Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Neither of us could bring ourselves to actually get rid of our parents’ things. I guess it made it too real.
Shit, now I’m not making any sense.
I knew that shit would be contagious. I needed to stay strong on getting her the hell out of our house and our lives. The last thing we needed was another mouth to feed and someone else to worry about. If the past two days proved anything, it was how adamant Julius was on keeping her. It was as if she were nothing more than a toy that fell out of the sky into his hands instead of a girl who was obviously in trouble.
This was insane. He flipped a one-eighty on me in a matter of a few seconds, and I had no idea how to set him straight. My brother was in denial in a way I’d never seen before. Not even when our mother left for good.
Shaking away the thoughts, it was after ten when I walked into our house, heading directly to my bedroom. It was the only privacy I had now that my brother had invited trouble to openly invade our space.
We’d lived in this three-bedroom, three-bath, two-story house in a shitty neighborhood since we were kids. Our grandparents once owned it, and after they passed away, it went to their only living child, our mother. Although it still had a mortgage, it was better than having to deal with a noisy landlord who would call CPS on our ass.
We’d had some run-ins with them before, but luckily, we’d find Joe, and he was easily bribed to play his role as if he weren’t the root of the problem.
I didn’t want to run into trouble, taking the stairs two at a time. I hurried down the hallway to the sanctuary of my bedroom. It was the only control I had left—my own space.
From the moment I opened the door, a primal fury erupted deep inside me at the sight of her standing there, her expression resembling that of a deer caught in headlights. My anger was palpable, this suffocating pressure that made me want to lash out and introduce her to the rules, no matter the cost, since Julius refused to.
Someone had to put her in her place and make sure she stayed there.
One thing was blatant: she definitely wasn’t scared of me, or she wouldn’t be in there.
“What is this?” I snapped. “Fuck around and find out, jailbird.”
She stood wide-eyed like she’d just seen a ghost, and at this point, I might as well have been one. Eyeing me up and down, she took in the state I was in as I spewed, “Shouldn’t you be in my brother’s bed?”
She winced and didn’t try to hide it, simply pissing me off further.
“I asked you a question, several actually, and I expect an answer.” My patience was wearing thin, barely having any to begin with.
She opened her mouth, shutting it just as fast.
“Un-fucking-believable,” I breathed out, angry that she was playing these games with me. I pushed past the doorframe and was over to her in three strides, causing her to fall onto the edge of my bed.
In one hasty movement, I loomed over her face. “Do you think I’m buying this silent damsel-in-distress act you’re pulling on my brother?”
Her gaze widened, and her breathing hitched, obviously winded by my allegations.
Leaning in closer to her face, I bit out, “You wouldn’t be in my room, on my bed, in my face right now, if you thought for one second, I wouldn’t fall for your little games.”
She frantically started shaking her head, still not uttering a word.
“Enough with the silent bullshit!” I ordered, now hovering above her. “If you really couldn’t speak, you’d be a lot better at hiding the fact that you’re just another stray from the streets, and it’s only a matter of time before I throw your ass back out there. I can see right through you… I’m not my brother.”
“Kraven!” Julius shouted, reprimanding me from my door. “For fuck’s sake, I can’t leave you alone for two minutes.”
I jerked around, the sound of his voice only fueling my fire. “Are you here to hold her hand? Or did you get here just in time to catch her snooping in my bedroom?”
Her abrupt movement was enough to bring our attention back to her. She stood, and I expected her to run into Julius’s arms. Seeking shelter from the hero he was trying to be. I guess that made me the villain.
Her enemy and I had absolutely no problem filling that role.
Flying over to my desk instead, she surprised me as her steady grasp snatched the sheets of paper and pen off it to show them to us.
The realization of what she was searching for in my room hit us at the same time. She then laid the paper back down and began writing firmly on it. Each letter was more heated than the last. We waited there as if she were about to read us our favorite bedtime story.