Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
“What …” I pushed up from the ground, and Lewis’s arm slid around me, helping me. My hair clung to the back of my neck, and I realized I was clammy with sweat.
At once, the nightmare came rushing back, and disbelief and horror filled me. Tears burned my eyes.
“Shit.” Lewis saw and pressed his forehead to my temple. “Talk to me, mo chridhe.”
I leaned into him at the Gaelic endearment. We’d learned it in our Gaelic language class at school. One day, a few months ago, I got insecure by how he kept pulling back every time our kisses got a bit hot and heavy. I’d started to think he wasn’t into me romantically after all. Lewis couldn’t believe I’d think such a thing and had kissed my tears away. The endearment had slipped out.
I wondered later if it was because his dad called his mum by a Gaelic endearment. If he liked the sound of it. I knew I did. He never called me mo chridhe in front of anyone else, though. His friends would never let him hear the end of it.
But those two words made me feel safe and loved in Lewis Adair’s arms. Even as the memories continued to make me shiver.
“You were whimpering in your sleep,” he whispered hoarsely. “You sounded so scared.”
Hearing the question in his words, I pulled away but only to look him in the eyes. I knew confusion colored my tone. “It was about the day my birth father kidnapped me.”
Lewis tightened his embrace.
“I don’t know why. I haven’t thought about it in forever.”
“Michael and Lana were talking about that documentary they watched. About the kidnapped girls.”
My lips formed an O. And then frustration filled me that something so simple and meaningless could still trigger nightmares after all this time …
“In the grand scheme of things, Callie … six years isn’t a long time. It was only six years ago.”
“I know.”
“Do you want to talk about it? I … I still have bad dreams about the night Mum’s ex broke into the house …”
I knew that his stepmum’s deranged ex-boyfriend had not only come after Regan, but had broken into the house, assaulted Eredine who was watching Lewis and Eilidh at the time, and then tied Eilidh and Lewis up in the guest annex. The man had gone after Regan then, and she’d fought him off. Her ex had slipped off a cliff’s edge, never to be seen again. They were assured he’d drowned.
As awful as it sounded, I wished my birth father were dead so I never had to worry about him coming back.
“He took me from school,” I told Lewis. “Do you remember?”
Lewis pursed his lips. “I felt guilty. I’d been too busy watching the fight that broke out in the playground, and I didn’t see Andros approach you.”
Nathan Andros. My father. The psycho drug dealer. What a legacy. For a long time after he’d kidnapped me, attempted to kill Mum, I’d worried I was tainted by him. That by merely being his daughter, I didn’t deserve good things. Didn’t deserve Walker. Didn’t deserve Lewis. Lewis’s constancy as my friend had helped me shake off those fears.
Walker adopting me finally made me realize that who my birth father was wasn’t my fault. Walker was my real dad, in all the ways that mattered. And if he found me worthy of love, then surely, I must be. Now and then, however, that old insecurity would whisper insidiously in my ear.
“It wasn’t your fault he took me,” I reassured Lew.
Lewis didn’t look like he believed me. My boyfriend could be frustratingly overprotective sometimes. He took on too much responsibility for things. We were alike in that way.
“I mean it. You couldn’t have stopped it, anyway.” Make a scene and I’ll shoot your mother in the fucking head, kid. “He threatened my mum. I was going with him no matter what.” Say “Yes, Daddy.” My lip curled in disgust. “He made me call him daddy, like his sperm donation to my existence meant any-fucking-thing to me.”
My boyfriend’s arms squeezed around me at my uncharacteristic cursing.
“He … he took me to this motorhome in the middle of nowhere. And he … he said the most awful things about Mum.” Nausea roiled in my gut. “I didn’t understand some of it then, but I understand it now.” I looked at Lewis. “That man is my flesh and blood, and he threatened to rape Mum with his gun. He said that to me. His ten-year-old kid.”
Lewis looked sick for me. “Callie …”
“He called Mum all the names under the sun. Tried to turn me against her, like he ever could. Kept telling me I was going home with him to the States. And I was so afraid it would happen. When Mum showed up, he threatened to kill me. My own father threatened to kill me. And then Mum had to leave with him to protect me … I … I was terrified. Because she went with him to save me, and if something had happened to her—”