Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 71074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
"I’m not fucking leaving here to go to LA." I put my hands on my hips.
"No, not LA," Ethan says. "It’s my uncle’s house. My aunt Olivia decked it out like an LA house. Everyone hates going over there, and Uncle Casey refuses to tell her, so he just keeps it for visitors."
"I don’t think that is a good idea," I say, and I’m shocked by my own words. "If I leave here, your sister is going to be left open."
"We’ll have eyes on her,” he says, and I shake my head.
"He’ll come for her just to get to me," I admit. "He knows she helped me. He knows I was here. That’s why he went after her before coming to get me."
"You really think he’ll use her?" Ethan asks me.
"Without batting an eye," I answer honestly. "He will come to her to get to me. Just to fuck with me."
"Fuck," Ethan says, running his own hands through his hair. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."
"I hate to do this,” I say now. "You have no idea how much I hate to put her in this."
"I’m already in it," Chelsea says. "So now that we’ve got that out of the way."
"Tomorrow," Ethan says. "You start living your life."
"Meaning?" Chelsea says, looking at both of us.
"Meaning you go do what you do during the day, and Mayson gets his ass into the barn, and we find his father before his father finds him." She puts her hand to her stomach. "I’m going to talk to Casey and Dad and make sure we have someone shadow you." He looks at me, and I nod. "Now I have to get home. I promised I would give the kids a bath. Call me if you need anything," he says, and the door slams shut.
"I hate this," I admit. "I hate all of this."
"I know that I should," she starts, "and I don’t like your father at all. But…”
"But nothing." I shake my head now. "Don’t even fucking say it."
"Will you promise me something?” She looks at me, and she wrings her hands.
"Anything,” I say. I will give you anything, I say to myself only.
"That no matter what happens, you won’t lie to me," she says. "That no matter what happens, if shit is going to be bad, you tell me it’s going to be bad."
"It’s going to be bad,” I say. "It’s going to be bad because I will not stop until I kill him." I watch her eyes watching me. "That is who you think you love."
"If it’s a choice between you or him," she says without batting an eye. "There is not even a choice."
"I just told you I’m going to kill a man, and you didn’t even bat an eye." I point at her.
"Is that why you said it?" she asks. "To see if I would be shocked. I give up," she says. "I give up." She walks now and stops in front of me. "I give up trying to get you to see what I see." She gets on her tippy-toes and kisses my lips softly.
My eyes watch her now as she walks away from me. "You are the most beautiful person I have ever met." She stops in her tracks, and I see her head hang down. "This morning when I left here, I felt like I had concrete in my shoes." She doesn’t turn and look at me. But she moves her hand to her stomach. "From the moment I’ve seen you, you’ve been the woman I’m chasing in my dreams." I tell myself to shut up and just let her go, but something inside me just pushes forward. "Everything." I take a step forward, hoping she fucking turns around. "Everything was for you."
"How?" she says, turning around, and I see the tears running down her face. "How could leaving me be for me?" Her voice kills me. "How could you think that you leaving here would be for me?"
"Don’t you get it?” I look at her. "Leaving you would save you." I take a deep breath. "It would have saved you." I walk over to her now, my heart beating so fast in my chest I look down to see if you could see it. I stop in front of her, so close to her. My hand comes up, and I wipe the lone tear that has just fallen over her bottom lip. "It would have destroyed me," I admit, my fingers touching her face. My fingers are shaking as I touch her. "Not being able to do this again," I admit. "To touch you." I trail her cheek and then move down to her jaw. "Even if just for a minute, it would have destroyed me."
Chapter 24
Chelsea
My whole body tingles when he touches me. "Chelsea," he says in almost a plea. "I won’t survive if something happens to you."