Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49259 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49259 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
She relaxed the way I’d taught her to that would cause the least amount of pain, spread her legs wider, breathed in deep and let me in. One hard thrust forward later, and I was buried deep, already shooting off before her cervix closed around my cockhead, locking me in the deepest part of her.
I didn’t pull out when we were both tired and exhausted; I just took her down to the mattress with me lying behind her and my arms holding her close. She’s not going to stop; that much I got. So now I have to figure out how to shield her from the worst of it without stomping all over her intelligence and her need to do something about what she now knew existed right under her nose.
I could kill Jack and Jessica, but at this point, that wouldn’t do me any good. Cierra and the other women on the island had given him just enough to whet her interest, and even if she didn’t know it, I knew it was a test.
A test to see how much she can take without breaking. If I forced her to pull back now, it might do more harm than good. Knowing what she knows now, the things she had been exposed to, there’s no way to turn back now; she’d always know that those things were out there. And knowing her, she’d feel more guilt if she did nothing, and she threw in the towel now.
I looked down at her sleeping face and felt a pang in my chest at the loss of her innocence. I kissed her forehead and closed my eyes in resolve. “My poor baby!”
CHAPTER 14
I have to get my act together, or I know my husband is going to put his foot down. In the last two days I’ve cried more than I ever have in my life. Each time I think about the things I have read, my heart breaks all over again, and it’s almost too much.
I have taken a step back for now, not because I plan on giving up but because I need to be stronger the next time I tackle this monster. There’s no doubt that I’m getting involved, but I know if I don’t stop dwelling and sulking, Mark is going to forbid me in a way that I wouldn’t dare disobey.
He keeps looking at me as if he could see right through me. I hope not because all he would see is my anger and confusion and, worse of all, helplessness. I’ve come to understand a whole lot more about what he and his father had been dealing with over the years, and I don’t know if to thank him for shielding the kids and me from it or be upset that he’s been shouldering something this heavy on his own all this time.
By the end of that first week, thanks to his love and attention and his not pressing me for answers, I felt steadier on my feet. I hadn’t spent those days just sulking and feeling sorry for myself but had used my more poignant moments to think of a plan.
There had to be something we were missing that was right under our noses. It was tickling the edges of my mind, but I just couldn’t bring it into clarity. I decided to wait until the next day to bring it up with Cierra, but I was in for another surprise when I called her that day.
I’d taken to going to the park in a secluded area, for now, to get away from any kind of surveillance, something that I knew wasn’t great long term but was all I had for now. But this time, when I called, she put someone else on the phone, which at first didn’t make any sense to me. It sounded like a child.
I soon got over caring when that person asked a question that I couldn’t place in my own head for days. “You trust the person who recommended Jack, but what about the person who recommended Jack to them? It doesn’t matter how long ago they knew them; this is the string you need to tug on for now. Give Cierra the names of those people when you get them.”
That was it, that’s all she said before passing the phone back to Cierra. Leaving me stunned. “Was that a child?”
“You can say that. She’s a prodigy. Her idea makes sense, but since we don’t have that information, it’s up to you to get it since you’re there and you know all the players.”
It seemed so obvious when she said it. “I don’t imagine that the men haven’t thought of this already.”
“It doesn’t matter if they have. Sometimes, all it takes is a new set of eyes.”
I sat on it for a while, trying to figure out the best way to broach the subject, and it wasn’t long before the idea came to me. No one knows that we suspect him of anything, so there was no harm in asking in an off-handed way, which shouldn’t be too hard since he’s been working with my husband’s company for a couple of years now.