Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
At the situation?
I’m not sure.
I’ve never seen this look on a man before.
Not even on Miles McAllister’s face.
I want to ask him what’s wrong, what I can do to help…
But something stops me.
Because looking at him right now—with that almost cruel and menacing look upon his face—I’m not sure anyone is safe here.
Anyone except me.
Something in his eyes tells me without words that he would do anything for me.
That scares me more than anything else.
I don’t want Falcon going down again because of me. He claims he’s innocent of the manslaughter charge, and I believe him.
I believe him because I believe in him. He’s a good man at heart. A good man who believes in the law, who knows right from wrong.
The problem is? He’s lost his belief in something very important.
He’s lost his belief in humankind.
I’ve been there, and I worked hard to get myself out of that mindset.
I can’t afford to be dragged back down into it by Falcon.
Except I already know I’ll follow Falcon anywhere.
I’m not sure what I feel for him can be called love. Love is almost too tame a word. Love isn’t supposed to hurt, but what I feel for Falcon does hurt. It’s a love so harsh and powerful that it guts me.
And not necessarily in a good way.
But not in a bad way either.
“Savannah?”
I jerk at Kelly’s voice. “Yeah?”
“You’re kind of staring into space, honey. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine.” I take a seat at the table. “Please, sit down everyone. It’s basic. Steaks and potatoes and broccoli. We have ice cream for dessert.”
“Sounds great,” Leif says.
Falcon doesn’t say anything. Why should he? He was with me when we were at the grocery store. He knows what we’re having.
I pick up the plate full of steaks and pass it first to Kelly. Once all our plates are full, we begin to eat.
So quiet, and so strange.
I’m still not feeling hungry, but the food tastes oddly good. Nourishing. Strengthening.
“So…” Leif finally says. “I guess I’m the loser.”
“Loser for what?” Kelly asks.
“We’re playing the silent game, right? First one to talk loses?”
She smiles at him.
“Just not much to say,” Falcon says.
I nod. “I agree. The past couple of days are still hard for me to process. It’s like they weren’t real.”
“They’re real all right, Vannah.” His gaze lingers on me.. “I swear to God no one will ever harm you.”
His words are raw and deep, and they cut into me, but not in a bad way.
Because I know I would do anything for him as well. Falcon Bellamy, ex-con, my parolee, and damn…
It may not be love. Love is pretty, sweet, nice. This isn’t any of those things. It’s something much deeper and more profound.
I’m in…
Love is the only word I know.
What else do you call the combination of lust and need and desire and passion bordering on obsession?
The only word available is love.
But it’s so much more than that.
Miles McAllister once told me he loved me.
I didn’t believe him, and I know now I was right not to.
Five years earlier…
“I’ve waited long enough for you, Savannah,” Miles says.
“I won’t. I won’t be married off.”
“That has no bearing on the issue. My father and your father made a deal.”
“This is the United States of America. You can’t force a person into marriage here. It’s not legal.”
Miles rolls his eyes. “You’re so naïve, Savannah.”
I glare at him. “Why do you want someone who doesn’t want you?”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with whether I want you or not. It’s what’s best for my family and yours. Besides…I…love you.”
The word “love” catches in his throat. It’s a damned lie, and we both know it.
From the conversation we’re having, we should be alone.
But we’re not.
My father, Vincent Gallo, sits next to me. Across from me sits Miles, and next to him, his father, Declan McAllister.
We both have attorneys sitting with us as well.
“We agreed to allow your daughter to finish college, Mr. Gallo,” the attorney for the McAllisters says. “Time’s up.”
“The young lady speaks correctly,” our attorney says. “We can’t force this marriage.”
“Not under any law in the United States or the state of Texas,” the other attorney says. “You know damned well, as I do, that we’re not dealing with those laws right now.”
Our attorney stays silent.
My father turns to me. “Savannah, you knew, when we allowed you to go to college, that you were expected to marry Miles when you were done.”
“I’m not a commodity, Daddy. I’m a young woman.”
“You are. But your mother was married off to me at eighteen. We hadn’t even met at the time.”
I shake my head. “I’ve heard the story a thousand times, Daddy. These things shouldn’t happen. They’re not supposed to happen.”
“We live in our own world, Savannah. You know that.”
How well I know that. This world took my brother from me, and I want no part of it.