Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“Someone touched you, baby?” he asked delicately. Quietly. With a calm that was a lot more terrifying than any shout or growl could’ve been.
It took me a second to realize he’d understood how personal that little speech had been. And he thought it was me. Thought that something had happened to me.
I shook my head rapidly. “Not me,” I choked out.
The fury dissipated from his face, his features relaxing. But only a little.
“Who?” he demanded.
“Sariah,” I whispered. “She didn’t want me to tell anyone. She was … embarrassed.” The single word sent spears through the center of me. The image of my tear-stained best friend, who always seemed so big, so full of light, embarrassed about something that had not at all been her fault almost brought me to my knees.
“He got her drunk. Way, way too drunk. She was not in the state to consent to shit. But he did it anyway.” I sucked in a ragged breath. “I convinced her to go to the police. And they didn’t do shit.” I glared around the room again. “Because it was her word against his. And he has powerful parents. A good reputation. Sariah has a reputation for being a party girl, and she had the audacity to wear a fucking short skirt. So, of course, it was her fault.”
I’d been holding it together for this long—well, as much as I could—but having something this horrible happen to my best friend had shaken me to my core. Men all around me were violent. Dangerous. I was angry about it. So fucking angry.
Not as angry as Elden was, though. He was clutching the flannel so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
“Who,” he spat the single word out.
“The asshole who I got arrested for trying to fight tonight,” I scoffed. “Not that it was much of a fight; he was too much of a pussy to do much of anything.”
Elden’s eyes flickered upward to the ceiling before returning to me.“Why didn’t you call me?”
I frowned. “Well, calling you when you’re across the country and he was only a few steps away wouldn’t really work,” I looked down at my nails. “Plus, I was acting on instinct.”
“Not tonight,” he huffed out. “Why the fuck didn’t you call me the second this happened to Sariah?”
He was asking me like this was a rhetorical question, as though calling him was the obvious thing to do. Of course, I had entertained the idea of calling Swiss and letting him know what happened and let the protective bikers do what protective bikers did to men who raped women.
But Sariah had been violently against us doing anything behind her back. Even though I figured I’d be doing her and the world a favor by letting the bikers do what they did, I would not betray her that way.
“Why would I call you?” I asked him.
“Because you’re mine,” he informed me.
I folded my arms in front of me. “I am not yours.”
He sighed. “You fuckin’ are.”
“You told me that I was nothing to you,” I countered.
“Jesus Christ, Violet, we’re not talking about this now.”
“Yes, we are,” I snapped.
“No. We’re gonna talk about that and you trying to go up against a sexual predator without callin’ me later. For now, you’re gonna tell me where he lives.”
My body jolted.
He was not kidding. I looked around the room again. The only one really listening to our conversation at this point was the drunk girl on the bench, and one quick glance at her told me she’d fallen asleep, which was a testament to how drunk she was because this was an entertaining show.
I leaned forward, speaking quietly. “Tell me you are not planning a murder in a police station.”
Elden’s body went stiff.
I’d gone up on my tiptoes in order to make sure no one but Elden heard what I said, placing my hands on his chest to steady myself. My lips had grazed his ear as I spoke.
Now, the current circumstances did not warrant any kind of sexual chemistry. And the closeness, the touch wasn’t even sexual. It was just us. Our bodies reacting after so long apart.
I lingered there because I needed to linger in the safety he offered. Everything had been spinning out of control. I’d been scared, genuinely terrified of what was happening to my friend. Terrified about what we still had to live with.
But Elden’s presence meant that everything was going to be okay.
We stayed suspended in the moment for a beat until Elden’s hand gripped my hip.
“We’re going to get you home and talk there,” he murmured.
I nodded once, not allowing myself to speak.
His hand went to the small of my back after he opened the door for me, and I got a little thrill from the intimacy of it.
I was surprised to see Colby leaning against a bike in the parking lot. It couldn’t have been his bike since they got here so quickly. Then I recognized Bill, who had helped us move that one time. He lifted his chin, making sure to keep his eyes on my face.