Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Did you at least get what you were looking for?” I heard my father ask carefully.
“Actually, more than,” Assman admitted. “That whole entire house was full of drugs. No women, but fuck. The garage was stacked to the goddamn rafters.”
Fuck.
That meant damage control.
No matter how badly I wanted to keep Shayne out of it, she would be implicated just by living there.
Unless Costas threw himself under the bus, that was.
Did I trust him?
No.
But I knew he loved his sister.
She was protected no matter what, whether or not she liked the protection he offered. Costas, down deep, was a good guy. He loved his family. He’d just taken a turn, leading him down a dark and dangerous path when he was young that he hadn’t fought his way out of.
He’d protect her, even if it implicated himself.
But why did he start doing this in the first place? He’d always been very, very careful to keep the dangerous stuff far, far away from her.
Why now?
Maybe when I was done begging Shayne to forgive me, I’d ask him.
I wasn’t expecting her to be laughing when I arrived at the hospital.
But Ameer was very, very personable, and he was hilarious.
If I had to choose anyone to be here right now with her, it would be him. He was a fatherly figure, looked as if he could be knocked down with a feather, and was the most unassuming badass I’d ever met.
Every single suspect we ever encountered underestimated the man.
They didn’t underestimate him for long if they were trying to hurt him in some way, though.
He was very swift in retaliation if needed.
I slowly stepped into the room, unsurprised when the movement caught both of the occupants’ attention.
Ameer stood up, sensing that I needed privacy, and left.
Shayne turned her attention to me and stared, allowing me to take my fill.
She looked like she’d been run over by a truck.
Both of her eyes were blackened. She had multiple contusions on her face, and the fucking bruising was already taking over almost every available inch.
Her hands were marked up with welts, too, looking as if she’d used them to shield herself from an attack.
And, quite frankly, she had.
I was going to murder Elliette with my bare hands.
I didn’t give a good goddamn that she was a woman.
All I cared about was showing her what she’d tried to take from me, then forcing her to watch as I did the same thing to her.
“Shayne,” I said softly, reverently.
“I’m okay,” she lied.
I didn’t like that she was trying to downplay this.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, sounding just as broken as I felt.
She looked down at her lap. “I had a feeling this was coming.”
“But not like this,” I said as I forced myself to catalog every single bruise. “Do you want the lights off?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I was waiting for the doctor to come back with the results from a test…”
I walked toward her slowly.
“But for now,” I said as I walked toward the light over her bed, “we don’t have to have them on quite as bright, right?”
I didn’t wait for her agreement. I turned the lights off over her bed, and visibly saw her shoulders wilt.
“I’m not lying when I say it doesn’t hurt,” she promised.
I knew she wasn’t.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t take care of her even when she didn’t know she needed taken care of.
Then I took the seat next to her bed that Ameer had just occupied and said, “What did the doctor say?”
She fidgeted with the sheet instead of looking at me as she said, “Kidney issues. Concussion.”
She wasn’t telling me something.
But before I could ask her about it, she said, “You don’t have to stay.”
I looked at her like she’d lost her fuckin’ mind. “I’m staying.”
“Quinn…” she started, but I cut her off by saying, “I’m. Staying.”
She swallowed. “I don’t think…”
“I don’t think you understand,” I again interrupted her. “I’m staying. This isn’t something we can argue about, because I’m very, very solid on my next few steps when it comes to you. One, I’m staying. Two, when you do get released, you’ll be coming home with me.”
“Why?” she asked forcefully, then sighed. “That makes me woozy to talk like that.”
I stood up, feeling helpless.
“Because I want you to be safe,” I replied, easing her back in bed. “I don’t want you out there alone, without me there to keep you that way.”
She swallowed hard. “I am nothing to you, Quinn.”
That’s when I lost it myself.
I didn’t raise my voice, however, when it came to my next words.
No, they were all very smooth and even when I said, “Well, that’s changed.”
She slowly turned her head to look at me.
“You can’t do that.”
“I can,” I disagreed. “I’ll be disregarding any and all attempts to build the wall any higher between us. I’m here. You’re mine. End of discussion. We’re not playing this game anymore. We’re both fucking miserable. If you were where you belonged today, in my goddamn bed, then none of this would’ve happened. You’d have been safe. And I wouldn’t have had to hear that my supposed best friend had assaulted you.”