Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
My proclamation is followed by a silence so thick that when Breck speaks next, his voice sounds too loud and jarring. “She doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve to be a pawn in your game.”
I already fucking know that.
I know she doesn’t deserve what I’m dishing out. And no, I’m not talking about his sister; I’m talking about her. Not because I think his sister, the real Peyton, deserves to be toyed with, either, but because I dragged the girl, the one I thought was Peyton, through the fires of hell just for trusting the wrong man. Just for coming out of her shell for once in her shitty life. I’m the one who committed the crime all those years ago, but she’s the one who got punished for it.
Even so, I keep my voice light: “That’s up to you now, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know what?”
“What my father was doing,” he says, his eyes frothing with something. “All my life he groomed me to take over the business, this land, everything he and my ancestors ever built. When all this time, he was burning it to the ground. Just like he did with my family. My mother and my sister.”
I don’t know a lot about Brecken Turner. Except that we’re about the same age and he thinks his degrees from Harvard and wherever the fuck else will help him run his ranch. But right now, in this moment, I almost feel sympathy for him; looks like he got screwed over by his father too. Almost. Because sympathy is for better men than me. I’m just a man burning with hatred and driven by revenge.
“Any particular reason you’re sharing your sob story?”
He grits his teeth and draws his shoulders straight. “As I said, I didn’t know. I had no idea he’d rigged the barn that night. Or that he was going to kill that girl. So—”
I spring up from my seat then, cutting him off. I don’t need to hear this. I don’t need to hear how he didn’t know his father was going to blow up an innocent girl so maybe I should take mercy on him. On his family, on his sister.
“You’ve got until the meeting with that oil company to decide which way you wanna go. And trust me,” I state before leaving, “if you pick wrong, I’m gonna destroy everythin’ you Turners have ever built and I’ll do it in a way that’s gonna make your pathetic father look like a saint.”
I’m going to destroy everything the Turners have ever built anyway. But he doesn’t need to know that. Not until I take everything from them and make them watch as I blow it up and set it on fire.
Literally.
We’re just out of the conference room when Rad grabs my shoulder and pins me to a wall by the elevators. Fisting my shirt, he growls, “He’s right.”
I know what he’s going to say, and I’m really not in the mood to hear it. Especially not when I’m still getting over the jitters from being in an enclosed space again.
“Get off me,” I say as calmly as I can.
“She doesn’t deserve this,” he says, ignoring me.
“Get the fuck off me,” I warn, my hands fisting by my sides.
I don’t want to punch him, but I will if I have to. He pulls me forward and slams me into the wall again. “You know which her I’m talkin’ about, don’t you?”
I try to breathe deep. Try to seal the cracks I feel opening up inside of me. “Rad, I’m not fuckin’ around right now. You need to get off me or I’m not gonna be responsible for what I do.”
“You think I’m scared of you?”
“I think you need to be.”
He scoffs and shakes his head. “You fucked her.”
I stiffen then. Or rather feel the fissures vibrating inside of me.
“Didn’t you?” he prods.
Fuck it. I jerk out of his hold and grab his collar. I spin him around, and then it’s me who’s pinning him to the wall. “What’d you just say to me?”
His nostrils flare with an angry breath. “You fucked—”
I slam his spine into the wall, cutting him off. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
“And why the fuck not?”
“Because I fuckin’ said so, that’s why.”
“Because she’s your wife.”
I slam him into the wall again. “Yeah. So you better show respect or I’ll fuckin’ kick your teeth in.”
He leans toward me and growls, “No matter how many times you say it, it ain’t gonna come true.”
“You—”
“And you better tell her that too.”
I push him into the wall once again. “What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
“What do you think it means?” he taunts. “What do you think she’s gonna think when you walk in there with all those pretty dresses you bought for her?”
Heat creeps up the back of my neck, but I don’t let go of him. “She knows what the deal is.”