Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
I shook my head and took another step back before putting my head up and standing my ground. “I don’t answer to you. And I’m not about to give the bastard more money if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I could give a fuck about the money, Dawn. El Diablo won’t either.” He narrowed his eyes, and I knew I was fucking screwed. “It’s more than just money. You could have called your dad and told him you needed more if it was just a matter of him taking what you had. Same with your credit card. You cancel it and have your dad get you a new one.” He shook his head. “No. What else is fuckin’ goin’ on, Dawn?”
All I could do was shake my head. I wasn’t telling him anything, but the look on his face and the cold rage in his eyes made me nearly as afraid of defying him as I was of staying in Kentucky. I trembled under his gaze. The rage. The way he towered over me. It was all too much, reminding me of…
A whimper escaped me, and I took several steps backward until I hit the vanity beside the bathroom.
“Hey, hey, hey. I’m sorry.” Ice raised his hands and took a step backward himself. “I’m not gonna hurt you, honey. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I-I know.” Before, when we were in the parking garage, I’d let out some of my fear, but there was so much more I’d locked inside me and it was in danger of escaping.
He shook his head. “Fuck. I’ve fucked this to shit and back.” Ice took a careful step toward me. I cringed, but it was more reflex than anything else. The man was intimidating, but I’d grown up around intimidating men. It was only my recent experiences coloring my perception of him. I was back in my home territory. With men I was familiar with. Even if I didn’t know Ice as well as the men in Black Reign and Salvation’s Bane, Ice was just like them. They might skirt the law sometimes, but they all had a code of honor they followed. Ice would be no different or my father wouldn’t have sent him after me.
“I’m sorry, Ice. I’m not afraid of you.” I didn’t move away from the counter, but I felt calmer. Just making myself remember who this man was, what he represented, helped to get myself under control.
“I’m coming closer.” He paused a moment before taking a step toward me. Then another. The next thing I knew, he’d wrapped me up in his arms and my world seemed to right itself. “I’m so sorry, honey. Your dad’ll have my balls for scarin’ you like that.”
“Yeah. I’ll make sure to tell him about this first.”
That got a deep chuckle from Ice that vibrated through my whole body. Big as he was, he surrounded me with his warmth and protection. I knew I was a job to him, but this represented the first time I’d felt truly safe in months. Since David had shown his true colors.
“OK, honey. Let’s sit down and you can tell me everything.”
I snorted. “You think that’s happening, but it’s not.”
“Yeah, it is. Because we’ve got hours before we can leave this hotel and I’ve got nothin’ else to do but badger you until you talk.” He picked me up then, carrying me to the bed where he sat us down with his back to the headboard and me sitting across his lap. I tried to move, but he just tightened his hold. “Nope. You’re sittin’ right here until we get all this out. Hear me?”
“You’re not the boss of me, you know.” But I honestly wasn’t in any hurry to move.
“Keep tellin’ yourself that, but I’m about to prove you wrong. I usually get what I want.”
“Arrogant much?”
Again, he chuckled. I’d wanted to be angry at him for his highhandedness but couldn’t. Being in his arms calmed me like nothing else in this world could have. I wasn’t even sure being with my parents would have helped as much as this did. Not because I didn’t trust them or love them. It was just… different.
“Yeah. My brothers at Bones say Arrogant is my middle name. Now. The quicker you get this out, the better you’re gonna feel. Take a deep breath and start from the beginning.”
* * *
Ice
Yep. I was fucking fucked. The reason I was fucking fucked was for several different reasons. First, this woman’s tears and fear had the power to bring me to my knees even quicker than my mother’s or sister’s. Second, if this David character had caused her tears and fear, he was a dead-ass motherfucker. And third? I was a fucking dead man because when El Diablo figured out how much I wanted his daughter, he’d kill me slowly and painfully and I’d take it like a fucking man.