Total pages in book: 204
Estimated words: 193115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Her head drops, her eyes darting across the plush carpet. I’ve not known someone so deeply since Jake. But I have now. I know her, inside out, and I know she’s silently piecing the puzzle together. Piece by piece, she’s building the picture. Not the whole picture. Now, I wonder if she’ll ever get the whole picture. Just this part of the story is enough to end us. The rest?
“I’m going to leave now,” she says with an edge of resolve I don’t like, looking at me with equal grit. “And you’re going to let me go.”
She sidesteps me as I stand motionless, scrambling for some instruction, trying so hard to locate some sense in this madness. How do I handle this? What should I do? Beg. It’s all I have.
“Ava, wait.” I go after her. “Ava.” She doesn’t stop, doesn’t give me the time of day, as I follow on her heels. “Ava, baby, please.”
She pivots, and I stumble to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. Her face. I’ve never seen disappointment so deep. Hurt so rife. “Don’t even think about it,” she yells, and I back up, wary. “You’ll let me leave.”
“You’ve not even given me the chance to explain. Please, let me explain.”
“Explain what?” she asks. “I’ve seen everything I need to see. No explanation required.”
My hands come up of their own volition, reaching for her. She steps back. “You weren’t supposed to find out like this.” Fuck, this is a fucking mess. How did I let this happen? Why didn’t I deal with this sooner?
This.
This is why.
Her face. Her reaction. What she now thinks of me. I was delaying the inevitable. Delaying this pain, this hurt.
I watch as she casts her eyes around the entrance hall. I can feel the presence of some spectators, but there would be nothing that could make me tear my eyes away from Ava, as if I need to prolong this unbearable ache in my gut by seeing her desolation.
“What a fuck-up you really are.”
My shoulders tense as Mike’s snide words crawl across my back and settle under my skin.
“You’re no longer a member, motherfucker,” John growls. “I’ll be escorting you from the grounds.”
Mike laughs, and I close my eyes, praying for some restraint. My fear is turning into anger. He’s just one person in a long list of people who don’t want me to have my peace. “Be my guest,” he sneers. “Looks like your tart has seen the light, Ward.”
Tart. My blood turns hot. Tart.
“Shut the fuck up.” I hear John’s warning, though it’s muffled by the whoosh of blood rising fast to my head. My hands are shaking. A red mist creeps in, distorting my vision. But I still see Ava’s eyes widen and her lips move, though what she says I don’t know. It’s too quiet. Just a breath of air.
Though Mike’s next words I hear perfectly. “He takes what he wants and leaves a trail of shit behind him.”
I lock down every muscle I have.
“He fucks them all and fucks them off.”
Ava’s welling eyes find me. “Why?”
She is my priority. I need to keep my focus on what matters, and nothing matters more than her. “Don’t listen to him, Ava.”
“Ask him how my wife is,” Mike goes on, taunting me, pushing my limits. “He did the same to her as he did to all the others. Husbands and conscience don’t get in his way.”
Something inside of me gives, snaps, and all focus disappears. I swing around and yank him from John’s hands, smashing him onto the floor and letting my fists loose, punching him repeatedly, roaring through it, all of my anger being injected into my strikes, my control gone.
I feel none of my stress leave me. If anything, it builds, increasing my rage.
“Jesse!” John’s on my back, trying to yank me away, Drew helping him. “For fuck’s sake!” I raise my arms for a second, knocking them all back with one roll of my shoulders and a roar.
My hands are covered in blood, my vision still blurry. Mike isn’t struggling anymore. Not making a sound. I rein in my fists and heave above him, trying to gain some sight.
“Come here, you fucking psycho,” John growls, seizing me and dragging me off Mike’s limp body. He pushes me aside, and I flop back against the wall. “You’ll fucking kill him,” he yells, going to one knee next to Mike to assess the damage I’ve done. Mike starts coughing, rolling onto his side and groaning.
I blink. Look down at my bloody fists, flexing them. They don’t hurt. There’s another more biting pain superseding it. My heart.
“Ava.” I push my back from the wall and search her out, scanning the lobby. The pain inside intensifies. She’s gone. I run to the door and down the steps, taking my search outside. Nothing.