Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
“You did not pull a fucking gun on my wife.”
“You told me to do what I had to do, Derek.”
I hear her mutter something under her breath. She’s scowling at us both from the foyer.
I move in her direction but before I get all the way there, she slams the door in my face and locks it.
“Did she take it?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he says.
“Fuck!” I shout.
I key in my entry code and find her upstairs in the master bedroom, a mess of clothes thrown on the bed. She’s stuffing things into a suitcase.
“Chloe…”
“No!” she shouts, pointing at me. “Fuck you. Fuck off. Fuck you, Derek Steele. Fuck off! A fuckin’ gun pointed at me again, one of your goddamn goons abducting me?”
“Did you take it, baby? Please tell me you didn’t take it.” I drop to my knees in front of her and grab her hands. She tries to pull away. I hold tight. “Did you?”
She’s bawling.
“You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t take it.”
“Go to hell,” is how my beautiful wife replies. And she says it without venom, she says it in a voice that echoes through my raw gut, making it feel even worse.
I can’t hack this. I can’t.
“I didn’t mean to fuck it up.” He looks up at me pleading with his eyes, hands holding mine way too tight while on his knees. “Please, baby. Forgive me.”
“Fuck you, Derek,” I repeat with difficulty.
“I’ll do whatever I have to do to show you that I won’t fuck this up. If you took it, we’ll try when you’re ready. When you tell me you’re ready, only then.” He holds on tighter.
“You fucked it up already,” I say, chin trembling. “You fucked it so hard, it can’t be fixed.”
“I’ll fix it.”
“You can’t fix it!” I shout.
“I will!” he shouts back, entire body trembling, the pain stark and raw on his face.
He really looks remorseful for once. And I don’t fucking care.
“You deceived me from day one, you blackmailed me, stalked me, you hurt Adam’s family, you threatened Alannah, I’ve had guns pointed at me more than once, had guns pointed at people I care about. You threatened to have Craig and Adam shot, to have Craig forced to be a dirty cop. You’ve made my promises mean nothing because you forced me to say things to you that I only intended to say once, that I swore I would only say once, and now you’ve taken my choices about my own body, about the rest of my future away? No. No way is any of this ever going to be okay.”
He gets to his feet. “I’ll fix it, Chloe.”
I scoff.
He lifts me up into his arms.
“Put me down!” I push at his chest and struggle.
“No. I’m gonna fix this.”
“No, Derek, put me down!”
“I’m gonna fucking fix it!” he shouts, hollering it in my face with such fury on his face that I’m immediately terrified, wishing I could turtle into myself.
He lays me on the bed and is about to speak when his phone chimes from his pocket. He pulls it out and rushes out of the room.
Hearing him run down the stairs, I decide to follow. He’s outside, walking toward Ken who is with another guy. My Cherokee is parked out front.
I gasp as Derek punches Ken in the mouth. They shout in one another’s faces for a moment and then Ken and the other guy leave in Ken’s blue SUV.
Derek gets into my Cherokee, leaving the driver’s door open. He’s bent over on the seat, looking around.
He turns, sees me and makes his way to me with the half-drank bottle of Gatorade in his hand. My handbag.
He storms past me, shooting me a look of murder. He dumps my purse upside down on the kitchen island. “Where is it? I need to know if you took it.”
I say nothing.
He drops the Gatorade and now has the Plan B box in his hand.
He shakes the empty box and then drops it, staring at me with his mouth open.
I choke on a sob.
“No, no, no, no…” He falls to his knees and thrusts his hands into his hair, staring at me in disbelief. “I just want to fucking make you happy!” He shouts. “Give you a family. Give you everything you want. Why is that so fucking bad? I’ve never wanted to give these things to anyone and I’m trying so fucking hard, Chloe, and nothing I do is enough for you. Or it’s too much. I can’t fucking take it! I can’t win with you, can I?” He grips his hair on both sides of his head. His face is beet-red. “What can I do to fix it? Tell me!”
“You need to fix yourself!” I choke out. “Please, please, please, just leave me alone. Just let me go. You have to stop this. Let it go, Derek, or it’ll end in death.”