Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
My patience and conviction paid off when Cass finally lost his cool and slammed me up against one of the glass windowpanes that went from the floor of the office to its ceiling. Both his hands wrapped around my wrists and in one easy move he had my arms pinned above my head with one hand and the other at my throat. Unlike the day before, the only pressure he applied was the kind that was meant to hold me in place, not slowly steal my life. It was further proof that my Cass was still with me.
“No more hiding, Cass,” I said quietly. Considering the circumstances, I should have been the one panting and sweating and filled with complete and utter fear.
I wasn’t.
But Cass was.
“If you need to take your rage out on me, you have to do it right here, right now. Not in some box in your mind where you could do and say anything to hurt me as much as I hurt you. If you want to beg me not to leave you, do it right here, out loud, because that box is going away too. If you want to scream as loud as you can, do it now. It doesn’t matter who the fuck hears you because everyone should hear you! Every single person who condemned you to that godforsaken place should hear your screams in their nightmares for the rest of their lives.”
I paused only long enough to pull in a breath. “I don’t care if you open every single one of those goddamned boxes one at a time or all together, but you will open them and I’m going to be there when you do… every single fucking time. I promised I would never leave you again and I’m going to keep that fucking promise for the rest of our days.”
His hold on my wrists relaxed slightly, so I gentled my voice. “Our days, Cass. Our days. There’s no you and me anymore. There’s us. Only us. Always us.”
Cass’s face was flushed red and stained with sweat and tears. His hair clung to his forehead and his eyes remained locked on mine for what seemed like forever. My arms ached from being held above me for so long, but there was no pain around my wrists.
Just like there was no pain on my neck, not even where I was still sporting bruises from the previous day. If anything, his fingers felt more like a caress than any kind of threat.
“Us,” Cass whispered. He nodded slightly, but his voice was wobbly.
“Us,” I repeated firmly. Unwavering.
“Us,” he said with more certainty. He released my wrists and rubbed his hands up and down my arms to restore the blood flow. I settled them on his shoulders instead of dropping them to my sides. Both of Cass’s arms ended up around my waist as he slowly sank to the floor. I went with him.
When my knees hit the floor, he put his head against my chest and clung to me. I held him against me as his body began to violently shake. That was when the sobs began. I didn’t try to comfort Cass with words. I didn’t make him promises that everything would be okay. I didn’t even tell him how much I loved him.
I held on to him as tight as I could because that was what he needed me to do.
Truth was, I needed it too.
CHAPTER 29
Cass
The irony of it all hadn’t been lost on me in the aftermath of what hadn’t been a break from reality, but rather a reintroduction to it.
I’d spent nearly my entire life trying to get as far away from the Ashby name as I could only to learn that it had been taken from me years ago. I just didn’t know why. I also couldn’t make sense of my grandmother’s betrayal.
Everything JJ had pointed out after observing Patricia Ashby’s behavior made complete sense to me now. She had been lying to me, hiding her condition, or lack thereof. Every time my mind tried to come up with some viable excuse as to why she might have replaced me with my half-brother, it always went back to the same place.
My time in prison.
There’d been no mental illness that had kept her away. Even if she’d been under my father’s financial and physical control, she would have found a way to get a message to me. She knew enough people in power all over the world that all she would have had to do was make one phone call to a prominent person, and I would never have been transferred to the federal supermax prison in Colorado.
JJ’s fingers closed around mine as the SUV we were in made its way deeper into the city. I tightened my own grip to show him I was still okay.