Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
I snorted, which reminded me. “I should be getting my check soon, from my insurance.” It wasn’t enough to pay for a new car, but I didn’t want to share that concern with him. “Hopefully I’ll be getting my life back on track so I can get out of your hair.”
His eyebrows knit together. “About that. You can have the car in the garage. The silver one. Or we can share the Durango. I don’t drive much—” His cell started ringing. Alex cursed as he pulled it out and peered at the screen for a second before answering it, his gaze dead on mine. But all he said was one word, “Yes,” before he hung up.
I smiled at him, and in the time it took me to blink, he was out of there, and a heartbeat later, the front door slammed shut.
I ran to the big window in the kitchen, but there wasn’t even a dot in the sky.
He was gone.
Wow.
Wow, wow, wow.
Smiling, and purposely ignoring what in the world he might have wanted to talk about, I finished my breakfast and showered. Once I was done, I grabbed my laptop and headed downstairs to the living room, where I turned on the television.
My hand froze in midair holding the remote.
I’d forgotten that I had turned on the news to see if I could find anything about Alex.
“…sentenced to five back-to-back life sentences without the possibility of parole,” the television anchor said as an image of Camilo Beltran filled the screen.
Five life sentences.
I felt my breath go out in literally a whoosh.
Then I changed the damn channel as fast as I could as my stomach churned.
It didn’t mean anything. He could escape. He had before.
But what if he didn’t? What if he was one less person to worry about now?
I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d learned the day before.
Alex hadn’t come back, and I’d turned on the news to see that he’d been helping deal with a nuclear reactor. It wasn’t the first time, or even the tenth time, one of the Trinity had dealt with nuclear issues, so I knew the radioactive gases and radiation didn’t harm them, fortunately. Or at least not in the same manner or level it did humans. I was planning on asking him one day how that worked exactly. Did it affect him a little and just make him weak instead of blatantly killing him? Or were their bodies just that amazing that they repelled all that toxic stuff outright? My money was on that.
On the bright side, Selene had shown up and taken me to Robert and Agatha’s house for dinner, and I’d been reassured that the man known as The Centurion really was terrific and sweet. He had a polo shirt and khakis on, and just looked like… a hot uncle.
I knew all about hot uncles now.
For one moment, I’d thought about asking Agatha about that vision, but I’d kept my mouth shut. The more I’d worried over it, the more I’d realized and then come to accept the fact that it didn’t matter. It didn’t change anything. Having these feelings for Alex was the equivalent of having a crush on a celebrity.
That you knew and lived with.
And kissed.
Or maybe a boss at work.
What his grandmother wanted didn’t change his heart or his desires, even if we’d made out. Attraction wasn’t love, and I couldn’t go too crazy with my thoughts or feelings, that was a damn fact. Alex Akita was a pro football player in the National Football Organization, and I was the best player on the pee-wee team.
But the problem was that no matter how much I tried to convince myself that was the case, no matter how much my brain recognized the truth, the rest of me was hung up on the things I couldn’t have.
Including the little bit of relief that I wanted to experience at the possibility that scumbag might be behind bars for the rest of my life.
And that was what upset me the whole day.
All those fucking things I couldn’t have….
So that morning, I’d woken up to a quiet house and, after breakfast, focused on the one thing that was so difficult it wouldn’t let my mind stray: I worked on my Japanese.
It wasn’t until early in the evening when I heard the door open and shut, then felt the faint hum of Alex’s power coming from the doorway a heartbeat later.
“Hi, Lexi,” I greeted him as I popped another Cheeto into my mouth and chewed slowly.
“What’s wrong?” was the first thing he asked.
I paused as I took another one out and eyed the puffy orange snack. “Why do you think there’s something wrong?” I asked, even though I knew the damn answer.
“Because I can smell it.”
Exactly what I’d thought. I put the snack into my mouth and took my time eating it.