Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Tears prick my eyes. God, I understand. And his honesty undoes me. “Creed,” I say softly, everything I feel—so much emotion—in the way I breathe out his name.
His hand tightens over mine. “I need to tell you I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry.”
My free hand cups his jaw, the rasp of shadowed stubble against my palm. “I’m sorry for both of us, because you weren’t wrong about my father. I would have celebrated you being wrong about either one of them, but I was emotional. You were what I should have been, Creed. You were logical. I’m ashamed I wasn’t.”
“Don’t say that. You have nothing to be ashamed of. We’re supposed to protect our family.
Our conversation ends abruptly as a buzzer sounds, and I jerk around to find our pathway ending, and so soon, we’re forced to turn and walk off the conveyor and into the most amazing place I’ve ever seen in my life. Suddenly, I’m inside an underground city.
On one side of a red brick street are quaint little stone buildings; on the other, there are stores and restaurants. There are even random outdoor tables and chairs.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. “How is this even possible?”
“Money and a lot of care,” he says. “And Caleb wanted this place to feel like home to those who live here. A safe place that wasn’t like a prison.”
“Is this what Zodius is like?”
“This city, our city, is much smaller. Zodius City exceeds our population by thousands.”
“That’s a terrifying thought—all those people following a monster. It’s like Hitler all over again.”
“You have no idea, baby. I saw it every day I was there, but I think his power scares them into submission. They feel like his leadership is inevitable, so following him is the way to survive.”
He’s right, of course. I’ve read plenty of studies on the nature of the human psyche. “How did the Renegades afford all of this?”
“Private money from people like myself and Maddox, who had it to give. Caleb struck a funding deal with the government as well when we agreed to support them.”
We cut left and step onto another conveyor belt that travels inside a tunnel to a walkway that branches left and right. We turn right to a row of doors and stop at the very end. “This is me,” Creed announces, punching in a code on a panel and opening the door. “What’s mine is yours. I think you know that. I’ll come by early in the morning, and we’ll get you a phone line to call your father. We can make it look like it’s coming from your cellphone. I’ll bring you some clothes, too.”
My stomach knots, and it’s then that I realize I haven’t been sick in hours, but I am now with the idea of him leaving. I press my fingers to my throbbing temples, not sure if I should ask him to stay or let him go. I don’t want to force the bond on him. I will never want more than he has to give.
“Addie,” he murmurs softly.
I can’t look at him for fear he’ll see just how tormented I am. I’ll push him. I’ll push us to what we can’t undo.
“Addie, sweetheart, look at me.”
But he doesn’t touch me. I turn toward the door, step inside, and halt when I hear, “I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself if I come in that door,” he admits hoarsely. “I’m hanging on by a thread right now.”
Hope flares inside me, but I hold it close to my chest and proceed with caution, trying to understand what he really wants from me. “And if I don’t want you to go?”
“You heard what the doctor said about bonding. We can’t be sure it won’t happen.”
“I know. I hate that damn bond.”
He steps back as if I’ve slapped him. “I know. Goodnight, Addie.” I can feel the sense of bitterness and the feeling of being betrayed that I just created in him without that intent.
“No.” I close the space between us and wrap myself around him. “You took it wrong.”
He doesn’t touch me, and his body is steel against me. “There’s only so many ways to take that, Addie. Let me go before you end up fucked into a bond you don’t want. I’ve told you I can’t control myself. Not with you. Not with the bond.”
He still hasn’t touched me, but I’m relentless. I hold onto him, and I don’t let go. “And that’s why I hate the bond. Because it makes you want me. I don’t want it to choose me and force me on you. I want you to be able to choose me the way I chose you a long time ago.”
His hands come down on my head, and he tilts my face to his. “I chose you the moment I met you by that elevator, woman, long before the mark ever existed. And I believe that’s why the mark even exists. Because I chose you. Because you were always the one. How do you not know that?” His mouth crashes over mine, the lick of his tongue as tender as it is wild, and in the midst of that kiss, he walks me backward, inside his apartment, and kicks the door shut.