Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
One of the windows on the far side of the room is smashed. Car tires screech away. There’s a brick on the floor with a piece of paper stuck to it. I walk over, ignore the glass, pick it up, and stare at the paper. My stomach cramps. My heart tightens. It feels like a fist squeezing harder and harder in my chest. This is more than confusion. This is more than being torn down the middle. This is like an earthquake shattering me in half.
“What is it?” Molly says from behind me. I can hear her getting dressed.
I swallow and turn. My tone is dark. My thoughts are darker. “Nothing good.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Molly
I sit on the other side of the workout room, my head spinning as my mind tries to catch up to everything that has happened. First, there was the workout, making eyes at each other the whole time, and then the steaminess. My body is still sore from it. My heart is sore, too, from all the family talk and hints at the future.
I was going to go all the way with him. Even when the nerves tried to make me tell him I needed time, I was going to do it. Now Duke’s on the other side of the room, speaking to his cop friend, Ethan.
Walking to the counter, I look at the brick with the note taped to it. There’s a photo of Ryan in a poorly lit room, but it’s definitely him. I’ve never seen him look so scared. I almost think, Good, it’s what you deserve. This whole thing began as revenge, after all.
However, seeing the fear in his eyes and the trapped panic, I can’t. The blood dripping down his face doesn’t help either. He was a verbal bully, fine. He drank too much. He reminded me of my dad with his pettiness. I never loved him, didn’t even really like him, but he doesn’t deserve this. Even if I thought he did, the pain in Duke’s voice is too much to handle.
“I’ll just pay them,” Duke snaps down the phone. I imagine how passionate he’d be if one of our kids were in danger. Every muscle is roaring like he’s ready for action. His shoulders, arms, and legs are tense. He stares out the window. “Why? What the fuck do you mean, they want something else? How do you know that?”
Duke lowers the phone and puts his hand over it. “Get ready to leave, Molly.”
I look around for my sneakers. We took them off for training. My underwear is sticky from the workout and what we did after. In an alternate universe, we’re still lying on the padded floor, Duke’s manhood gliding inside me. He looked massive in the shorts, the outline of his cock so big it was intimidating.
I pull on my sneakers, lace them up, and wait as Duke finishes his phone call. When he’s done, he walks over and glances at the photo. I reach out to touch him, and my heart breaks a little. Maybe that’s melodramatic. I don’t care. It does when he steps away, drenched in tension. It’s like he regrets everything we’ve done. Can I blame him?
He flips over the note as if he wants to read the writing again. Midnight. Come alone. If you tell the cops, we’ll hear about it. We have a special surprise for you.
“Some fucking use that security was,” Duke snarls. “Goddamn it. They could be doing anything to him. They could be torturing him right this second, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Trying to remember this isn’t about me—or us—I ask, “What did your cop friend say?”
“Ethan’s going to meet me at my place. We’re going to strategize there. Apparently, the gang has some of the cops on their payroll. Ethan’s heard word on the grapevine that these bastards have a special surprise for me. In the meantime, they’ve got my boy, my child. I remember when he was tiny, Molly. I remember when he couldn’t even talk.”
Duke clears his throat, his eyes getting glassy. I want to reach out and offer some comfort, but I remember how he moved away before. Maybe it’s pathetic, but I’m not sure I can handle that again.
“It’s going to be okay,” I say weakly.
He looks at me like he wants to snap, If you have nothing useful to say, don’t speak. Maybe that’s just my imagination cruelly taunting. “Thanks, Molly,” he says.
“I can get a cab ho—”
“You’re not going home,” he snaps. “You’re staying with me until this is over. I left Ryan on his own, and they got him. I can’t risk the same happening to you. I’d never forgive myself.”
It’s what he said before, and it hits me with the same passion. He looks at me like he truly cares, like it goes way deeper than any of this current drama ever could. He’s looking at me as if he feels the same way I do, like we’ve been waiting for each other. It’s as though we were made for each other, and if it weren’t for Ryan, we’d slot into place without any problems.