Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
I liked them. In a way it was a barrier between us, a visual way for me to understand that there was distance separating us.
I needed that.
Maybe as much as he did.
“Shall we?” He held out his hand.
Frowning, I took it, noticing that he seemed to clench his teeth like my touch was painful.
“You don’t like touching me.” I said it like a statement.
He stared down at our hands and quickly looked away; a forced smile fell across his full lips. “For reasons I’ll never share. So, don’t ask.”
“Is it me or all women?”
“All humans,” he said quickly. “Skin is too warm, I don’t like it, I don’t like to feel it… drives me fucking crazy.”
“And yet you’re not wearing gloves.”
“Maybe I’m conducting an experiment,” he said in an amused voice. “Hold your hand for longer than five minutes and prove to myself that I can handle the pain.”
I tried to jerk my hand away.
He held my fingers firmly in his grasp. “I’m not being an ass, I’m being honest. Maybe that does make me an ass, but it is painful, make no mistake about that. Touching you is like holding my hand in the flames as they lick my skin and singe it off, as they promise warmth only to burn me alive.”
We reached the car.
He dropped my hand like it was hot and opened my door. “You hungry?”
“No.” Yes, but I didn’t like this weird version of him, where he cared, where he picked me up from school. I preferred scary, scary I knew how to deal with, not that he wasn’t petrifying.
Case in point, there was a dagger on his seat and it still had blood on it. His gaze followed mine, and he quickly picked up the knife, cursed, and wiped it off with a black cloth he drew out of his pants pocket, and then finally put both in the back.
I gaped. “Do I want to know?”
He was silent for a couple of breaths, and then he started the car. “Probably not, it’s just business.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
“Doubtful. The business your father and brother do isn’t just illegal, it hurt my friends, my alliances. Ergo, that’s not just business, it’s fucking war.”
“Who drew first blood? You or them?”
He hesitated and shook his head as he pulled out of the driving spot. “Does it really matter? She made a deal with me, a deal she shouldn’t have made, and I did what I could to protect her, but she went in too deep, tried to go over my head, it’s not my fault Mil De Lange is dead, it’s hers.”
I hung my head. “That’s not what I was told.”
“Well…” He turned the car to the right. “You weren’t there.”
I stared down at my hands. “You were?”
“I was the one who set it up, who drew them out, drew her out. Of course, I was there, had Phoenix not shot her, it was my job to follow through.”
“She made a mistake. People make mistakes.”
“Her mistakes cost the De Lange family everything. Her mistakes had to do with greed. Just curious, but did you know the worth of the Abandonato dynasty?”
I bit my bottom lip and shook my head.
“Twenty billion dollars.” He said it slowly. “Not million. Billion. And Chase offered her part of, not just that fortune but his private fortune from his own mother, from her fashion line. Mil refused to take anything. Her biggest sin was her pride.”
“And yours? What’s yours?” I asked a bit breathless as I leaned in.
He gripped the steering wheel with both hands. “Right now?”
“Yeah.”
“Betraying myself and the Italians by protecting a dead girl because I can’t seem to get her out of my fucking head.” He took another turn and then queried, “Burgers?”
I snapped my mouth shut and jerked back against the leather seat as he pulled up to a local burger place and actually proceeded to get out of the car and then open my door for me.
What game was he playing?
My heart was still hammering in my chest from his words. I couldn’t even read the menu by the time we made it back inside, for once I was thankful he was so bossy and controlling, he ordered me a burger and then a milkshake like I was twelve.
I wanted to be insulted but I was hungry.
We sat in silence.
Him on his phone.
Me sucking down the shake like I really was his kid.
It was painful.
The silence.
“So.” That’s what I filled the void with. So. “What did you do today?”
He didn’t look up just shrugged and said. “Had a visit from the past. One of the sluts my dad married and forced me to call ‘mom’ said she had info. Wouldn’t talk, so I made her regret coming to me for protection.”
I sucked harder on the straw, gulping, “What did you do?”