Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“Everything he says is true.” She doesn’t look happy about it. “Don’t be too hard on the girl. This isn’t easy on her.”
“Stop,” I say, digging my fingers into my palms. “She really tried to escape?”
“Yes,” Ren says. “She had her chance and she took it. I’m sorry, Erick, I really am. I know you like the girl, but she’s lying to you. Whatever you think you two have, it isn’t real.”
“He doesn’t know shit,” Marina cuts in. “Just because she tried to run—”
I hold my hands up. “Shut up, both of you.” I take deep breaths, pacing back and forth. “Where is she right now?”
“Up in her room,” Ren says. “I have her locked in for now.”
“She has food and tea,” Marina adds, as if that helps.
I turn away. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Wait.” Ren doesn’t move, but I hesitate and let him talk. “I get it, man. Shit’s complicated with her. But do you really trust her? I mean, really, after all this? We drugged her. We kidnapped her. Do you really think she wants to be here after all that?”
“We saved her life,” I say, even though the words sound pathetic now.
“We did, but does it matter? We still kidnapped her, and now you’re forcing her to make art forgeries, even though she doesn’t want to.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it? Yeah, she’s good at the painting shit, and maybe she even enjoys it, but we still drugged her and forced her to work for us. How the fuck can you trust her? How are you even remotely surprised that she tried to run? Brother, you gotta open your eyes and understand. She’s our prisoner.”
“Why are you doing this?” I can’t look at him. I’m too angry, and I’m worried I’ll do something stupid, like beat that sympathetic fucking look off his face.
“I need you to see clearly. You’ve been compromised since the second she walked into our lives, and I’m worried that you’re going to make bad decisions because of her. This shit with Gallo and Frost is serious. You barely avoided an all-out war once already. You think Gallo’s done? You think Frost isn’t going to try something again? I need you, Erick. I need you on your game, not lusting after your prisoner.”
I slowly turn and stare at him. “Fuck you.”
“Yeah, fine, you’re pissed, but I’m still right.”
I walk away. If I stay a second longer, I might strangle him.
But part of me knows he has a point, or at least he has good reasons for concern. I hate those reasons, despise them with every fiber of my being, but I understand them at least.
We drugged Hellie. We kidnapped her. That doesn’t change.
He’s right about Frost and Gallo too—they’re going to be a problem no matter what we do to keep them in check. I need to be actively involved, not chasing after Hellie.
That doesn’t excuse what he did. Ren never should’ve tested her without my consent. He stepped over a line and he will be punished for that shit.
I reach Hellie’s room. The bolt’s closed on the outside and it breaks my heart, seeing her locked down like that. I can’t open it yet—I take a second to compose myself, trying to come to grips with what’s happening.
Hellie tried to run away.
After everything, after yesterday, she tried to escape.
I opened up to her, gave her a glimpse of the man beneath the gangster, and she bolted the first chance she got.
It kills me, thinking about her trying to escape right after I told her that I have feelings for her.
She manipulated me from the start.
I unlock the door and go inside.
Hellie’s sitting in a chair near the window, her knees pulled to her chest, her eyes red from crying. I stand in the doorway, my heart fucking broken, watching her for a long time. Everything we’ve done together floods back: kissing her, fucking her, taking care of her. This is my Hellie, and I thought we had something real.
She looks back at me, tries to smile, but it fades.
“Is it true?” I ask. “You tried to escape?”
“Yes,” she says. “It’s true.”
I want to ask a dozen things. Why, how, what did I do wrong, why now? Except I can’t make any of it come out. I continue looking at her, searching for that feeling from the night before, trying to hold on to that little bit of goodness in my life.
The feeling’s still there. The connection, the need. It’s still there, and that’s what kills me the most.
I feel like I’ve been dumped into the desert with a rock crushing my spine. My body’s numb, my brain’s gone haywire.
She betrayed me.
She tried to run after all this.
Even knowing Gallo and Frost are out there and both of them want to kill her, she still tried to escape.