Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 39161 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 196(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39161 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 196(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
“Go fuck yourself, Jax.” She disconnected the call.
“Motherfuck!” I hissed the expletive under my breath. I knew better. I fucking knew better. The best way to get Holly to do anything other than what you wanted her to do was to tell her she had to do it. Pushing her into doing what you wanted was even worse. Trying to lay a guilt trip on her? Yeah. I’d just guaranteed Holly’s heading straight to Columbia on that humanitarian aid expedition.
I pressed her contact and waited for her to answer the Facetime call. She let it go to voicemail once, so I tried again. She picked up this time and… yeah. She hated me right now.
“Got nothin’ else to say to you, asshole.” I recognized that mulish look on her face. She thought I was going to try to talk her out of going again, but I knew better than that.
“Can you give me two days, Holly? Two days and I’ll go with you. You can still do what you do with your college friends, but I can make sure you’re safe.”
“We’ve got plenty of security. There’s no need for that.”
“Holly. Two days.”
She shrugged one delicate shoulder, a look of indifference and disinterest on her face. “Sorry, Jax. I don’t make the schedule. Plane leaves tomorrow morning at six.”
I wanted to throttle the younger woman. She was constantly bucking me, doing exactly the opposite of what I wanted her to do. To be fair, I was twelve years older than she was, and had decided she’d be mine long before I should have. I’d been sixteen when she came to the compound with Wrath and Celeste. She’d been a precocious but sickly child of four. She’d survived leukemia like a champ, never letting anything get to her. No matter how sick I’d seen her from the chemo, the girl had no “quit” in her. I knew because I’d been with her for the last few treatments. Which she’d not appreciated. I’d insisted, because she’d been so mad at me she hadn’t focused on all the needles and unpleasantness. I’d been happy to take her wrath then, even if what remained of the kid in me had been slightly hurt that she hadn’t accepted me as her protector.
Even when she was so young, I’d been drawn to her. She was this little pixie who’d absolutely cut you if you displeased her, but needed someone looking after her. I’d taken that task on my own, growing into a man protecting the girl until she’d started becoming a woman. The plain truth was, it scared me the first time I caught sight of her in a bikini at the pool. Freaked me the absolute fuck out. Once I’d come to terms with my feelings for Holly, I’d inserted myself into her life but kept playing the part of mean and annoying older brother. Why? Because I knew if she learned to stand up to me, she always would. And if she could stand up to me, she could stand up to anyone.
“Holly, I’m half a fuckin’ world away right now. All I’m asking for is two fuckin’ days. It’s the right thing to do and you know it. I may be a bastard, but I would never let anything happen to you.”
Her expression didn’t change. “I don’t need your protection, Jax. Shotgun and Esther have my back. I’ll be fine. Besides, the father of one of the students going is a senator. They always have security.”
“And their priority will be the senator’s kid. They won’t give two shits about you or the others.”
“And if you were with me, you’d give a shit about the others?” Oh, the sarcasm was strong with this one…
“Of course not. But I’d care about you. I’d be the one protecting you and I’d do it with my life.”
She snorted, scowling at me over the video. “Dramatic much?”
“Holly --”
“No. You listen to me! Nothing’s going to happen. And if it does, I’ll deal. I don’t want or need your help, Jax.”
“You’re wrong there, baby. You need all my help you can get. But I’m telling you right now, if you don’t wait for me, when I find you, I will turn you over my knee and blister your bare ass until you don’t sit for a fuckin’ week.”
Oh, that got her attention. The resolution of the new phones Shotgun had gotten from Argent Tech recently was so great, I could actually see the sweat erupt on her brow. She sucked in a breath and her face and neck flushed a becoming pink. The pulse at her throat beat like mad. All of which, of course, meant pissed her the fuck off something fierce.
“Go find something to do and stay out of my life. Mm’k?” She gave me a saccharine smile before disconnecting the call again.