Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“You’re trying to help me?” When I nod, he laughs. “Then why did you fuck my girl? Why steal the only sliver of hope I had for a good life?”
The angst in his tone makes me feel like a dog, but it won’t stop me from standing up for myself as I should have a decade ago. “I didn’t know she was your girl then.” It seems as if tonight is the night for purging when I add, “I’m not even sure she’s your girl now.”
Knox glares at me as if he hates me. “Because you’re an expert on relationships?”
“Because I remember Cecile’s tears when she begged you to stop telling everyone you had slept together. You almost ruined her, Knox. Her father sent her to boarding school.”
“Because she was whoring herself out!” he shouts, his voice reverberating. “Just like Nicole did when you came waltzing back into town like you owned the place.” He bangs his fist on the desk. “She was my girl. I saw her first, and then you went and fucking ruined everything good about her. I loved her… I still fucking do, but you stole her from me. You stole her from your best friend.”
“That wasn’t my intention. I would have never touched her if I had known how you felt.” When he hears my lie as readily as I do, I continue to try to pull the wool over his eyes. “Why do you think I fought so hard to stay away from her?”
“You say that like there’s a possibility she’d pick you over me.” With his ego beaten, he comes out swinging. “She doesn’t want you, Laken. Not now or back then. She merely wanted to get back at me for the pregnancy scare.”
My words are strained through a stiff jaw. “How the fuck could that be when you said she didn’t know about that the night we hooked up?”
I don’t mention this morning. Although I want to rub something more potent than salt into Knox’s wounds, I’m not a man who airs his dirty laundry for the world to see.
I also won’t talk badly about Nicole like that. If she wants Knox to know we hooked up more than once, she can tell him.
“I lied when I told you she was clueless.” He looks me dead set in the eyes. “But that shouldn’t shock you, should it? That’s all I am to you. One lie after another.”
“I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“I saw the disgust on your face when you walked in on Candy sucking my dick.” He scrubs at his jaw before spitting out words like venom. “Or was it hope that you’ll have the chance to fuck my girl again when she exacts her revenge on the first perv she finds?” He rubs his hands together like he found a pot of gold under the rainbow. “That’s not a bad idea. Force you together and get another guaranteed top-ten hit. With how fast a rival snatched up the first song you co-wrote, you’ll pay back the fifty K you owe me in no time.” His eyes are mocking when he locks them with mine. “What do you say, Laken? Want to take my whore for another ride?”
I’m over his desk and pummeling my fist into his face before any words past whore slip from his mouth. “Shut your fucking mouth before I force it to be wired shut.”
I hit him for the second time and am swinging for the third, when my brother’s frantic plea fills my ear. “Stop, Laken. Stop! We’re family. We’re meant to hug each other. We’re not meant to hurt each other.” He wraps his arms around me and yanks me back just as Nicole, Dallas, and a handful of the crew return from the rooftop. “I don’t want to lose my family. I don’t want to go through that again.”
The joy Nicole’s face hasn’t been without for a second today is wiped clean when River’s sobs reach her ears at the same time her eyes find Knox sprawled on the floor, bleeding and bruised.
Her words are slow and confused. “What’s going on?”
“This maniac attacked me.” As Knox wipes at the smear of blood dribbling from his brow, he stands. “I came down to make sure everything was ready for you to call it a night, and I found him rummaging through my office drawers.”
“You’re a fucking liar.”
He adjusts his position to block me from Nicole’s view. “He’s crazy, Nicole. Deranged. He attacked me without warning.”
I portray the man he’s making out I am when he gets within touching distance of Nicole. My trust is hellishly low, so I don’t want him anywhere near her. “If you touch a single hair on her head, I will bury you where you stand.”
Knox doesn’t flinch at the callousness of my tone because he is the only person in the world who knows for certain I am not a murderer.