Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I jerked the gag off with more force than necessary and grabbed her face in my hand and squeezed it so tightly that I knew it would bruise. The demons inside me that wanted to make her pay for touching Madeline, for giving her to fucking strangers, were in control. It was hard to rein that in.
Gina whimpered.
“BLAISE! Let her go!” Madeline yelled from behind me.
I slowly eased my grip on her face and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “She’s the only fucking reason I’ve not killed you,” I said in a low voice, then shoved her face away as I let go of it.
When I backed up, Madeline stepped up beside me. “Untie her arms and legs. I know how uncomfortable that is.”
I looked down at her. “Madeline, that’s a thin thread, baby. Don’t push me.”
She raised her eyebrows at me and leaned in toward me. “She’s not going to run.”
I leaned down until my face was close to hers. “Don’t fucking care.”
Madeline growled and then turned to look at Gina. “You want to talk. Please do it, and please make it count. Please.” It sounded like Madeline was begging her to deny it to save herself.
Gina swallowed hard and nodded. She looked at Madeline for a few moments before shifting her gaze to me. I saw the fear in her eyes and the way she was trembling. I knew she had nothing to say that was going to save her. She knew it too.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“And that won’t save you. It just confirms what Madeline won’t tell me,” I replied.
Madeline touched my arm then, and I tensed. I didn’t want her to see the man I was about to become. The one she didn’t see. The one everyone but her knew existed.
Gina’s gaze went to Madeline. “I thought you were going to be temporary. That Blaise would get bored with you. That this infatuation he’d had for years … he would get it out of his system after having you.” She paused and swallowed again. “But you weren’t what I’d expected. I liked you, and I could see in his behavior that you were different for him. There was more there than lust. He stopped coming to check on Angel as much. He was hard to be around when you weren’t with him. You had become more than a possession of his. You’d somehow possessed him.” Gina let out a hard laugh. “Something no one would have thought possible.”
The only reason I let her keep talking was because of the way Madeline was gripping my arm. If I stopped this, I was pretty sure she would attempt to rip it from my body. She wanted to let Gina talk, and I was going to give her that wish even if it went against every-damn-thing I was.
“He was going to move Angel back to the big house. I saw it coming before I heard him tell Garrett on the phone at the top of the stairs that he planned on moving her back. Then, he said I probably wouldn’t want to go with Angel. But without Angel at his house then he wouldn’t have use for me either. Why should I get to stay? He was going to want you all to himself. Without Angel, I had no role to fill for him. It’s why Garrett kept me all those years ago, and I knew it. I was Angel’s keeper. With her gone, I’d have to find a new place to live and I would lose the one thing I wanted most.” She paused and closed her eyes tightly.
Madeline took a step closer to her, placing herself between me and Gina. She thought I didn’t know what she was doing, but I did. In her pretty little head, she thought her standing there would keep Gina alive. I could easily take the shot over her head, but she knew I wouldn’t do that in front of her.
“I don’t have your kind of power. I knew that he’d eventually let me go when I wasn’t easy access. I’d lose him, and I couldn’t lose him. I’d loved him forever, and now that he saw me, I needed more time to show him that we could work. That we would be good together.” She sniffled. “But you were ruining all of it. Blaise would move the guys out too. I wanted to keep the life I had here, but you were taking it all from me.”
My entire body went rigid.
“Who, Gina?” Madeline asked her. The compassion clear in her tone.
Fuck me, if she said Gage, I was going to slam this damn door to keep from shooting her in the head for pure insanity.
“Levi,” she whispered. “I’ve loved him since the first time I met him. But he never saw me. Never acted interested at all. Until six months ago. Things changed. I, uh, was with Gage, and Levi came into the room and started undressing. He joined us. He finally saw me. It had taken me years to get his attention,” she said.