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)
I can feel the attendant’s hesitation and then, “Oh, ah—yes, sir!”
I know when he’s gone without hearing him or seeing him, and I open the door, pull the cart inside, and lock the door. Addie stands in the center of the room, waiting for me, a stricken look on her face. I want to comfort her, but what am I going to say? If we’re together, she’s a target. If we’re apart, we’re miserable.
If I give her too much, she’ll insist on standing by my side, and that’s not a safe place to be. Ever. The whole lifebond process is fucked up. I die. She dies. No fucking way. We will not be together.
And that is our destiny.
“You’ll be safe in Sunrise City,” I promise her. “There’s a chartered plane waiting on us.”
“And then what? I live there forever?”
“And then I’ll go kill Julian. Then it will be over. You’ll be safe. I’m going to shower and change.” I grab the clothes the attendant left me. “Try to eat something.” I force myself to walk past her and manage to make it to the bathroom door without reaching for her. But just before I enter the other room, I pause without turning and say, “I’m sorry, Addie. I never meant for any of this to happen. I’ll make this right for you. Somehow, I’ll make it right.”
Chapter Eight
Addie
The shower turns on, and I stand there in the center of the hotel room, my feet planted, unmoving on the outside while my thoughts are a wild jamboree.
He’ll make it right for me…
Suddenly, everything comes together for me. I know Creed. I know he’s not evil. But he doesn’t know. And that’s the problem. It’s always been the problem. I glance at the clock. I have very little time to get ready and out of this room to make my flight. I need to be on that flight because we’re at war, and he doesn’t have to fight it alone. I won’t let him fight it alone.
Guilt stabs at me for how hard I’ve been on him, and I rush through the bathroom door and step to the opposite side of the shower door. I hesitate. I need to get ready. He has to shower to leave, too. I rotate away from him and start messing with my make-up. My hair is all but dry, and I plug in my flat iron to try to do something with it. I study my eyes, and they’ve returned to their natural color. That’s important, because otherwise I’d be trapped and unable to finish the mission of getting a copy of Brock’s hard drive.
By the time the water turns off, I’ve finished my make-up and at least taken the frizz from my still slightly damp hair. I’m as ready as I can be. I glance at my phone and determine that I have about ten minutes to fight with Creed about me doing this and less to say all I want to say to him. He steps out of the shower, and I’m certain he’s noticed that I’m not hiding from him or his nudity, though I don’t dare look at him, or neither of us are leaving this room anytime soon.
I press my hands to the counter. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Creed.” I rotate to face him just as he’s wrapped a towel around his waist. And, oh my God, he’s breathtakingly gorgeous. He always was, but now—now there’s something different about him. Something intensely masculine.
I step into him and wrap my arms around him. “I was such a bitch. I get that now. You were trying to protect me. You still are.”
His lashes lower, little droplets of water clinging to them, his expression etched in torment. “Yes,” he says, and nothing more.
“You are not evil.”
“You sure as fuck thought so an hour ago.”
“I was hurt. I was really hurt. And confused. But I shouldn’t have been. I know you. I really do. I feel you in ways that I can’t explain, and that was before the mark. And because of that, I know that you will always throw yourself on the sword, and that’s what you did for me and for everyone.”
“You’re better off hating me. That’s the truth. There is nothing good that comes from you being bonded to me.”
“The bonding thing confuses me, and I don’t like parts of it, but I know what I felt for you before it existed. And it didn’t change us. I have so much I want to say to you about that and other things, Creed. You have no idea. I don’t hate you. I never hated you. But right now, I also need to get on that flight.”
His hands come down on my arms. “No. Hard no.”
“Please listen. Please. Don’t protect me to the point of jeopardizing others. We need that hard drive. You did your part. Let me do mine.”