Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“But I’m not yours,” she said. “I’m more his than yours. We were married for nearly eight years. He sees me as his property now. At first, he wasn’t happy to be marrying me. It meant that he wasn’t free to fuck with other girls so openly. But then he saw the benefits of having a wife at home. One sweet and quiet like me. He could take me to the social activities and police functions, presenting an acceptable wife while at the same time being his sick twisted self in the shadows. Doing what he wanted, when he wanted. I was a convenience, and I was his. Nobody took what was his and got away with it.”
My eyes narrowed. “So, being married will make you feel more comfortable?”
She shook her head.
She couldn’t deny it, though. I could see in her eyes that she literally thought I could be taken away from her that easily.
If being married to her would make her breathe a little easier…then that was what I would do.
“Where are you taking me?”
I had her hand in a flash, and I was walking up the steps in the next instant.
“Somewhere.”
That somewhere ended up being my office.
And since I had my whole fucking family here in the club—including my two brothers with their families who both lived hours away—then I didn’t see a better time to do this.
Chapter 20
Always keep a book with you in case of emergency. Like when you’re at social gatherings.
-T-shirt
Baylor
“I am not marrying you!” Lark yelled loudly. “I don’t know why you would even think that I would want to.”
My brother, Tobias, snickered in the corner of the room, and I shot him a murderous glare.
We were standing in the middle of the courthouse lobby and everyone was watching us have our heated discussion.
“I have been able to kick your ass your entire life. I will not hesitate to do so now if you don’t shut the fuck up.”
Tobias pretended to zip his lips closed, but I knew him.
He was the youngest, and the one most likely to do something you didn’t want him to do.
“I made a few calls,” I said quietly.
“Maybe it would help if she had a ring,” Tobias suggested.
I opened my mouth to tell him to fuck off when my mother rushed over. “Here!”
I turned to find her handing over the ring that she always wore on her right hand—her old wedding band that she wore until my father had gotten her a new wedding band for their fortieth anniversary.
“Mom, I can’t take this,” I said at the same time Lark said, “We can’t take that.”
Finally, we agreed on something.
“Yes, you can,” my mother said. “I’ve only been able to get it up to the first knuckle for years. One of these days I’m going to lose it and it’ll break my heart.”
“What if I lose it and it breaks your heart?” Lark countered. “Seriously, why am I even talking about this? Your son is a crazy person.”
My mother smiled.
“I know,” she agreed. “After he was hit by that drunk driver, he was so black and blue all over. He couldn’t walk. Could barely talk. And you know what he said to me when he saw me after waking up?”
Lark swallowed. “What?”
“He said, ‘Mom if you don’t go get me a beer, I might surely die.’”
Lark grinned and rolled her eyes.
“Why does that not surprise me?” she questioned, her eyes turning to me.
I shrugged. “I almost died. When you almost die, you’re supposed to get drunk to celebrate life.”
“I didn’t give him the beer, in case you’re wondering,” my mother told her. “But I did give him a sip of whiskey from my flask.”
Lark’s eyes went wide when my mother pulled a flask out of her purse.
“I don’t…do…I didn’t even realize people carried flasks anymore.”
Her grin was rather manic. “Six boys and two girls, darlin’.” She tucked the flask back into her purse. “I nearly died going through puberty with them. If it wasn’t for this emergency flask, then I surely would have passed away from the abundance of attitude and hormones that filled my house.”
“We weren’t that bad, Mom,” Travis muttered.
Tobias snickered. “You remember that time that Baylor and you snuck out, and Mom caught you with your pants down around your ankles while two girls gave you blow…”
I threw the nearest object, which happened to be a book, straight at my brother’s head.
Tobias caught it, chuckling, and went to toss it back.
His wife intercepted it before it could even leave his hands. “You deserved that,” she muttered. “And stop antagonizing them. You’re being mean.”
“I’m not being mean,” he said to his wife. “They’re being mean. I’m the baby. The perfect one. The one who never does any wrong.”
He continued to drone on, but I turned my attention back to the woman who was still adamant that she wasn’t marrying me.