Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Then he let out a muffled yell and she froze at the fury in that sound.
“What was I thinking?” There was self-loathing in his voice as he drew his head back to stare down at her.
“Daddy?” she murmured.
“I knew I should have made you stay with me. This is what I get when I try to go against who I am. I’m never following Xavier’s advice again. Why did I think he knew what he was talking about? Give you time? Go slow? No. Nope.”
She waited for the objections to rise inside her.
But they didn’t come.
Perhaps tomorrow or the next day or next week they would. But right now, she wanted those decisions made for her.
“I could have lost you. That cannot happen again.”
She nodded in agreement.
“You’re coming home with me.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
He grunted. Was that in satisfaction? Irritation? She wasn’t sure. She still needed to learn how to read all the nuances of his nonverbal dialogue.
Men. Such complicated creatures.
“I want to go home,” she whispered. “Please, can we go home? Colin is suffocating in my suitcase.”
As she said that, she sensed someone come up behind her. Reuben tensed, but he wasn’t growling or trying to protect her so she wasn’t worried about who it was.
“Who is Colin?” Alejandro demanded, sounding so deadly that she shivered.
“Her squishy,” Reuben told him.
“Her what?”
“Squishy,” Reuben repeated. “Wait. Why is Colin in your suitcase?”
“I already packed. I was going to leave tonight after Eric . . . after he . . .”
“After. He. What?” Reuben asked in a voice that was far too quiet.
“I don’t think I want to say.”
“Why not?” Reuben carefully gathered up her hair, drawing her head back.
“Because I don’t want you to let me go. And I don’t want you to kill him.”
He narrowed his gaze down at her.
“We have to get him to a hospital,” Cammie yelled from the living room
“I don’t know why she cares,” Faith said. She was aware that her voice lacked emotion. But it was hard to care about much right now.
All she knew was that she felt safe in Reuben’s arms and if he killed Eric, then he’d likely go to jail. And since she didn’t want to let him go, she’d have to go to jail as well.
“I don’t want to go to jail. Orange isn’t my color.” Faith turned toward Alejandro as she said that because she figured he’d want to know.
“But you’d look good in orange,” she told Alejandro. “You’d look good in anything. Except maybe white. I mean, it would suit your skin tone, but you know, you’re not really a white sort of guy.”
Amusement filled Alejandro’s face. “She’s cute like this.”
Reuben made a warning noise.
She turned her gaze back to his. “Don’t be jelly, Daddy. Green isn’t your color.” She lightly patted his face. “And I’ve only got eyes for you.”
“Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” Reuben demanded.
She studied him for a long moment, then she shook her head.
“Do not lie to me.”
“I’m not.” She went over everything that had happened.
Reuben turned and sat her on the counter. He removed her handbag before lifting her top up. She yelped, but he just gently touched her stomach where Eric had kicked her. Then he carefully inspected her throat. It was a bit tender but nothing bad.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alejandro.”
That was all he said. But Alejandro seemed to know what he wanted.
“I’ll call Aaron, tell him you’re stopping by. We’ll take care of all of this. Nighthawk said there were no calls to the cops. Which is surprising in a neighborhood like this.”
“One of the neighbors is really old and goes to bed at like seven,” she explained even though Alejandro hadn’t been talking to her. “She rarely wears her hearing aids. The other neighbors have got their music up loud. Also, I think they smoke a lot of happy drugs. So they’re probably spaced out. And the ones across the road are away.”
“Convenient,” the Scot said as he joined them, holding her phone.
She took it, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw it still worked.
“Well, not when he was chasing us around,” she pointed out. “Or when he tried to strangle me.”
Reuben picked her up again and tried to give her to Alejandro. “Take her.”
“No way.”
“I’m going to kill him. Take her.”
“Daddy, no. I don’t want to go to Alejandro. I want you to hold me. I feel safe with you. And I don’t want to go to jail.”
“You wouldn’t be going to jail,” Reuben told her.
“I would because I’m never letting you go.”
Reuben let out a deep sigh. “Fuck.”
She buried her face in his neck, breathing him in. “I wanna go home.”
Something was trying to punch past the wall she’d put up. The one that was keeping her emotions at bay.
“Take her home. It’s going to hit her soon and she’s going to need you with her. We have this,” Alejandro said. “Your priority is Faith.”