Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102016 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102016 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Someone must have called ahead because Brooks, Beckett, and Bridger are there to greet us. I wonder when Holden told them we were coming. I’m both mortified and relieved, though, and so thankful that we’re here. We’re led inside, and it’s then that I lose the fragile hold on my strength.
The tears start.
My father tried to kill me.
And then as I replay the last twenty minutes, they won’t stop, and it only makes it harder for me to breathe.
“You should take her up to the shower,” Brooks says to Darby, who’s holding my hand. “Get her cleaned up. You don’t want to get sick from that pond water, Dani.”
“I don’t want a shower,” I say, instinctively pulling away from Darby, but then Bridger’s there, and he takes my hand.
“It’s okay, kitten,” he says, and my heart pounds as I look up at him. He’s smiling, but his eyes look hard, like he might be mad. I don’t think he’s mad at me, though. “Just a shower, not a bath.”
“That’s right,” Darby says as she leads me upstairs and into a bathroom. “I promise, you’re safe in this water, Dani. I promise.”
I take a deep breath and look back at Bridger. He’s three years older than me, and he’s always been my friend.
He nods and steps back. “I’ll wait right out here. It’s okay.”
I sigh, and then Darby murmurs something to him and closes the door.
“Come on, baby girl. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
The shower wasn’t so bad, even though we had to wash my hair and my face, and now I’m sitting out on the porch with all of the siblings. Not just mine, but Bridger’s, too. There are ten of us kids, so it’s a good thing the porch is big.
Their mom came home—not surprised to see us all there—and gave us ice cream. Vanilla fudge ripple.
It’s my favorite.
“How are you doing?” Bridger’s sitting on one side of me, and his sister, Billie, is on the other. My twin sister, Alex, is sitting on the floor between my knees, and I’m running my fingers through her hair, soothing us both. It’s what Mama used to do when we’d sit at her feet.
“Better.” I smile up at him. All of the Blackwells are cute, but Bridger? I’ve started to notice things about him lately. Things that I’d never tell him because I would be mortified. He’s just my friend, but he’s my brother’s best friend, and I know those two things will never change. “You don’t have to stay with me. I’m okay.”
“I’m happy here,” he says and then looks over my head to his sister. “You happy here, Billie?”
“Yep,” she says and licks her cone. “Why did he do it, Dani?”
I blow out a breath, still not altogether steady. It. No one wants to say out loud what he just tried to do to me. “I-I-I forgot to get the eggs this morning, and when he said he was going to hurt me, I said n-n-no.”
They’re quiet for a long minute, both of them forgetting all about their ice cream. Alex tips her head against my leg. She’s so quiet, and I know we’ll huddle together under the blankets later and cry.
“He’s a monster,” Billie whispers, repeating what I thought myself earlier. She leans her head on my shoulder.
But Bridger still hasn’t said anything at all, so I take a peek up at him, and the look on his handsome face almost scares me.
He’s mad.
“Bridge?”
“Fuck, Dani.” He shakes his head and tosses his cone into a trash can before he wraps his arms around me and hugs me close. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”
I let him hold me, because Bridger gives really good hugs. Billie’s rubbing circles on my back. I look around the porch and notice that everyone is quiet, watching us.
They heard.
Holden’s breathing hard, his eyes narrowed. I know he wants to kill Dad, but he can’t because then he’d go to jail, and he won’t leave us.
So we’re just stuck. Charlie, my baby sister at just two years younger than me, crawls into Holden’s lap, crying. She’s ten, but she still clings to our older brother as if she’s a baby, and he holds on to her but never looks away from me.
I feel loved here. Protected. But I have no idea how long this feeling will last. If it will at all. Because the monster will never stop.
Chapter One
BRIDGER
Her skin is velvet. Pure sin. Pure fucking everything. Her big blue eyes shine as she bites that lower lip and spreads her legs, welcoming me to rest my pelvis between them. I’m so fucking hard, I can barely breathe as I rub my length through her already wet pussy, and she arches her neck back on a moan.
“Bridger. Yes. Oh, God, yes.”
Her fingers fist in my hair, but I grab her wrists, kiss them, and pin them over her head before I lick and suck on her already hard nipples.