Total pages in book: 14
Estimated words: 13239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 66(@200wpm)___ 53(@250wpm)___ 44(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 13239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 66(@200wpm)___ 53(@250wpm)___ 44(@300wpm)
When I’m satisfied and convinced he’s not going anywhere, I spin around to face Raven, grab the back of her neck, and slam her to my chest.
My jaw slackens, and my body relaxes. The raw fear I felt when I thought I was about to lose her still has my blood pumping furiously. But she’s here in my arms. Safe. Scared as shit but safe. And that’s all that matters.
“What the hell is this?!” A feminine voice bellows from behind me. Then, sharp claws dig into my back to clutch my shirt and pull me. She doesn’t have the strength to make me move, but I do it anyway. I expected this. Not now. Not today. But I knew Raven and I will face her mother’s wrath eventually. Maybe my father’s too.
Don’t care for either of them. My priority is Raven. Her safety. Her happiness. Her pleasure.
Anyone she doesn’t like is an instant enemy of mine. Right now, she’s not looking at her mother with fear or nervousness, both of which I expect. No. She’s standing straight and tilting her chin almost defiantly.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Raven! Explain this to me. Why was he holding you like…like…”
“Like he’s fucking me?”
“Raven! Oh my god.”
Her mother darts her eyes around like it’s scandalous to hear a grown woman say those words. It doesn’t escape my notice that she’s more bothered by the way Raven and I held each other, not the fact that her daughter almost fell victim to a serial killer.
“Because I am.”
Color drains from her mother’s face, and she gives us a slow, disbelieving head shake. She holds a hand up, her chest hitching. “What is going on? I leave you for a few days by yourself and you’re already sleeping with your stepbrother? How could you embarrass me like this? Did you ever stop to think about anyone except yourself?”
“No, Mom. For the first time in my life, I actually thought of myself first. No, I didn’t think of you the same way you never thought about me, the same way your life revolved around yourself and nobody else. You’re the one who decided to uproot me and the job I worked so hard to land. You didn’t hear anything from me, did you? Then, you dropped me off at Rowan’s home.”
“S-so what? This is your way of rebelling? I don’t know what has gotten into you. You were never like this!”
“How would you know, Mom? It’s not like you ever tried to get to know your own daughter. You never asked me what I wanted, but I had to live with whatever consequences you suffered because of your choices. You always treat me like trash. Did I deserve that treatment just because I looked like my biological father?”
Her mother inhales sharply, hands pressing against her throat and staggering back. “I-I never said that.”
“Not in front of me, no. But I heard you plenty. I heard the disgust in your voice when you told your friends how much it cost to raise the daughter you never wanted, how much you hated sitting across from me at the dining table and being reminded of how much of a deadbeat my dad was, and how much happier you’d be if you didn’t have me.”
Her mother’s mouth opens but no word forms. Even I’m rendered speechless. There’s so much hurt in Raven’s voice that irritation surges through me at how she was forced to live like that, suffer like that.
I don’t even notice my father until he steps forward, holds both of her mother’s shoulders and lightly maneuvers her to go back to his car. He hands her a handkerchief, and she blows her nose on it.
He doesn’t even look at me so maybe he shares her sentiments. Don’t know. Don’t give a damn.
Raven stands with her fists clenched on her sides, but when our parents are out of view, she turns around and burrows her face in my chest, her small body wracked with sobs.
I’ve been in lots of fights when I was younger. Some of them with boys my size, others with men bigger than me. I’ve had my fair share of bloody knuckles, bruised ribs, cut lips, and whatever.
But watching Raven like this is a different kind of pain.
Like if someone comes from out of nowhere and asks me to gnaw on my limbs, I’ll do that as long as I never hear her cry like this ever again. It’s like a bolt of heat spearing through me, burning me from the inside.
No. She’ll be with me, and I’ll make damned sure she never hurts ever again. If she does, all cosmic hell will break loose.
6
RAVEN
Every night, I think, I love him so much.
Then, morning comes and I’m like, I love him more today than yesterday.
I don’t know if it’s possible to die from being so in love, but I’ll take my chances. After all, Rowan has made me happy and feel safer than anyone ever has.