Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 35602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
I gave her a fake name. But it seems like Ivy doesn’t care. She doesn’t look up, and she doesn’t touch her food on the table.
Dorothea deposits a heavily laden plate of food before me and walks away with a grin. I eat my food, nervously glancing at the beauty in front of me.
“Lola isn’t my real name,” I tell her with a wink.
She doesn’t move. Doesn’t say a word. But the corners of her lips lift just slightly.
Chapter 3
XAVIER
I pet Hades behind his ears while his brother sleepily yawns on his new bed.
These fucking dogs. I got them goddamn leather orthopedic beds that cost a fortune. It feels like I’m shifting my attention from my goddaughter to the pets. In a way, they’re the only thing I have left of her deadly legacy.
It’s been a few weeks. A few days ago, I angrily told Saul I wanted them to bring Tallulah back dead or alive. I was hell-bent on destroying her myself, and I think my business partner could see that. I think he told our men not to kill the bitch, for which I was silently thankful.
It's important to keep my appearances up. Being a cartel boss, I have to make people afraid of me. If they knew what Tallulah did to me, they’d fucking laugh. A little girl got the best of me, and I let her get away with it.
My free hand fists and I curse out loud.
That worthless girl was a goddamn traitor. So why am I still spending precious time thinking about the little backstabber when I could be balls-deep in a more willing pussy?
I consider my little black book, wondering where it is. I have fucked nobody since Tallulah came to live with me. It wasn’t just an endurance test for her; it was for me, too. The amount of times I wanted to shove her against the wall and finger that dripping cunt… And now I can’t do it again. Not until she’s found.
I dig through my drawers. I don’t remember if I kept my book of numbers when Tallulah came here. I was fucking infatuated with that liar. That ends here and now.
I pull out a tattered black notebook and smirk to myself. I know exactly who to call.
Zeus wakes up and trots over to me, placing his enormous paw on my knee. I shoo him away, but he doesn’t move, glaring at me. It’s almost like he wants me to wait for his mistress to re-appear and not betray her while she’s gone.
But what the fuck am I supposed to do? The bitch left me, and it’s clear she wants nothing to do with me.
Still, I could force her to want me. And then hurt her just for the sake of it. Break her body and mind, and as a final accomplishment, break her heart into tatters. It would be so much fun to see her sobbing for me after I took everything from her. She’d suffer so beautifully for me.
I push Zeus off and find the number I’m thinking of. I still remember Selena, the gorgeous redhead I brought to Tallulah’s birthday once, causing a damn scene. I could call her right now. Set up a date.
I turn the card around in my hands. It would be so easy to bring Selena back and replace Tallulah with her. But something deep inside me is telling me nothing can replace Tallulah. That she left a hole where my heart was.
At first, when I first woke up, I thought about killing her sister, Mathilda.
The innocent kid who was so terrified of me she hid every time I was in her presence. But I have no interest in Mathilda. And I can’t bring myself to kill the only innocent person in that goddamn family. Rain and Heath are fucking traitors, and so is Tallulah… but Mathilda is just a kid.
I have to admit, this time Heath played a good game. He deceived me for long enough to allow his daughter to get underneath my skin. I won’t be fooled so easily ever again. I learned my lesson with Tallulah’s brief stay at my house.
Still, the moments of the first and last night we spent together invade my mind, even though I don’t welcome them. But every night, Tallulah knocks on the doors leading to my dark dreamworld. And every single fucking night, I invite her in.
I pet the dogs some more. I feel like some emotional woman seeking support from the hounds. But they’re another good reminder of what my goddaughter left behind. What she gave up to fulfill her parents’ twisted desires.
I’m thinking someone else might’ve caught Tallulah when she went on the run. Someone could have been preying on her. It’s not unlikely it was the sender of those ominous death threats.