Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
He’d had his heart broken once and that was enough for him realize that he didn’t want to be tied down ever again—his words, not mine.
“Wow, Wade,” Way said while everyone else remained silent. “One wouldn’t think that you’d have chanced fucking that up. Especially since you were so adamant about getting into the SEALS.”
Wade shrugged. “There was just something about her that made my heart race.”
“It was probably the fact that you could see your career swirling down the toilet with your future in it,” my father drawled.
Wade shrugged. “It might’ve been that, too. The danger factor. The knowledge that what we were doing was wrong. Hell, I wasn’t even sure how the hell I found time to do her at all.”
Lennox made a choking sound.
Way laughed. “Oh, baby brother. You’re so tactful. I, however, would never do that. I’m a perfect little pupil.”
My brother and I made eye contact. No words were exchanged, but both of us wondered who was going to pop Way’s perfect little bubble.
Wade beat me to it, though.
“I remember getting a letter from you while I was at boot camp talking about you doing your professor. Remember that? You wondered whether you got the grade because of your knowledge of the subject, or the fact that you gave him an excellent blow job the day before the examination,” Wade said.
Then he got up and went to the kitchen with his black coffee mug in his hand while the rest of us digested that news.
I hadn’t realized that that particular tidbit had happened, but it didn’t surprise me in the least.
I looked over at my father, who had his head in his hands.
“We raised a bunch of awful kids,” Lennox whispered to my father.
I opened my mouth to argue, then shut it.
I had just gotten arrested…
“We’re not awful and you know it,” Way said, sounding amused. Nothing embarrassed the girl. “It could be worse. We could do drugs. We could be prostitutes. Sucking dick for money is never a good thing. Though, I might’ve considered it if I had to pay for my own college.”
I threw a pillow at Way, who fell back laughing.
My father groaned into his hands. “This is your fault, Lennox.”
Lennox punched my father in the shoulder. “It is most certainly not my fault. It’s your fault. All that cop talk at the table. Our children were never able to live their childhoods carefreely. They always knew the ugly truth.”
“And you coming home and telling us how you had a patient that shoved a water sprinkler up his ass and turned it on, then couldn’t get it turned off or pulled out and died, isn’t something that they didn’t take to heart either?” Dad countered.
Tyler started to silently laugh.
That laugh was cut short moments later.
I frowned, wondering what had set his back straight, then heard it.
“What the fuck?” I turned to see Wade staring at the not so black mug. “It’s changing.”
Way fell over with a wheeze and I narrowed my eyes at her and contemplated taking the mug she just gave me and beaning her over the head with it.
I would’ve, too, had a steely arm not wrapped around my waist and held me down.
Why, you ask, did I have such an extreme reaction?
Because of the photo that she used on the mug itself.
It was my mugshot photo from a few weeks ago.
I turned a death glare from the stupid fucking mug and my laughing brother, to find my sister on the ground next to Lennox—the only woman I’d ever called mom’s—feet, wheezing and laughing so hard that she was crying.
I felt the tears well.
“Do you think this is funny, Way?” I asked. “I worked for six years to get to the point where I could give my dissertation. I’ve dedicated my life to it. I almost lost my job because I’m not allowed to have a record. I did lose my scholarship. I even lost the help of my closest advisor. Even if they do let me do the dissertation, it’s likely that I’ll never graduate because I can’t afford to pay for college anymore—and not even the money that Mom and Dad saved would be enough to cover it. When they yanked my scholarship, they yanked it for the entire year. I don’t think you understand the magnitude of this. Yet, there you are, thinking shit is funny when it’s not.”
Way sat up, her face still full of laughter.
“Oh, come on, Reagan. It’s not that bad.” She wiped her tears away.
I stared at her.
“He tried to rape me,” I whispered.
That cleared Way’s face completely.
“I went to jail because I fought back when he tried to rape me. To make matters worse, we don’t even know where he is. He’s out there, somewhere, watching and waiting. I know that. I had to file charges against him and to make matters worse, even if they do find him, he will probably get out of it because his father is a dirty goddamn judge who knows other dirty goddamn judges.”