Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
The words, although harsh, made my heart swell.
This was going to be bad, I just knew it. But I couldn’t find it in me to care at that moment in time. Truth was here, his hand resting gently on my head, and my headache was dissipating.
And with the headache no longer hammering out a staccato in my brain, I found myself extremely tired.
“You pressed my button,” I accused.
Truth didn’t even look the least bit sorry.
“You need to rest.”
“I need to talk to you,” I countered.
My eyes were drifting closed of their own volition, but the moment his mouth pressed against mine, they peeled open.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” he whispered, pushing back a stray strand of hair.
“For loving me.”
“How do you know I love you?” His grin was warm.
I lifted my good hand—the one that wasn’t throbbing in time with the beat of my heart—and placed it on his cheek.
“I saw your face today,” I told him.
His grin disappeared.
“Only a man who loves a woman looks that devastated at the sight you saw today.”
I didn’t actually see what he saw, but I could imagine.
At first, I’d thought his dismay had been about the car, but I quickly realized differently the moment he bellowed my name.
And when his hand touched mine, I knew that I loved him just as much as he loved me.
And even now, I could see the love shining in his eyes.
“I love you back, you know,” I told him. “Have for a while now.”
He placed a single kiss on the tip of my nose, and I let my eyes fall closed once again.
Then I was dead to the world and missing all the good stuff.
Chapter 22
‘Cause Satan told me so isn’t a good excuse when you have to explain to your partner why you did something.
-Fact of Life
Truth
The moment she fell asleep, I studied her face, wondering if I was making the wrong decision by staying with her.
I was fairly sure, however, that it wouldn’t matter if I left her for her protection at this point. Elais Beckett knew what she meant to me, and he’d do whatever he had to do to kill her.
He may have missed her today, but he’d gotten me anyway. He now knew my weakness, and I’d given that to him without even realizing I’d done it.
I’d been in the middle of an argument with my aunt, cousin, and father when I’d seen my car careen past us out of the corner of my eye.
I’d turned just in time to see my car— with my sister and my woman inside—hit the dumpster.
My scream of agony had forced the limo driver to pull over, and the moment we’d slowed enough for me to bail out, I had.
I’d sprinted toward the car, my heart in my throat.
By the time I’d finally arrived, my car had been surrounded.
My sister had been standing beside the wrecked car, a small cut on her forehead from what I assumed was glass.
Knowing instinctively that she was okay, I’d turned my attention to my woman, only to see a bullet hole through the windshield where her face would be.
Kettle had been leaning into the car, his big body blocking my view; I hadn’t realized that she was okay at the time I’d called her name.
Agony and heartache had laced my words, and I knew everyone around me could tell how much she’d meant to me in that moment.
And then Kettle had moved and I’d seen her.
I’d seen the blood on her face.
I’d seen the agony etched over her face as pain tore through her.
What I hadn’t seen, thank God, was a bullet hole.
The next two hours had been a blur of activity as my fellow Dixie Wardens had rallied around me, making sure that my woman had all the care that she could and would need.
Now, here I sat, finally watching her sleep peacefully, wondering if I was doing the right thing.
“You’re doing the right thing.”
I looked up to find Ghost standing there.
“How do you know?” I asked, my voice thick with what I realized were tears.
I hadn’t cried in five years—since I’d found out that I’d killed not just one innocent, but many innocents—and I realized that this was way worse than that.
Sure, I’d fucked up by putting those men down years ago, and I would always live with that black mark on my soul.
But this, knowing that I’d put Verity in the crosshairs of a madman over something I’d done was enough to kill me.
“Because if you were wrong, if your decision was wrong, you wouldn’t be wondering if you were doing the right thing,” he explained. “If there was one thing I could wish for right now, it’d be to have my life back. To rewind to five years ago when my daughter was a baby, and my wife had no clue what kind of a man she’d married.”