Series: The Rossi Crime Family Series by J.L. Beck
Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 80475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Are you okay?” Her sweet voice reaches my ear.
“I am now.” I loosen my grip on her just enough so she can look up and I can see her face. “What are you doing here? How did you even get here?”
“I heard Ivan talking to you on the phone and then he jumped up and told me he was coming here so I made him take me.” I follow her gaze as she looks around and only then do I notice that Mac, Dev, and Ivan are standing beside us.
I don’t know how long we’ve been standing in the center of the room like this, but I notice that a lot of people have cleared out of the basement already so I’m assuming it’s been a few minutes.
Ivan is staring daggers of ice through me, with his arms folded over his chest and a furious scowl on his face.
“I’m sorry.” Ivan’s eyebrows shoot up at my apology.
“You are?” He asks, obviously dumbfounded. I don’t know what exactly he was expecting...a snotty remark, an inappropriate joke or maybe just a cold shoulder. Any one of those would have been more likely than an apology if I’m being honest.
“Yes, I’m sorry…and not just for tonight.”
Then Ivan does something that shocks me just as much as I’ve must just shocked him. He closes the distance between us and throws his arms around me, engulfing me in a bearhug…well, engulfing us in a bearhug. There is no way I’m letting Sophie out of my arms so I hold her to my body with one arm and hug my brother back with the other.
“Don’t do shit like that again,” he warns me before releasing us.
“Come on, let me check you out in the locker room,” Mac tells me. “I’m pretty sure you’ll need some stitches.”
“I’m fine, I just want to get out of here.” Sophie’s arms tighten around my waist at my words.
“I want to come home with you,” she says in a pleading voice, as if there was a chance in the world I would have any rejection to that. I gaze down at her. Her big blue eyes are just as beautiful as always. Guilt and regret slam into me.
While I’m thrilled to see her and hold her in my arms, I'm reminded of the way I hurt her. In my mind I can still see the fear I struck in her. I can still see myself shaking her tiny body.
“Come on, let's get you stitched up.” Mac ushers us toward the locker room and I release Sophie and instead curve an arm around her, pulling her into my side.
“I’ll hold your hand if you’re scared of the needle,” Sophie murmurs, barely able to contain her giggling. Fuck, I’ve missed that so much.
Her laugh, her smile, the way she looks as she falls apart on my cock...I’ve missed every single little detail about her down to the way she simply fits perfectly into all my broken pieces.
“How about we all go to my place. Mac you can check me out at the house, okay?” I need to get out of here especially with Sophie being here now. I don’t want her to have to be exposed to this kind of violence again.
“Alright then, let’s go,” Mac agrees, and we head toward the main doors. My head hurts like hell, my muscles ache and I’m just overall exhausted. And yet, this is the happiest I have been in a long time. Not only am I finally free from the pills but I have my Sophie back at my side.
As we walk out of the building, I cling onto her, just as hard as she is clinging on to me and I can’t believe I ever let her walk away. She belongs to me...in my arms, in my life, in my bed. She is mine and I won’t ever do anything to risk losing her again.
I fucked up before. I risked it all for money, for fighting but I won’t risk anything over Sophie again. From here on out I’m going to make her damn proud...
Chapter Twelve
Sophie
I can’t believe how close I came to losing him today. Seeing him on his knees in that ring, bloodied and beaten it killed me. It brought tears to my eyes knowing he was so close to giving up. I could see the it on his face, he was done, done trying, done crying. Apart of me wants to slap him for being so careless well the other part of me wants to hug him until I piece all his broken parts back together again. As we walk out of the warehouse the cool night time air hits my face.
I suck in a greedy breath of air...thankful to be out of that smelly, stuffy basement. Roman has his arm around me, keeping me tightly to his side as we walk.