Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“Where is it?”
Jerking, I stuck my head over the door, falling on Cairo in the kitchen entrance.
“Where’s what? Breakfast?”
“The deed.”
Stiffly, I turned very slowly. “Why would you be asking me about that?”
“You said you wanted to go pick it up from where Dad had it stashed. I’ll drive you. Where is it?”
I studied him, wishing not for the first time that there was more to read in Cairo’s eyes than... darkness. “You don’t need to drive me, Cairo. I can get there myself.”
“Sure you can, but why say no?” He cocked his head. “Don’t you trust me?”
“I don’t know, Cairo.” I swallowed the distance, noticing right away as his gaze lingered on my naked body. “Do you trust me?”
“Not even a little.” I stopped. “But the way I see it, my blood wronged yours. Amadeo and the Men of Honor he let run free were bastards. But that wasn’t who came to my great-grandmother for help all those years ago. Sabrina was alone and desperate, but with all the garbage the Sisters have spouted about Bedlam being a safe haven for the damned but determined, they looked at another woman who needed help and saw a target. They looked at two orphaned farm girls and saw a threat.”
He stepped forward. “A lot of stuff has gone down between us, but every way I look at it, the betrayal that started this happened decades before we were even born. I’m going to make that right today, de Souza.”
Hope swelled in my chest. First Legend and now Cairo? Could I be any happier than I was in this moment? I’d gotten all my guys back.
“Then, we’ll finally be done.”
The smile froze on my face. “Excuse me? Done?”
“That’s right.” Cairo touched my shoulder, continuing down along my collarbone, tracing the swell of my breasts, gliding over my belly button. His speech so at odds with the gentle exploration. “I’m paying off my family’s debt, then you and I will have a clean break. No grudges. No vendettas.”
He glanced down at his ying-yang wolf tattoo. “The eternal war is over.”
“But...” I searched for words in my dry throat. “I don’t want that. Yes, let’s end the war, but afterward, I want to start something new. With you, Cairo.”
“You can’t think that could happen. Your father-in-law would be the man who hid the truth to protect you, but also to protect himself. Your mother-in-law would be a scheming blackmailer who fought to get her hands on your money by any means necessary. Your sister-in-law would be the girl who lived your stolen life in the mansion you deserved, with the family you deserved.
“And your husband, he’d be the fucking blind fool who stole, threatened, beaten, and killed to help them all keep you in the dark. We can’t come back from that, Ivy.”
My heart squeezed. He was finally calling me by my name and not de Souza, and right then it was the saddest word he said.
“I say we can, Cairo.”
“I say we can’t... and I don’t want to.”
I rocked back like he struck me, falling out of reach of his stroking fingers.
Cairo tucked his hands in his pockets, turning his green orbs to the sun shining on what was no longer a perfect day. “I’m thinking when all this is over, I’ll go away for a while. Bedlam won’t need the Bedlam Boys anymore once you take it back. Be kinda nice to find out who I am other than the puppet of my mother and her friends.”
“Why would you say we won’t n-need you? That I won’t need you.” My voice cracked. “You’re Cairo Sharpe. My wolf. My mate. You protect what’s yours.”
He turned away. “You’re not mine anymore. I said fate would break us. It finally did.” Cairo drifted out of the room. “Let me know when you’re ready to go.”
There on the polished hardwood floors, I crumbled again. That time for good.
THE HOUR-LONG DRIVE to Ashwick, the town north of Hunter’s Crest, stretched into an eternity. Cairo and I did not speak the whole way.
Once or twice, I thought about turning on the radio, but my hand didn’t move. A dozen to a hundred times, I thought about starting a conversation, but I didn’t do that either.
What we learned the day before brought Legend back to me, and drove Cairo out of reach. Over and over again, his speech rang in my head. Cairo was as sick of being everybody’s puppet as I was of being everybody’s fool. That’s where my understanding stopped.
Why did any of that mean we couldn’t be together? Yes, his family wronged mine, but that was his family. Cairo was the first person to eat my guilt. To crack me open, find the darkest spots of my soul, and indulge them like a fine wine. He was the first to show me that I didn’t have to be strong and ready to fight at all times.