Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Yeah, I got fucked–in more ways than one–by Cody McIntire because he’d bet with his friend that I could fall in love with him in less than a week.
That was the truth and plenty for us to rant over for a long, long time. It didn’t even cover the shifter angle. The mind wiping thing. Any of that.
Because Cody was a flipping shifter. He chased his prey. I knew that firsthand. Since I ran, I figured his wolf would make him come after me. I couldn’t have that. Not now. God, not ever.
I closed my eyes and flopped back against the headrest. I’d driven around aimlessly, thinking. Fuming. Proverbially kicking my own ass for my stupidity. The tears had stopped pretty fast since I couldn’t see the road, and the last thing I wanted was for Dad to pull me over. Since he was working the night shift, it was a possibility.
Knowing I’d run out of gas sooner or later, I went to the one place Cody wouldn’t dare barge in. Dad’s.
The garage door slid closed behind me, only the overhead light illuminating the space.
This was the WORST walk of shame. Ever. Falling for a guy my dad warned me about. I’d tossed his expertise on the topic right in his face. Now I’d get the “I told you so” look for months. Or a pity stare. I didn’t know which was worse.
And what would I tell Nana?
At least I had a reprieve for the night.
I grabbed my purse and climbed from my car, went inside through the laundry room and into the kitchen. Since the above-the-stove light was on, I didn’t turn any others on. This was home. Where I grew up. Where everything was familiar.
Yet somehow in the past few days, it seemed… different.
The stupid magnets were still on the fridge. Dad’s coffee mug was upside down in the drying rack like usual. It was me that had changed.
Cody had changed me. He’d made me see that I shouldn’t compromise on what I wanted. That I was worth more than any measly relationship offerings Matt or Ethan or some other guy might offer. I deserved it all.
I thought it was with Cody.
But no. I was just a stupid kid.
The tears began again, and I leaned against the counter until the worst of them stopped. It was time to go to bed. Cry myself to sleep. I walked into the living room to head to my room.
“Wondered how long you were going to cry for.”
I jumped a foot and screamed.
“Jesus, women are a mess.”
It wasn’t Cody. It wasn’t Dad. It was… I didn’t know who it was.
But he was sitting in Dad’s recliner with a gun in his hand. And it was aimed at me.
28
RILEY
My skin prickled from adrenaline. My heart rate was at stroke point. I stood frozen, one foot in front of the other as if I’d been hit by a stun gun. “Who….who…who’re you?”
He reached out and flicked on the reading lamp.
The light made me blink, but also made the man, and the gun he held, clearer.
I’d never seen him before. I couldn’t tell his height because he was lounging–very comfortably–in the recliner, but he was big. Perhaps the same size as Dad but wiry. Dark hair fell in lanky clumps to his chin. Brown eyes. Sallow cheeks. A mustache. A tattoo peeked out from the collar of his white t-shirt dedicated to a vintage heavy metal band. He wore jeans and sturdy work boots.
And an evil look that raked up and down my body.
“You must be the daughter. Got enough pictures of you on the walls.”
That look? It turned to something else. Seedy and gross.
I might’ve been drugged and kidnapped by Cody. Tied to a bed. I’d been freaked, sure. But nothing like this.
He was going to do bad things to me and use that gun.
“Even better.”
I swallowed hard, but my mouth was so dry it hurt.
“You want to know who I am, sweetheart?”
Did I? I wanted to hit rewind on the past few minutes and be in my car driving around town. Anywhere but here.
I nodded because I figured that was what he wanted.
“Neil Kobchek.”
I blinked. His name meant nothing to me.
He huffed. “Yeah, your daddy didn’t tell you about my brother, did he?”
I took a step back when he rocked forward in the recliner and stood. Loomed over me. I retreated again.
“Nope. Stay right there.”
As if I was going to run when he had a gun! Would he chase like Cody had?
Cody. I needed him right now. Hell, I needed the entire police force.
“My brother’s the one he put away for twenty years.”
Oh. Oh.
The trial in Bozeman. The shitshow he mentioned.
“I’m… sorry your brother is in jail.” My voice warbled. I wasn’t sorry. If he was convicted and spending two decades in prison, then he must’ve done something pretty bad. Like holding someone at gunpoint in their home. Why wasn’t this guy also in jail?