Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Not happening. At least not today.
“No, baby. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“What can I do for you then? Do you need some water?”
My throat is parched again. “Yeah. Water sounds great.”
“I’ll get some.”
A moment later, she’s back, holding water to my lips. I suck some through the straw and then let it go. “Thank you.”
“It’s been a few hours. Maybe we can get you out of here now.”
“Dr. Bridges said this afternoon.”
“I know, but I don’t like seeing you in here, Buck. It… It scares me a little.”
“I’m fine, baby. Nothing to be scared about.”
In fact, my head feels better. Nothing like a few hours of sleep and a raging nightmare hurling me back to the worst time in my life to get rid of a headache, I guess.
Aspen takes a sip of the water she previously held at my mouth. “I want you out of here. I need you at home.”
“At home?”
“Well…at Luke and Katelyn’s home.”
God. Staying at their house.
I don’t know if I can do it.
But Lucifer Raven most likely has much better security at his home than I can get at the Peninsula Hotel.
I sigh. This means a great deal to Aspen, and I’ll do anything for her.
And maybe… Maybe if I give a little, she’ll give a little back. Maybe she’ll ease up on this vengeance thing.
She needs to let this go.
She’s going to end up in danger again, and damn…
What if I hadn’t known someone else was in Gloria’s house? What if Aspen had been there with me? And what if…
What if we both were hit in the head, left to bleed out?
We’d be dead now. Both of us.
I can thank my SEAL training for knowing we were not alone.
It wasn’t a sound so much as a feeling.
And I was right.
I have to protect Aspen at all costs, and not just because the Wolfes are paying me to do it.
Because this woman is my life.
My whole life.
I must keep her safe.
And that includes keeping her safe from herself.
6
ASPEN
By evening, Buck and I are back at Katelyn’s house.
Jed and Edgar are both happy to see Buck, which is odd, since neither of them really knows him. But dogs are like that. They’re just happy creatures, as long as they’re loved and fed.
Katelyn made up an additional guestroom for Buck, which makes sense. She doesn’t know that we’re in love now. Well, she knows I am, but she doesn’t yet know that Buck returns my feelings.
“You’re resting for a few days,” I tell Buck once we get him situated in his room.
“I’ll still be sneaking into your room tonight,” he says.
“No, you will not. If anybody does any sneaking, it’s going to be me. You’re to stay in bed and rest.”
“If you sneak into my room, Aspen, I won’t be getting any rest.”
“You let me take care of your rest. I will see that you get everything you need, including lots of sleep. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
He lets out a yawn. “Damn. All I’ve done is sleep for the last twenty-four hours and I’m still tired.”
“Your body is still healing.”
“I suppose. I’ll be better tomorrow, and we can figure things out.”
“Katelyn’s going to bring you some dinner in a few minutes.”
“For God’s sake, this is ridiculous. I can join the rest of you for dinner.”
“No. I’m putting my foot down.” I smile.
“You’re putting your foot down?”
I whip my hands to my hips. “Yep. Totally putting my foot down. You’re going to get coddled and pampered and everything else I can do for you. At least until tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow I’ll be good as new.”
“I will be the judge of that.” I rise, give him a quick kiss on his forehead. “I’ll be right back with your dinner when it’s ready.”
I close the door behind me and join Katelyn on the deck with the dogs. Luke is with her.
“Aspen…” Katelyn is frowning.
“What? What’s going on?”
“I have some information from my sources,” Luke says.
“And…?”
“And you remember Ice Man?”
I wrinkle my forehead. “Ice Man? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Katelyn strokes Jed’s head. “I suppose I didn’t really tell you about him while we were on the island. God knows I’d rather forget about him now. It was one of the men. He took a liking to me. His specialty was humiliation.”
My stomach clenches. “I won’t ask you to elaborate.”
“Good. I don’t really want to. Suffice it to say, he’s still at large. He was in Manhattan, and he came into The Glass House one time when I was there and Luke was waiting tables. He and Luke got into it on the street.”
“Oh.” A black feeling of doom crawls through me.
“He ended up figuring out who I was, as well,” Luke says. “Somehow he got involved with King, and that’s how I ended up back here in LA to take care of business.”