Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“Yes,” I lied.
The corner of his mouth lifted, but his eyes held a darkness. “For such a talented hustler, Ace, you are a bad liar.”
I rolled my eyes, and he tightened his hold on me.
“You’re going to be fine. Nothing will happen to you. Except Maeme might feed you too much, but other than that, you’re good.”
They sure seemed to have a lot of faith in the safety of his grandmother’s house. I didn’t understand that. Why did they think she’d agree to keep me and not let his dad in? Was she not their dad’s mother? Was she their mother’s mom? It didn’t matter. I wasn’t worried about my safety.
“What about you?” I asked as my chest clenched tightly.
They hadn’t said much, but I’d picked up that wherever it was Sebastian had to go, it wasn’t good.
“Are y’all gonna sit over there and whisper the entire fucking flight?” Thatcher drawled from across the cabin of the plane.
Sebastian’s stare hardened as he glared at his brother. “Does it bother you?”
Thatcher picked up a glass of what I assumed was whiskey. “It’s verging on nauseating.”
“Leave them alone,” Wilder told him. “Don’t act like you’re not worse with Capri.”
That was the second time I’d heard Capri mentioned. Was there a female who was actually close to that man? It would be like befriending the Devil. What would a woman who could do that be like?
“I gave you as long as I could. He should thank me for the five days that he got,” Thatcher said.
“You gave me five days? What? You think you could have found me sooner?” Sebastian asked with a touch of amusement in his tone, as if that wasn’t a possibility.
The corner of Thatcher’s lips tugged up just barely as he drank from his glass. “You can’t hide from me. Never could.”
Sebastian’s brows drew together in a frown. “I used no connections to the family. I paid in cash. I covered every fucking base I could to make sure it wasn’t easy to find us. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how the hell Wilder figured out my burner phone number. I even bought that in cash myself. It wasn’t one of ours.”
Thatcher shrugged, looking smug.
“He put a fucking AirTag in the sole of one of your boots,” Wilder said. “Didn’t tell me about it until this morning. After you bought the burner phone and left, he went inside the place, held a knife to the man’s throat, and got the info he needed to trace it.”
Sebastian straightened as he narrowed his eyes at his brother. “You what?!”
Thatcher flicked his eyes in my direction, and I sank in closer to Sebastian. The man disturbed me.
“I saw a familiar glint in your eyes when you … walked out of that room, little brother. One that I knew too well. I expected something like this. To protect you from rash decisions, I had to do something.”
Even though Thatcher seemed detached and, well, frightening, he did care about Sebastian. At least, it sounded as if he did. There were moments though when I’d seen a bone-chilling look in his eyes that made it hard to believe he cared about anything.
“How did you know which shoes I’d wear?” Sebastian shot back at him, sounding annoyed. “Did you see that in my fucking glint too?”
A faint chuckle came from the man as he continued to sip from his glass.
“I’d check the soles of all your shoes,” Wilder replied with a shrug.
Thatcher glanced back at the other man. “And here I thought we were friends.”
Wilder cut his eyes at Sebastian and gave him an amused smirk as he shook his head at the comment, as if Thatcher had no friends and they all knew it.
Sebastian held my face in his hands as he gazed down at me with a look that made my knees weak and my heart race. Knowing he was about to walk away and leave me here to go face some man in Florida that Thatcher felt he needed protection from terrified me. I held on to his forearms as I tried to tell him without words all the things I wanted to say and couldn’t.
That I loved him. I wanted him to stay with me. Not leave.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he assured me. “Maeme will keep you occupied, and no one can get to you here. I swear it. Trust me, Ace. I can’t stand seeing the fear in those pretty eyes.”
He thought I was scared for me. I wasn’t worried about my safety. Not anymore. It was him I wanted to wrap up and hide away. He’d obviously made a grave error when he took me and ran.
“You promise you will come back? The way they were talking on the plane …” I stopped, unable to verbalize it. My throat constricted as my eyes burned.