Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
He drops, his body trembling as I trail my fingers up and down his spine. Lips touch my breast and he rolls us onto our sides, waits for me to get comfortable and then holds me in strong arms.
“This is all gonna work out,” he whispers against my hair.
I smile because I think I actually believe him.
Faceless – Texas
One week later
For legal reasons I had to return to my hometown to listen to the reading of my mee-maw’s will. Apparently, I’m on it, so is my mother and brother who also must return. I really don’t want to. Not because I don’t want to be here, but because I hate my brother and I hate my mother. Also, because I don’t want to be here.
“Yeah, we’re just rolling in now.” Kane is on the phone to his daddy, relaxing during the final stretch of a very long journey that I’m so glad we took together.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about being in the car for over seventeen hours with Kane Jessop, it’s that he makes me laugh at all the right moments, keeps me occupied at all the right moments, and our silences are comfortable and never awkward.
We stopped after the first eight and stayed in a motel on the roadside, had amazing sex, burgers from a local dive and then this morning we had a killer breakfast and for the most part I’m feeling happy even knowing I’m about to walk into this mess of a situation.
“So that’s why he wasn’t there?” Kane asks his daddy and grips my thigh. “Well I’ll be sure to pass on that message but I know she ain’t gonna be happy to receive it.” He says his goodbyes and puts a cigar between his lips, he doesn’t smoke around me if at all, but he likes to have something to help him curb the habit.
“What?” I ask, worried now.
“According to my daddy, Matthew wasn’t at your mee-maw’s funeral because he didn’t think you’d show and he had nothing nice to say to the bitch, dead or alive. Not because he was in prison or anythin’ like that.”
My hands clench on the steering wheel as we drive down the dusty road that is far too familiar. “Don’t care. He’s got nothing to say to me that I want or need to hear.”
“I agree.”
“Feel free to knock him around a little when he tries.”
Kane chuckles and tries to stretch out his long legs. “Duly noted.”
I think of what my brother might want to say to me but anything my mind conjures just has me flying into a blind range. Mentally of course. I’m not taking my eyes off the road, especially not in a place where kids play and animals wander.
“If he tries to apologize…” I seethe and Kane squeezes my thigh that little bit harder.
He doesn’t say anything because what’s to say? My brother fucking betrayed me. But then he didn’t betray his drugs. He snapped out of his funk to start getting high again but not to save his pregnant sister.
Webber empathizes with him on the rare occasion he gets brought into conversation. He says a lot of the other kids who went through the brainwashing are still suffering today after years of therapy.
Another reason I had to go into the witness protection program for a few years was to protect me from his minions who would have loved to have gutted me for betraying him. To betray Father Righteous was to betray God. A lot of them have seen sense since, I just hope none of them ever try to contact me.
Hopefully by now that type of threat has blown over.
We head straight to a diner by Ice-Queen where I used to work. Kane used to love nailing me with puns when I worked there. Any way he could insert an insult about my apparent frostiness he would and Ren would howl with laughter every single time.
I’m nervous, even though I saw his parents a few weeks ago and I’ve been texting Felicia, I’m super not okay with this. We both decided not to tell them about our kid until we knew more. Kane is finally starting to understand why I kept it from him. The truth of the matter hurts too much. It’s too draining on the soul.
Kane is already frustrated that he hasn’t made any progress with the case. I think he was secretly hoping he’d spot something we didn’t and crack the case wide open. I know this because I’ve been secretly hoping that for years. Every time I opened those files I told myself that today would be the day I finally figured this out. It was never to be.
Kane stretches tall, showing me a hint of his abdomen which is tight with muscles and decorated with incredible tattoos. The one I did of his challenger is further up and still quite sore but otherwise it is healing just fine.