Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“You didn’t shoot.”
I shook my head. “I shot, all right. But I didn’t hit him. I wanted Silas to know that someone was there. That someone was going to try to kill him.” I stopped. “The man at my back was charged with taking care of me, as well as taking care of Silas if I failed to do so.”
“How are you still alive then?” she asked, staring at the floor in horror.
“Because Stone was there,” I murmured.
“Stone?”
“Stone,” I said. “The president of our club that died some months ago. The police officer. He was there. Walking in the woods, doing shit that men do in the woods. He’d just come up behind me when I took the shot.”
“He saved you.”
I nodded. “He did. And almost killed me at the same time.”
“So you went to this chapter, and left me alone.”
I swallowed. “Essentially, yes.”
“Essentially,” she said. “Why am I still alive, then? Why am I still here?”
“Silas and Lynn,” I answered immediately. “After finally realizing it was me, Silas called Lynn. Lynn divulged that he was already looking into my family at that time, and I vowed to help him do anything he wanted.”
“And that man that Stone killed?” she asked.
“Dumped his body in the lake that Silas was visiting,” I answered honestly. “Also found a body that resembled mine from a morgue. Shot it in the head, and then left it in the woods. When they came investigating a few days later when they realized that Silas was alive and well, they found the body.”
“They thought it was you.”
I nodded.
She breathed out.
“Why has finding evidence on your parents taken so long?” she whispered into the hands.
I walked toward her and dropped down to my knees in front of her.
Then dropped a kiss to her hair before wrapping her into a hug, reveling in the way that she felt in my arms.
“Because what they do, they’re good at,” I admitted. “They’re really good at hiding their tracks. Hell, there are only a few people who know that they’re such bad people. You’d never assume that they are who they are unless you caught them doing something—which most don’t unless they’re as bad as them.”
“How did you find out your parents were that bad?” she asked.
“I knew from a young age that they weren’t good,” I said. “But it wasn’t until I’d just come off my probationary period at the Benton PD, that they finally saw the value in having a cop—their son—as a member of their team.” I looked away. “I never told you, but they tried everything in their power to get me to do what they wanted, and not one of those things worked until they threatened Sienna and you.”
“And I would’ve never known you were here if I hadn’t been so stupid,” she breathed, finally lifting her head to allow me to see her face. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
I stared at her intently. “I wouldn’t have left you alone.”
Her eyes went wide.
“I was holding on,” I admitted. “I tried so hard to let you live your life, and every time it looked like you were moving on too far, I sabotaged whatever you had planned,” I hesitated. “It was what got me into trouble in the first place.”
She tilted her head to the side.
“I kicked Josh out of his house,” I admitted. “Showed my hand and fucked myself in the process.”
“Why?”
I sighed.
“I didn’t like the way he was acting around you, nor the way having him around made Sienna cry,” I admitted. “I forced him to move out.”
Her mouth stretched into a small smile.
“What I didn’t know at the time was that Josh was already working with my parents,” I began. “He was present the day I arrived in my parents’ clutches, and he was the man that watched over me, though since I’d been in a fog of pain at the time, I hadn’t remembered,” I growled in frustration. “When I kicked him out because he was bothering y’all, he got suspicious. He moved, and then spent the next few weeks doing his research.”
“He figured out who you were,” she guessed.
“Got it in one,” I nodded. “Threatened to tell my parents that I wasn’t as dead as I’d made myself appear to be.”
She groaned.
“He was so freakin’ innocent,” she moaned into her hands. “I thought he was sad, like me. I should’ve never fallen for that act.”
“You likely couldn’t help it,” I said, prying her hands away from her face. “He’s gotten four women before you. Trust me, he’s well versed in the act of conning women.”
She lifted her gaze to mine.
“What are we going to do now?” she asked. “He’s going to tell your parents that you’re alive. Then they’re going to start searching for you.”
I grinned.
“That’s where good computer wizards come into the picture,” I said. “The same couple that I told you about who deleted all of those photos off of the computers?” I asked. She nodded her head, indicating that she understood, and I continued. “They help women escape abusive situations,” I murmured. “They erased you and any signs of you. As long as you don’t register Sienna for school just yet, using her birth certificate, then there should be no threads that tie you here.”