Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
“It sounds like we should definitely go and get lunch then,” I returned, swallowing around the landslide of horror that rolled in my throat.
“Was it him?” my mom quietly urged. She’d shifted in her seat, concern flagrant as she stared across at me.
Her hair was the same color as all of ours, though she now added color to the roots to cover the grays, and it was cut into a long bob that brushed her shoulders.
I’d always thought my mother was the most beautiful woman on the planet. She still was, though now, the grief had begun to whittle into her features. Carving paths of sorrow that I doubted could ever be repaired.
“I don’t know,” I breathed without any sound. “I think it might have been the wrong address.”
It was a lie.
A blatant lie.
I should have known the second I’d seen his eyes last night. They were exactly the same as hers.
I should have understood why I’d felt that tugging of familiarity. Why the man had somehow made me feel comfortable when it should have been impossible.
Another bout of sickness roiled through my being, and I inhaled a staggered breath. Trying to get myself together. To come up with a plan.
Running seemed like the only solution right then.
“What kinda food do they got here? Did you know I wike hamburgers the bestest, Grammy? And eggs, but we already ate our breakfast, and it was so, so good, but we gotta get some variety and some vegables.”
Her tinkling words were garbled and lisped, and a wash of heavy amusement rolled through me.
Mom shifted farther in her seat and sent Maci a warm smile that was coated in sorrow. “I know you definitely like hamburgers.”
She had to have eaten at least twenty of them since we’d lost my sister three months ago. Maci had been staying with me down the street from my mother and stepfather’s house where we all lived in Wisconsin.
I was a freelance graphic designer, so my schedule was flexible, and I’d spent as much time with her as I could.
Had believed I would raise her.
Then I’d found that letter and it’d become clear we had to come here.
Here, where I was just supposed to leave the last bits of my mangled heart.
“And don’t forget my mostest favorite! Candy!” Maci screeched.
A tender laugh rolled from my mother. “I could never forget that.”
“Because my grammy and my auntie pay really good attention to me.”
“That’s right. Because we love you so much.” Pained affection wisped from my mother’s lips, and she slanted me a glance, turmoil rippling between us that we had to do this.
The weight of that letter throbbed from where it was folded in my purse.
I wanted to take it and throw it in that massive fireplace at the hotel.
Watch it burn.
Pretend it never existed.
Ignore my sister’s wishes.
I know you don’t understand, but I need you to trust me. I could almost hear her voice from the words she’d penned, and I wanted to shun that, too, but how could I?
We made it to the end of the long drive where it passed by a massive old church that had been converted into a nightclub.
Kane’s.
Unease curled through my spirit.
Why had he been at that dive bar last night? He should have been right there, behind those imposing walls, in the strobing lights and the disorder a place like that always invoked.
This man I’d already decided had no place in the life of this little girl.
Not sitting at that booth, stealing my breath with the bare glimpses I’d caught. Not picking me up from the floor when I’d been at my most vulnerable and carrying me into an office.
His office.
At least, that’s what I’d assumed.
I pressed trembling fingertips to my temple to try to soothe the headache I’d woken with that had only grown worse.
A stabbing that pierced behind my left eye.
Apparently, Kane’s wasn’t the only bar he owned.
I’d just been so caught up with the vile image I created of him that I hadn’t allowed myself to consider that picture might extend beyond the boundaries I envisioned.
A picture I’d built in my mind, considering I hadn’t been able to find an actual picture of him online, which had also left a sour taste in my mouth.
It had seemed shady. Like this unknown man I’d learned about in the worst way was trying to keep secrets.
Not even close to being a good man. I’m not the dragon slayer you think I am. I’m the dragon.
The low growl of his voice skated through my memories.
What he’d claimed and the peril he’d radiated.
I’d known it.
Known he was dangerous, but at the time, I’d wanted it.
The risk and the hazard and the thrill of energy he’d elicited in me.
But now…?
I sucked for the oxygen that had become scarce.
This was Maci’s father.
This menacing, terrifying man who spent his nights at bars doing God knew what.