Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
“Nobody drunk should ever be behind the wheel, especially not if they’re fucked up,” Kam says, as if he can read my mind. He stares into the distance and I watch the memories go through his eyes as he takes another sip from his bottle.
Nerves have me on edge. “You all right?” I ask him.
“I’ve just been thinking,” he answers.
“About what?”
“Just what she’s been through.” Kam was the one to witness it all firsthand.
“It wasn’t just after James died,” he says after a while, abruptly, like he snapped back to bonding with me. Or like this is too heavy for him to keep inside anymore. “She had a difficult life.”
I think about all the information Cade gave me. All those files.
Slowly, I pull out a chair at the table and take a seat with him.
I take a moment to study him. He came here with alcohol in his jacket pocket, and he’s been talking openly about her rough childhood. I don’t know what has him so upset, but maybe if I just listen, he’ll feel like elaborating.
“Her childhood wasn’t her fault,” he says and then finishes the bottle.
But what if Kam thinks he has some responsibility for that? If he blames himself for things that happened to her, then it would explain how he’s behaving right now. If he was involved in how things played out for her, even more so.
I’m not sure how to press him for details. I haven’t worked with Kam like that. Taking a deep breath, I settle on acknowledging the obvious.
“From what I’ve heard, it was pretty rough.”
“‘Pretty rough’ is putting it mildly,” he comments. I wonder if he’s only telling me this because he knows that I’m looking into it.
“You know what happened to her mom?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say, searching his gaze. “Is there something else you want to tell me about that? Maybe something I don’t know?”
Kam looks at me for a long, long time. Too long of a moment passes and then he runs a hand down his face. “No,” he says finally. “I just wanted to talk. I just wanted to ask you about the cameras.”
It already seems like a year ago that he asked me about those cameras. That was his pretense for showing up. It barely lasted five minutes.
“You sure?” I question.
He hesitates for a beat. “Yeah. Will you give me a heads-up first next time you plan to change something major? Just so I know?”
Nodding, I tell him, “I can do that.”
“I think I shouldn’t have had that last drink,” he mutters while rubbing the back of his head.
“You want a ride back home?” I offer and he stares at me for a long moment once again.
Kam stands up from his seat at the table, answering “no” and tucks the empty bottle back into his jacket pocket. He glances toward the staircase. “I’m going to head out. Tell Ella I said hi.”
ELLA
The hum of the engine and the brisk wind are more relaxing than I could have imagined. I’ve been down on this road so many times, but I’ve never just driven. With the window rolled down, the wind rushes between my fingers and the hint of a smile graces my lips. We round another corner of the long, winding road of the mountain. Nothing but gorgeous foliage and mountainscapes to see.
“You were right. It is a nice drive.”
“I like the sound of you telling me I’m right,” Z comments, twisting his strong hands on the leather steering wheel.
He glances at me with a wicked look in his eyes and a cocky grin.
We’re both dressed casually. In jeans and T-shirts, like a normal couple on a normal day. Even still, he’s devilishly handsome with that perfect smile and rough stubble.
For a moment I’m lost in him and then I glance back, a streak of black catching my eye and I see the car behind us. The Firm is still monitoring every move we make.
I don’t feel the sinking dread that I used to knowing that I wasn’t allowed to be alone. There’s a bit of peace to it now, but sometimes I do just want to be alone with Zander.
It’s been two solid weeks of us acting like a normal couple. Maybe acting isn’t the right word, but I know we’re pretending that the therapy sessions, meetings and constant PR calls are normal. There was an emergency hearing from the judge as well, given that our relationship is now public. That gave Kam and Cade a few gray hairs each.
More articles have come out and Kam suggested a PR move. This drive is potentially one of them. He said paparazzi got a heads-up that we’ll be out on a twilight drive along the mountainside. Kam said the magazines catching images of me and Zander doing “normal things” would be good for public peace of mind and ease any worries or concerns that I’m unwell or that our relationship is problematic.