Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
I checked around, then made a mad dash to the front door and out of the building.
I was about to head back to the subway, to go home, take a hot shower to chase off the chill, get something to eat, when the front door of the apartment building flew open.
I panicked, thinking it was Kyle, that I was found out.
I ducked into the coffee shop next door and watched, my heart in a vice.
But it wasn’t Kyle.
Or that other guy from my apartment.
No.
No.
It was Jake.
Jake was walking out of the building.
No handcuffs, no tape, no bruises, no blood.
No nothing.
“No,” I gasped, falling deeper into the shop as he moved to the end of the sidewalk, waiting for a few cars to pass before jogging casually across the street.
No no no no no.
This… this couldn’t be happening.
How was Jake walking around freely? Out of the building where Kyle was clearly living?
The answer came to me as soon as the question formed, though.
My brother had never been a prisoner.
He hadn’t been chained to a chair and tortured by my ex.
He was working with him.
He was scheming against me.
“Ah, tables are for customers only,” a voice called.
I hadn’t even been aware of dropping down into a seat. It wasn’t surprising, though. I felt like my legs weren’t working. I felt like the world had just fallen out from under me.
All of these weeks that I’d been sick with worry, not sleeping, not eating, half-crazed with my fear and worry about Kyle having my brother… and he was in on it.
“Ma’am?”
“Ah, large coffee, please,” I said, forcing myself to stand, to walk over to the counter, handing over some of my stolen cash.
Cash I’d stolen from Rico.
Pain stabbed at my heart.
I’d been fucking over Rico—good, kind, Rico—for weeks because I thought it was my only choice. That if Rico understood, he would have empathy for my situation.
Only to find out that I had no good reason at all.
A small sob escaped me, making the barista’s head pop up, looking over at me with a mix of confusion and concern.
I couldn’t blame her.
I probably looked a little crazed right then.
I certainly felt crazed.
My mind was shooting off in a million directions.
I was sure I was pale, my eyes huge, my aura as frantic as my heartbeat was against my ribcage.
“Here you go,” she called, passing me the coffee with a look that I swear screamed Now please leave.
I felt empathy for her, having been that girl behind a counter late at night with some crazy person sharing your space.
So I took my coffee and made my way outside.
After a quick glance around to make sure Kyle and Jake were nowhere to be seen, I walked on numb legs back toward the subway.
I handed off my coffee to an unhoused man huddled in a jacket and small pile of blankets, then dropped down into an empty seat.
My phone popped out of the pocket and I reached for it, swiping to unlock it out of habit.
There was a little envelope in my top notification bar.
An email.
Happy to do anything other than fall deeper into a hole about the clusterfuck of a situation I was in, I swiped over to my inbox.
There, right at the top, was an email from a familiar address.
BobbyxBoobies.
Because, you know, he was an adult and everything.
The preview text had my pulse speeding up again, had a sweat breaking out across my skin despite the cold.
You wanted me to email you if I saw Jake.
With a shaky breath, I opened the email, finding a long-winded message from Bobby telling me that he’d seen Jake earlier, that he’d stopped by to pay his overdue rent, that he’d picked up some of his stuff and said he was working on a new ‘business venture’ and would be out of touch for a bit.
Me.
I was the new business venture.
A pawn for him and Kyle. Again.
Always, always their fool.
I didn’t realize a growl had actually escaped me until the woman seated across from me wrapped an arm protectively around her son who was distracted by her cell phone in his hands.
I closed out my inbox then turned off my phone, spending the rest of the ride staring out the window, seeing nothing, so overwhelmed with conflicting emotions that I started to go blessedly numb.
By the time I made it back to my apartment and went through the motions of feeding Evander, I had battled back the worst of the betrayal.
In its wake was just pure, undiluted, justified rage.
It wasn’t bad enough that those two men had conspired against me, had tricked me, had manipulated me in the worst way possible. But they’d taken something from me that I’d never thought I would ever find.
They’d taken Rico from me.
And any chance we could have at happiness.
That was the worst part.