Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
As for Samson Zephyr he had finally been caught and put behind bars as well for the counterfeit money. He’d be out in six years give or take. He had thrown Perry under the bus and given the Feds every detail they wanted placing much of the blame on Perry. He’d even said he had helped Perry because he was scared of him. That was bullshit but Perry’s recent confession had made it believable.
Winslet was my only concern though. Protecting her through all of this. Keeping the news stations off, making sure no one came around her, and being there to hold her.
Once the media had gotten ahold of it, her apartment had been covered with reporters, wanting to ask her about Perry. I should have expected that, but I had been solely focused on her needs.
Bane, Linc, and Ransom had come and held them back while I got her into one of the black Escalades with windows tinted dark enough to keep her face from the public, then brought her here. Keeping her in my room for the most part, not wanting to force this bunch on her until she was ready. When the house was empty, which I tried to make happen daily, I got her out to the pool and made sure she had some sunshine. I had sent for Marley and had her brought here twice. The media had been hounding her too and Marley had decided this past week to go stay for an extended visit in Colorado with a cousin of hers that lived there.
Winslet had taken a leave of absence from school, and I wasn’t sure if she would go back. Facing those people, ones she didn’t trust, when they all knew her brother was a convicted serial killer was daunting for her. It was for me, too, because if a fucker upset her, I would snap.
“Are you not watching this?” Than asked me from the other end of the sectional in our great room.
I shook my head, not looking away from the doorway.
“Halo and Saylor will be good for her. She’s been stuck in that room with you for two weeks,” Bane told me.
I knew he was probably right, but I wasn’t sure I liked the way he had phrased it. She wanted to stay in my room with me. I had been letting her make the decisions on what she was ready for, and when she had said she wanted to come out today, we had come out.
A stuffed horse whacked me in the leg, getting me to break my focus on the door. I turned to see Hawkins’s toothless smile as he clapped his hands and bounced in his round plaything that didn’t move. He just sat in it and spun around, hitting the shit that surrounded him on the tray table connected to it. The kid was fucking cute. Looked just like Bane’s brother, Crosby, who had been killed over a year ago. Hawkins was the part of Crosby that he’d left behind. Bane was his dad though.
I picked up the horse and held it out to him. “Here ya go, little man.”
He grabbed it and then stuck the ear in his mouth, gumming it.
“FUCK!” Forge shouted at the television.
I cut my eyes to Bane. “He keeps watching football with us, and that’s gonna be his first word,” I told him.
Bane looked at Hawkins, concerned. Not that he would actually care about his son cursing, but because Halo would. I used to think his ass was weak. That he’d let a woman break him. Control his every move. He had changed because of her. The asshole…well, he was less of one now.
And I no longer judged him. I understood. He wasn’t weak or broken. He was complete.
“God, could y’all be any louder?” Saylor asked as she sauntered into the room.
She was holding a dirty martini in her hand as she made her way to Jude. His eyes were on her as if she were his source of life. Again, I got it. The way his sole focus seemed to be her. Okay, maybe I got it a little less. Because Saylor Rice was a fucking handful. She’d been spoiled and raised with…well, all of us.
My eyes were back on the door. Winslet hadn’t appeared, but neither had Halo. I considered going to check on her.
“Relax, Oz,” Saylor’s voice called out over the noise.
I swung my gaze to her.
She had taken a seat on Jude’s lap and was looking at me with an amused smirk. “Winslet is fine. She stayed in there to help Halo finish icing the cookies.”
Hawkins started to fuss, and his bottom lip stuck out. Before Bane could get him, Saylor was up, handing her glass to Jude.
“I got him,” she said and walked over to take him from his stationary contraption. She smiled at him, then kissed his head. “All right, you. Let’s go play over on your mat.”