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)
Otto chuckled, and the fucker reached out and pressed two fingers to my neck like he was a paramedic checking my pulse. “Yup, dude’s about to explode. Heart attack levels if he doesn’t blow off some of that steam.”
I swatted his hand away. “You’re full of shit.”
“Nah, man, we know who’s full of shit around here,” Otto goaded.
“Knew it from the get-go. Fucking heart eyes.” Kane curled his fingers into circles and held them up over his eyes like goggles.
I cocked my head at him, though I was fighting a grin. “Those are circles, not hearts, jackass.”
He shrugged. “All I’m saying is you only have eyes for our little Piper Poo.”
“Piper Poo?” Was he fuckin’ serious?
He shrugged again. “Girl’s cool as shit, and she worked her ass off today. Think she’s a keeper. And not that I don’t only have eyes for my Em-Girl because all you assholes know I do, but she’s a stunner. Pretty sure our boy here can’t look away.”
Irritation burned a hole in my chest. “Like I said before, just keeping an eye out for her and her family while they’re staying at The Sanctuary, and I was surprised to see her here since no one fuckin’ clued me in that she got a job at Ivy Threads.”
I lifted an accusatory brow.
Was still fucked up over what she confessed.
That her plans had changed, even though she hadn’t given me any details on what they actually were.
Made me insane how badly I wanted to know exactly what had happened. Wanting the inside on something I didn’t have the right to know.
“Figured with the way you’re watching her, you would have already figured it out for yourself.” Another prodding from Kane. “But it doesn’t really matter to you, does it? You know, since you’re only keeping an eye while she stays. Guess she’s going to become nothing to you once she finds her own place.”
Kane said it casually.
All while it felt like a knife was being driven into my stomach.
A hard twist of the blade at the thought of her leaving The Sanctuary.
Guts a tangle of dread.
Didn’t like the idea of not being able to check on her night after night.
As if the safety of that refuge was where she belonged.
Knowing there was something about her. Something that made me sure she was in some kind of trouble.
Those lies that spilled so easily from her mouth. Way it felt like she was always looking over her shoulder, waiting for something horrible to happen.
“Guess so,” I ground out.
Cracking up, Otto clapped me on the shoulder with a meaty palm and shook me around again. “Look at him, sitting over here antsy as fuck. About to come out of his seat at the thought of that woman getting out from under his clutches.”
“Don’t have my clutches in her.”
It was the other way around.
Girl clawing through me.
A hook in my heart.
“But you want to have something in her.” Like an idiot, Kane wagged his brows.
“It’s deeper than that.” It was the first thing Cash had said in forever, the dude way too fucking insightful.
Everyone slowed, and I felt like I was going to come out of my skin under their probing gazes.
The amusement drained out of Kane. “You know we’re just giving you shit, Theo. Piper is awesome. If you like her? You should go for it.”
He paused in consideration, green eyes spearing me from over the table. “It’s time you let go of that guilt you’ve been holding on to.”
They all knew what I’d been through. What I’d lost. What I’d caused.
Anger boiled through my insides. “You know that’s not going to fuckin’ happen, so why don’t we drop it, yeah?”
My attention darted to each of them, the warning clear.
Felt like a prick, but fuck, they knew better than to press me like this.
Sitting back, Kane lifted a hand of surrender. “Get it, Theo, where you’re coming from. But we all see a lot more in you than you do in yourself. That shit that happened wasn’t your fault.”
A harsh scoff ripped off my tongue. “Don’t give me that bullshit.”
They all knew that it was.
Regret sat like a fucking hundred-pound block on my chest. I hated that I snapped at the only ones in the world who cared about me, but fuck.
It’d been a whole ton easier when Sanctum had made the rule that we could never form real attachments. That we’d forever be flying solo.
That was an easy commitment to make because, for me, it wasn’t going to be any other way.
River met my eye from over the table.
In understanding.
An apology, maybe.
I took a shaky sip of my drink, and I swallowed hard to get it down.
Otto jostled me again, breaking the tension with a grin. “It’s all good. Theo simply wants to dip it in whatever warm body catches his eye for the night. I, on the other hand, prefer to—”