Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 759(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
I watch with pounding agony as she swallows back a sob and tries to hold herself together.
“Woman…”
“Monty and Leo are your family. You will never raise your hand against them again.” Her eyes harden with a fierceness that reminds me why I love her. “Promise me.”
“I promise.” My throat closes.
“I love you.” Her expression wobbles as she hitches the straps on her shoulders and strides toward the stairs.
“You’re not leaving without us.” Leo prowls after her.
We all do.
We chase her through the house and into the misty rain, barking demands at her, shouting over one another, trying to make her see reason.
She keeps walking, eyes straight ahead and swimming in tears. But she doesn’t cry. She doesn’t make a sound.
By the time we reach the dock, reality sets in.
She’s really fucking leaving.
How did this happen?
She betrayed us. And now she’s leaving us?
Monty looks as stunned as I am. At least he has enough sense to remember her safety.
“You’re taking guards.” He directs four of them to board her cruiser.
“Yeah. I am.” She meets his eyes, and something achy and lovesick passes between them.
That. That right there is why I want her away from him.
He’ll steal her. He’s been trying to steal her for five months.
She climbs into her boat and frees the lines.
“Explain this to me.” Leo grips the taffrail as if he can stop the cruiser from leaving the dock. “He kissed you. Why are you punishing us for it?”
“I’m not punishing you. I’m punishing myself.” Dewy rain clings to her face as she starts the engine.
“Why?” The heat of his frantic fury radiates off him as he yells at her over the motor. “What do you want?”
“I want the impossible.” Her shoulders slump, and her eyes pool with tears. “I’m sorry.”
She steers the cruiser into the drizzling fog, her four guards standing at attention around her.
Rain-soaked and numb, I watch her go, willing her to look back.
She doesn’t.
Too soon, she fades into the dark mist. Gone.
In the stillness, the silence of her absence settles over the island, and I know that the bond among us all has been irrevocably shattered.
“Let’s go.” Leo boards one of our yachts.
Yachts that Monty gave us.
Monty stands alone in the gloom, wearing only a pair of sweatpants, feet bare, seemingly impervious to the cold night. But he’s not bulletproof.
In the silent language of his remote expression, there’s a complexity that affects me, a deep vulnerability he tries to conceal behind a veneer of stoicism. So many layers make up the man I’ve come to know as my brother, and right now, I know he’s breaking inside.
He loves her, possibly as much as I do, and he’s already lost her once.
Montgomery Strakh is a strong and powerful man, but I don’t think he can survive without Frankie.
Our eyes connect, and I find something there I don’t expect. Love. Concern. For Leo and me.
He blinks and quickly looks away to direct more guards to go with us.
Then he pivots and stalks back to the house.
Leo and I could stay. Monty’s not making us leave. But none of us want Frankie out there alone.
Sending guards with her isn’t enough.
Monty knows I’ll keep an eye on her. Stalk her. It’s what I do.
As Leo and I leave the island behind, the future feels more uncertain than ever.
49
Frankie
—
For the next week, I pick up every shift available and throw myself into work.
When I’m not doing rounds in the trauma unit, I run on the treadmill in the PT wing, spill my guts to Rhett in his office, or hole up in the on-call room, reading everything I can find on Pushkin and his poems.
I’m scared to leave the hospital, even with my bodyguards. So I don’t.
I traded one prison for another, and if I don’t keep busy, I’ll curl up in the corner and sob until I break.
Leaving my entire world on that dock felt so brave.
And self-condemning.
It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But what choice did I have?
If I stayed with Monty, it would’ve meant choosing him. If I went with Leo and Kody, it would’ve meant choosing them. Either option would’ve destroyed the fragile bond among the men I love.
My betrayal may have already done that.
I never intended to fall back in love with Monty.
So here I am, sitting on the bottom bunk in the tiny on-call room, hugging my knees to my chest, and fighting back tears for the hundredth time today.
I don’t want to be alone. But more than that, I don’t want them to be alone. I want them to be together.
So much of their lives has been taken from them. I can’t fix our cracked past. But I can learn from it and help them create a better future. I can trust that they’ll find their way back to one another.