Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
My shoes came off my dangling feet and fell, one after the other, plunging the sixty stories down to the sidewalk below. I didn’t think about the building I was hanging off of, or the city surrounding me. Only the survival part of my brain was functioning, overruling everything else. It kept me clinging to the glass ledge, even as it felt like it was going to sever my fingers.
“Marist!” Royce yelled, and then he was leaning over the side, both of his bloody hands clasped on my wrist. “I’ve got you.”
I’d never seen him look more determined or focused, and if I wasn’t sure I was going to die, I might have thought his expression was beautiful. But the creepy-crawling sensation inched up my spine as his blood smeared brightly across my skin.
No. You cannot pass out.
Because if I did, I’d fall to my death. His hands were slippery and his arm weak from Alice’s knife. He wouldn’t be able to hold on to me if I let go.
“Just hang on,” he pleaded. His grip on my forearm was ferocious, a vise of steel, but it didn’t matter. I was slipping, inch by bloody inch from his grasp.
My whole body trembled, and I tried not to swing my legs, even though my feet were desperate to have something beneath them. I needed to get my other hand up, but I was terrified any movement would make me slip.
“Don’t let me go!” I cried.
“No.” His tone was absolute. “I’ve got you.”
Macalister appeared at his son’s side, matching Royce’s determined expression. He latched a clean hand on my arm below Royce’s, while stretching out his other. “Give me your hand.”
It had never been easier to follow Macalister’s urgent demand. I gulped in a shallow breath and reached up. He may have been crushing the bones in my hand as he grabbed me, but I was grateful.
And as soon as he had a good grip, the Hale men began to lift and pull, dragging me awkwardly up over the side of the railing.
“We’ve got you,” Royce said. His intense gaze had the strongest hold on me, and I stared at his blue eyes as the men pulled me to safety.
The second my feet hit the ground, Macalister let go, and I wrapped both arms around Royce’s shoulders. I couldn’t feel the bones in my body or hear anything over the roaring rush of the blood in my head, but as long as I was pressed to him, I knew I was alive.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “You’re safe, I’ve got you, you’re okay.”
It sounded like he was talking to himself as much as he was to me. I melted into him. I was trembling, and as I pressed to him, I could feel his heart pounding as frantically as mine. He was solid and warm and the love of my life.
“You could have killed her.” Macalister’s voice was arctic. The scariest I’d ever heard him sound, and perhaps it was for Royce too, because he tucked me in at his side and turned so we could both see how his father stared at Alice.
Macalister gazed at his wife as if she were vile. Like he could see all the ugliness hidden inside her.
“There’s a security camera over the door,” he said. “Even if I wanted to—which I don’t—I can’t save you this time.”
Like me, she was trembling, but hers was with a different emotion. Her husband’s look of disgust cleaved her in two, and all her panic and desperation poured out. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “But I did it for you.”
He said it with pure disbelief. “For me?”
Alice’s eyes flicked to me before returning to him. “Marist took everything from me. From us. She seduced you, Macalister. Can’t you see that?” When she shook her head, her tears fell, but they went unnoticed. “She tricked you and everyone else, all so she could take your power and give it to Royce.”
Macalister’s posture was tense, and his hands curled into fists. When he moved toward her, she took a step backward and raised her hands, silently warning him to keep his distance.
Her tone was cautious as she gauged his reaction. “Everything can go back to the way it was before you knew she existed.”
“No, it can’t.” He stood tall, unashamed as he admitted it. “I don’t want it to.”
Another round of tears sliced down Alice’s face as her expression soured. “I gave you anything you wanted, and still you don’t see me. She’s fucking blinded you.”
“You know that’s not true. My issue with—”
Rage made her shake violently. “It is true! If you weren’t so blinded by that stupid girl, you would have seen what I was doing with Liam Shaunessy right under your goddamn nose.”
He stiffened, and his jaw set as the new information slapped him.