Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
I bit back the urge to say that if our entire strategy relied on a terrified woman already roped into a bad situation, then we really needed to work on ourselves. That was only going to get me in hot water and get Rue scooped up by someone unfamiliar and terrifying.
“We’re not going to hurt her, Kylo,” Huck reminded me.
Not physically, no. Not this club.
But I don’t think he was grasping how fragile she was. The months of dealing with Marco were clearly grinding down her defenses, making it impossible to keep the anxiety and depression from sucking her in again. Add in that things seemed to be escalating with that crew, and, yeah, she was just barely holding it together.
Finding out that one of the very few people in her life she thought was solid had been lying to her from the jump was not going to help her mental health.
“Think you’ll find she’s a lot stronger than you’re giving her credit for,” Huck said, reading my mind.
Easy for him to say.
He hadn’t held her while she cried.
He hadn’t been watching her get more and more beaten down with each passing day.
“And even if she takes this hard, we are doing this to remove Marco as a problem. Which would also make her life better. Might suck in the moment, but it’s good in the long run.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
And it was.
What she needed more than anything else was to get rid of that fuck so she could move on with her life.
And if that meant I had to sacrifice whatever was growing between the two of us, then, well I had to agree it was worth it.
But before I blew her whole world up, I was going to give her a day to fucking remember. And remember me by, since I was pretty sure she’d want nothing to do with me once the truth came out.
“Hey, Teddy,” I said as I moved outside and called him. “I’ve got a favor to ask.”
—
I spent days getting everything set up.
Part of it was to give Rue the day I knew she needed.
The other part was to keep me from thinking too much about how everything was going to change after this.
“Where you going?” Caymen asked as I snatched the keys for the club SUV off the hook in the kitchen.
“My place,” I blurted out before I could think better of it.
“Your place?” Velle asked, head jerking back like he’d been slapped. “What do you mean, your place?”
Velle prided himself on knowing people, seeing things before anyone else. It was clearly bothering him that he’d missed something so big about me.
“I bought a place a while back,” I admitted. “Been working on it here and there.”
“Does Huck know?” Caymen asked.
“Told him when he got back.”
“But kept it from us?” Velle asked.
“It’s nothing personal. I wasn’t even sure I was going to keep it at first. But now that I’ve been working on it, I think I will.”
“Are you moving out?” Velle asked.
“No. I mean, not yet anyway. Maybe eventually. I haven’t gotten that far. I gotta get going, though,” I said, reaching for the doorknob.
I could tell by the look on Velle’s face that this wouldn’t be the end of it, that he was going to have some questions for me.
Honestly, once the day was over, I might welcome that. I was sure I wasn’t going to be in a great place mentally. And maybe his ass could help me sort through it all and compartmentalize it.
But that was a problem for another time.
Right then, I had to get to my place to wait for Rue.
It was a busy day in that I was trying to fit as much into it as possible, but it was a low-stress kind of busy. Since almost everything on the list involved things meant to relax and pamper Rue.
I didn’t realize she was right behind me until I pulled into my driveway and had her pull up beside me.
“Oh, hey,” I said, shaking my head, realizing how lost I’d been in my own thoughts for her to sneak up on me like that.
“I figured you didn’t know it was me. I’ve been following you since you pulled out. I was dropping Ernest at my grandmother’s place again.”
She looked a little better.
I mean, that wasn’t hard, considering how upset and worn out she’d been the last time I’d seen her.
But there was a looseness in her shoulders. She didn’t seem like she was trudging through quicksand.
There was a bracelet on her wrist, a big, chunky thing that completely disguised the bruise I knew was there. She likely didn’t want her grandmother to know that she’d been manhandled the night of the destruction at Vital Greens.
“I should have thought to offer to pick you up from there,” I said. “Does Ernest ever stay home alone?”