips thinned.
“Wasn’t much I could do about that. She needed to think that this was over so I could catch this fucker. If my not being there de-escalates things, then that works in my favor, not against it,” I informed her with a frown.
“And what happens, when this is all done, if she doesn’t give you the time of day anymore?” CeeCee asked.
I closed my eyes and let the pain take me.
It was better if I thought about my pain, rather than the pain on Tasha’s face as she left the room.
“I’ll get her back. She’ll understand,” I told her softly.
“You better hope so. Otherwise, you needlessly gave up one of the best things that ever happened to you,” CeeCee added as she too, left.
I let the morphine button drop from my fingertips, hearing it hit the ground beside the bed with a soft clack.
She was right.
This may not go as I thought it would…but I was determined.
She would be mine. No matter what. I’d do anything.
Chapter 18
Trust me, you can dance.
-Vodka
Casten
“What do you have for me?” I asked as I walked into my office.
My sister sat forward and grabbed a file folder off the corner of her desk before handing it to me.
“I got a name this time,” she handed the folder over to me.
“Fuck yes,” I crowed. “You’re the fucking bomb.”
“Don’t get too excited,” she said as she sat back in her chair. “I got some help from a couple out of Kilgore. Names are Jack and Winter. They’re freakin’ geniuses and agreed to help me for a price.”
I frowned.
“A price?” I asked worriedly. “What kind of price would that be?”
Rhea smiled.
“Just for help in the future. Seems y’all have some mutual acquaintances. I can’t believe I met them online and they’ve lived so close all this time. They even offered to help me learn,” Rhea replied excitedly.
I was scowling now.
“How do you know what they’re saying to you is true? Isn’t that what the Internet is all about, the anonymity?” I asked, concerned now. “You think you’re talking to a sixteen-year old Chinese girl, and then you meet up in real life and they’re a sixty-five-year-old white male with a porn ‘stache.”
She giggled.
“Trust me, they’re real. I did my own research. I’m not a total and complete novice, you know,” she informed me haughtily, pulling me towards her computer and pointing out what she was showing me. “What do you think?”
I leaned down in horror.
“You hacked into their fuckin’ camera feed?” I asked in alarm.
She nodded.
I just shook my head.
“Get out of it. And stay out of it. I’ve heard of these guys from Free. They’re not to be trifled with, and I don’t think they’d like it much if they found you sticking your nose into their business, even if it was for a good cause,” I touched the tip of her nose with one finger.
She smiled before backing out of a screen and hitting a few buttons.
“Okay,” she sighed. “Done. Now go take care of all that, okay?”
I grinned.
“Already on it, sister. Just gotta get a few men together, and we’ll go pay Mister…” I looked down at the name at the top of the “Jones, a visit.”
I pulled my phone out and started calling the boys even as I walked out to my truck.
It’d been three weeks since I’d been shot.
Three long weeks of not having Tasha to warm my bed.
Three long weeks of watching her cry herself to sleep each and every night.
And I was so over it, it wasn’t even funny.
I wanted her back.
No, want was too tame a word.
Needed.
Craved.
She was essential to my life, and I couldn’t go one more day without talking to her.