Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
I rested back on my heels as sadness washed over me.
A wistfulness that was both comforting and cruel.
I flipped through the rough, textured pages, eyes caressing over the drawings. The dreams that I’d had, the sketches of models and clothing.
Until those faces had shifted from my imaginings to my reality, taking new shape in my grief.
Through the wisping of shadows, I traced my fingertips over their faces. The love and guilt was nearly suffocating as I stared at the drawings of my family.
I turned the page, and my stomach twisted.
My eyes bleared over as I saw the viciousness I’d sketched screaming back. The shape of the two faces that would forever haunt me that I’d scratched with crude strokes.
“Go. Try to save your life. Just like I’m going to try to save mine.”
Anguish wailed from within me.
It was my fault.
Mine.
And there was absolutely no way to take it back.
I could only run.
The weight of it pressed down.
A thousand tons of pain.
I inhaled against it, struggling to draw in air.
To shake myself out of it.
To remember my purpose.
As soon as I figured out the car situation, we’d pack up and we’d be on our way, and everything would be just fine.
We’d go back to normal.
I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or weep at the thought.
Normal.
Because there was nothing normal about this.
SIX
THEO
Otto
Everyone survive the snowpocalypse last night?
River
Dramatic much?
Otto
Good to know you’re alive, brother. And the snowbank is up the second-story deck of my house. I would hardly call that dramatic. It would not be chill if my girl went into labor.
Yawning, I dragged my ass downstairs as I thumbed through the slew of messages waiting for me from my crew.
I never got a full night’s sleep. Rest only found in fleeting bursts where I always jerked awake, drenched in sweat and heart bleeding.
But it’d been worse last night.
Every minute wrought with thoughts of the woman staying across the property.
Unsure how it felt like I’d come upon her for a reason.
Like I’d been destined to be there.
Realized as the sun had been breaking that it all had to be due to that trauma effect. The worry I’d felt when I’d come upon the accident somehow convincing me that her burden had become mine.
I was finally fucking seeing clearly.
I’d help get her car arranged and send her on her merry way and, just like she said, I’d never have to think about her again.
I kept thumbing through the messages as I hit the bottom landing of my place, bare feet hitting the worn wood as I headed for the kitchen so I could brew a pot of coffee.
There was no stopping the grin that took to my mouth at the antics my family had already gotten up to.
Cash
Raven’s got two months to go. She’s not going into labor any time soon.
I could almost hear Cash grunt it. Of course, he was the one who’d gifted Otto and Raven this ridiculous truck with snow tracks in place of the wheels that could plow through a fuckin’ brick wall if needed.
Just in case.
Truth was, not one of us would be taking any chances when it came to Raven and that baby girl she was brewing in her belly.
Otto
Hey, a man needs to be prepared.
Kane
Not sure what you’d be if not prepared. Maci wanted to come by to see her auntie Raven last weekend, and we couldn’t make it through the door with all the supplies you had piled high. Fifteen different brands of newborn diapers. How much shitting do you think that kid’s gonna do?
Otto
How the hell else is my Little Luna going to decide which diaper is her favorite?
For ruthless killers, my brothers had gone fucking soft.
But I guess that was the way things went down when you found someone to love and cherish with everything you had. Something I knew River, Otto, and Kane had never expected.
River raising that sweet little boy, Nolan, who’d stolen every single one of our hearts.
The kid had basically shaken up our entire existence and set us on a different trajectory. And when Charleigh had come into their lives, it had flipped everything we knew on its head.
Then Otto and Raven had finally given into the secret love that they’d kept hidden for years.
And I’m not sure what the hell else Kane was supposed to do when he found out he had the most adorable little girl, Maci.
Dude had been done for the second she and her aunt Emery had crashed into his life.
Funny how Sovereign Sanctum had a written rule that we never get attached. It was too fucking dangerous to bring someone into what we did, but the three of them had shot all of that to shit.
Now it was just me and Cash flying solo.
And there was zero chance that was going to change for either of us.