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)
“Who is Alicia to you?” It was out before I could stop it.
Ferocity flashed through his dark, menacing gaze before something else entirely slipped into his features.
Something that appeared entirely too satisfied as he basically growled, “You jealous, Pipes?”
“No.” It didn’t even come close to sounding casual, my own falsity firing free.
The truth was, the thought of him with her made me sick to my stomach, and I had zero right to that reaction.
Smugness pulled to the edge of that ridiculously lush mouth, and he leaned in closer to my left cheek.
“Little Liar.” He grumbled it like praise, and I couldn’t form the rebuke I was trying to conjure considering my knees nearly gave when he reached out and let the pad of his thumb trace along my jaw.
His voice was a scuff of seduction as he muttered, “It’s not what you think.”
Then something ruthless took to his features. “But I take care of those who come here and need extra help.”
I could hardly swallow. “Is that what you’re doing for me? Taking care of me because you think I need extra help?”
His expression morphed again, and that time there was no mistaking it.
The lust that curled between us.
A keening bow that only gripped me tighter when he leaned down to murmur in my left ear. “Oh, the ways I would take care of you, Piper Whittman.”
A shiver rocked my body, and Theo suddenly stepped back, moving backward across the porch as he instructed, “Now go inside and get this little man warmed up by the fire.”
Flustered, I turned around and fumbled with the handle to let myself in. Basically running inside to flee whatever the heck had just happened between us.
But there was no escaping it.
Not when I set Finn on the floor in front of the fire so I could get him out of his snow clothes, but not before my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Hand shaking, I pulled it out to a message from Theo.
One-Star
Make no mistake, I’ll be thinking about all the ways I could warm you up later.
TWELVE
THEO
“License plate 7TXI924,” I growled into the phone as I went stalking down one of the sidewalks of The Sanctuary, eyes darting in every direction to make sure the area was clear.
I could hear the clack of Cash’s keyboard on the other end of the line.
Didn’t like the feel of that SUV that had come through the loop near the cabins.
I had a sixth sense about this shit. Could feel the vileness emanating from within.
We’d done our best to alter Alicia and Lucy’s appearances, but it wasn’t like her bastard husband wouldn’t recognize them if he showed up here.
My gut had told me to send them back to their cabin when they’d appeared outside. But fuck, how could I turn that sweet little girl away? Make her feel like she wasn’t welcome?
She’d been through so much horrible shit.
She deserved to live.
But now I was kicking myself for being so careless.
“It’s a rental,” Cash said as I rounded the building and stepped out into the main parking lot.
“Fuck,” I spat as I stalled out in the middle of it. Listening as I turned a full circle.
Peace echoed back.
“Rented out to a William Penn. Looks clear to me.”
It was nearly impossible for me to swallow that. “Dig up whatever you can on the guy.”
“On it. Think you’re in the clear, though.”
“Won’t take that chance until you tell me otherwise.”
“That’s why you’re in charge of them long term. You don’t let your guard down.”
“Think I might have, though. I let Lucy come out and play with Piper’s little boy.”
Too fucking lax and too fucking distracted.
Cash grunted like he had something he wanted to say about Piper before he decided against it, his voice twisting in encouragement. “Keeping them safe is our main priority, but you have to remember once we get them to their new home, they’re going to be out in public. We can’t keep them hidden forever.”
My chest tightened.
It was the hardest part.
Letting them go in the end.
Putting my trust in the idea that they were going to blend into society and their tormentors would never be able to uncover where they lived.
Cash kept an eye from afar, but I could never fucking stop worrying about their safety. Wrought with a tumble of all the faces that had come under our care through the years. Hoping to fuck they were okay.
“While they’re here, I can’t slip. Need you to make sure that fucker Pierce Renfry is still clueless in Philadelphia.”
With him digging, it set me even more off kilter.
“I’ll do a full sweep, but I think you’re freaking for no reason. Someone was probably just swinging by to see if your fine establishment is somewhere they’d want to stay. You know, since it’s the most sought-after motel in all of Moonlit Ridge.”