Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“When she was in school why didn’t you report to them what your father was doing?”
“Had no proof. I never saw what he did. I only could guess. And like I said, I was a runaway and didn’t want to be taken back. Anyway, who would believe me over adults? Saylor has never spoke of it. Not once. She acts like it never fuckin’ happened.”
“She’s probably repressed it. Hidden it away in her mind. It’s a coping mechanism.”
“The same as you?”
Chapter Nine
“What do you mean?” Reilly asked him.
She never talked about it. No one did.
Rev hadn’t been there. Thank fuck. That was the kind of shit that made nightmares. And Reilly had been the one to engage the actual button on the incinerator to do “the deed.” She had shoved past Deacon and slammed her palm on it to ignite the burners.
To burn a still conscious, breathing human being to death.
Did that motherfucker deserve it? No fucking doubt.
Still… It was disturbing.
He wondered if she had nightmares about it. About hearing a man scream as he was being incinerated.
But like Saylor, Reilly acted like it never happened. Maybe it was repressed memories, like she mentioned. “That day—”
She interrupted him. “Just because I don’t talk about it, doesn’t mean I don’t think about it. I think about it every damn day.” Her cheeks had turned a dark shade of pink. It wasn’t from embarrassment.
They found it difficult to embarrass the woman. No matter what was said by any of the guys, even when they busted her non-existent balls, she never was offended or embarrassed. She could take ball-busting as good as she could give it.
That attitude made him a little lusty over her, too. More than a little lusty.
“Not what he did to you. What you did to him,” he clarified.
“I didn’t do anything to him. He caused that himself. But if you want me to say something about that particular incident, then I’m glad I took the burden off Deacon. Nobody but me should’ve done it. And, as we all know… Paybacks are a fucking bitch.”
Normally, he’d grin at that last part but he got caught on the fact that she wanted to kill the motherfucker herself, so it wouldn’t be anyone else’s burden.
“I got everyone into that whole mess, so I wanted to be the one to get us out. I appreciate how everyone stepped in to help me even though you all hardly knew me.”
“Yeah, but Deke didn’t wanna make that motherfucker pay just ‘cause of you, it was for what he did to Reese, too.” Warren hurt both sisters. He had also hurt other women in the past and would’ve hurt others in the future if he’d been allowed to keep breathing. He was that much of a fucking piece of shit.
“Reese is my sister.” She slapped a hand to her chest, drawing his eyes to her tits for a brief second. Or two. His gaze rose when she finished with, “And I handled it for both of us.”
She certainly did. Like a fucking boss, too. Even so… “I shoulda killed that motherfucker. Shoulda fuckin’ killed him even before Deke and the others got there. As soon as he swung that fuckin’ baseball bat in your direction. Shoulda grabbed that bat and smashed his fuckin’ brains in. Just like he wanted to do to you.”
Then the fucker would’ve been dead and no one would’ve had the “burden” of pushing that button while he was still alive. Throwing the asshole into the furnace would’ve been only about getting rid of any evidence that Billy Warren ever existing. The same way they got rid of the Shirleys when any of his brothers pulled one off the mountain. Or used to.
That Shirley situation was currently in limbo until the feds did what the feds were going to do with them first.
“You weren’t there when he first showed up, remember? Rook and Whip were. Rook saved my damn life. Maybe I should’ve given him a thank-you blowie for that…”
A thank-you blowie?
“Are you fuckin’ serious?” he growled. She better not be fucking serious! It was bad enough when Rook got to be the one to hang all over her while taking the Instagram photos to draw Warren out of hiding. They had pretended to be hooking up and acted like it, too. Rev had to walk away every fucking time Rook had his hands all over her “for the camera.”
She rolled her eyes at his reaction. “I’m kidding. Rook would never get head from me because he’s an asshole. I’ve had my fill of those after dealing with the dead douchebag. Assholes are permanently off my blowjob list.”
She had a blowjob list?
She tilted her head and her blonde hair fell to the side. “And, anyway, what if you’d been arrested for bashing his head in? Saylor would be on her own right now. You’re her family, Rev. She needed you, she still needs you. You’re also the only one—well, besides me now—who knows about her past.”