Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Finn exhales. “Look, come and see for yourself, okay. And decide from there. Meet me at the garage tomorrow night, I’ll take you down, you can see him fight, you can see...how fuckin’ broken he is, and maybe then you might change your mind. Can you at least give me that?”
“You want me to watch him fight?” I gasp.
“Yeah, I want you to see him raw, I want you to see everything he is and has done...because of how much he loves you.”
“You’re making me feel guilty...”
He shakes his head quickly. “Not what I’m trying to do, but you’re the only chance we have. Please, Ellie, will you come and watch, just give me that. If you’re terrified and don’t want a bar of it, I won’t push you anymore. I’d never put you in danger, I just...please? You have to see.”
I take a shaky breath, and stare at him. I kind of feel guilted into it, and yet, at the same time, I feel like it’s the least I can do. After all, they’re all keeping me safe, I can at the very least, give them something back.
“Okay, I’ll meet you there.”
Finn nods. “Thank you, I really appreciate it.”
I nod, and turn.
Finn calls out my name.
I turn and glance at him.
“I really missed you, Ellie.”
And that hits me like a damned sledgehammer to the heart.
It feels like I’m the glue that binds all these boys together, like I was the only thing holding them as one.
And it makes me even more frustrated that I can’t remember.
Because now...now I want to remember.
So I can stick their broken pieces back together.
~*~*~*~
THEN – SLATER
“Happy Birthday, Ellie!” Damon grins. “The big eighteen, how does it feel?”
Ellie grins, her hair flowing in thick curls around her shoulders.
“It feels pretty damned good.”
“We got you something,” Finn says, stepping forward. “Slater picked it. Although I’m not supposed to tell you that, because you’re not supposed to know just how much he likes you.”
I shoot Finn a look, and he throws me a grin.
Finn doesn’t smile a lot.
But since Ellie, he’s smiling so much more.
And it’s so damned good to see, because maybe she’s just what he needs, something to bring the light back into his world.
Ellie smiles, and her eyes flash to mine. Her cheeks get red. They’ve been doing that a fuck of a lot lately when she looks at me. And things are a whole lot harder now I know she’s eighteen. Now I know I can have her. But fuck, I know I have to stay away. I’m no good for her, she’s better off with Damon, or Finn.
But the thought of that nearly sends me into a rage.
“You picked this?” she asks me.
I shrug. “All of us did, open it.”
She opens the box Damon placed in her hands, and stares for a while, for a long while. She just looks at the inside of the box. And then, she starts to cry. She blinks a few times, and then starts crying even more.
“Shit,” Damon says, “You made her cry Slater.”
“I didn’t make her cry,” I mutter. “Fuck.”
“Someone do something,” Finn sounds panicked.
“For the love of god, you men have no fuckin’ idea how to handle women,” Lincoln says, strolling into the room. He walks right over, and jerks Ellie into his arms, giving her a big hug. “Happy birthday, sweetheart. You’re part of the family now. We don’t know what we’d do without you.”
She hangs onto Lincoln, and a funny jealous feeling burns in my chest, but I shove it away. She’s too young for me. She deserves better.
“Thank you so much,” she says, pulling away from Lincoln and swiping at her eyes, and then she pulls out the necklace that I picked for her, and hands it to me, fingers outstretched, wanting me to put it on.
I walk over, heart racing, and she turns, lifting her hair, sending a waft of that fuckin’ incredible smell my way. Honey, and vanilla, and her own unique scent. I reach around in front of her, and then bring the necklace around her neck, clipping it up. I let my fingers graze her skin as I do, and I don’t miss how it prickles beneath my touch. Fuck. I have to get out of here, or I’m going to do something I’ll regret.
“Happy Birthday, darlin’,” I say, stepping back.
She turns, reaching down and picking up the pendant in her hand, cradling it and staring at it. “What does it mean?”
I picked a string of flowers, all intertwined, winding down in a long stem down her neck, almost dipping into her cleavage. That part was accidental, though I don’t regret it now. There are five flowers.
“Five flowers, all joined. You figure it out.”
I turn and face Lincoln, and Ellie’s soft voice fills my ears. “We’re family now, Slater Knight. I think that’s what it means.”