Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I was clearly a little drunk.
“How about this, pretty girl?” I arched an eyebrow at him, my tears drying up. “My name is Joey, and I think it’s time to let loose and forget about this asshole of an ex for a little while. What do you say? Want to get out of here?”
I nodded at him, desperate for some kind of relief from the pain in my chest. He held his hand out to me, and I placed my palm in his, letting him pull me up to my feet. He wrapped an arm around my waist, a mischievous twinkle lighting up his eyes that almost had me swooning. “It’s time to have some fun on the wild side, pretty girl. What’s your name?” he asked me.
“Adelaide,” I informed him.
“Gorgeous name for a gorgeous girl,” he commented, winking at me as he led me toward the door all while I still clutched the whiskey bottle in my hand.
That night led to many more nights filled with “fun” on the wild side.
But honestly, Joey might have saved my life because back then, I wasn’t sure if I could survive without Tristan to lean on.
I sat on the bathroom counter, trying to put off dealing with Tristan for as long as I could. I knew he was waiting on me to come out and come to bed before he went to sleep. But he was going to be waiting a hell of a long time. I’d sleep in the damn bathroom before I slept in the same bed with him again.
I stared down at Jessie’s name on my phone. She was calling me again, and I was sorely tempted to answer it. She and I had always been close, especially after Joey and I had started clashing heads a lot a few months after we first got together. She’d always had my back after one of our huge fights, and I knew at the end of the day, she was one of the people that I knew I could always rely on.
Then again, I’d thought that about Joey, too, and just that quickly, he’d turned his back on me just because I was with Tristan.
Sighing, I pressed the answer button on my phone, putting it up to my ear. “Hello, gorgeous,” I commented, a smirk twisting my lips, actually kind of happy that I would be hearing her familiar voice.
“I figured you’d answer her call and not mine,” Joey drawled on the other end of the line. I cursed softly, the smirk dropping from my lips. He sighed softly, sounding extremely tired and worn out. A frown tugged at my lips as worry wound around my heart for the man. “You actually think you can run from me, pretty girl?” he asked, using his old nickname for me.
“Not really running, Joey,” I grumbled, being honest. I mean, I was in a way, but I was running from whoever was after Tristan—or me. I was still trying to figure that one out. If I relied on that text message though, my money was on me.
He snorted. “Right,” he sarcastically retorted. I swallowed thickly. “I’ll pretend that you didn’t just try to fucking lie to me.” I grimaced. If Joey hated anything, he fucking hated a liar. “Tell you what, pretty girl,” he said, calling me by that old, familiar nickname again. I swallowed thickly. God, I missed him. “You come back to me by tomorrow night, and I’ll fix all of this bad shit between us. We’re good as hell together, pretty girl, and you’re too deep in this shit to try to run away now.”
I frowned down at the floor, all of those old feelings rising in me. Joey had drawn me out of the funk that I had fallen into after Tristan and I had broken up. He was my rebound in a way, and after a few months, he became a lot more than that to me. Although we were toxic as fuck together, I couldn’t deny that I still deeply cared about Joey. I always would. He was my rock.
“Joey, you know that I would never rat on you. I went through hell and back to protect you and your secrets.” And he knew what kind of hell I’d gone through. How many times had I finally come back home to him, beaten to within an inch of my life, just to protect him? It was certainly more times than I could count on one hand.
He sighed. “You leaving right now was a really bad choice, Adelaide. You need to come back home, pretty girl.”
“Why, Joey?” I angrily demanded. He knew how much I hated being given the run-around.
“Pretty girl, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, alright? Just… fuck, I always seem to fuck up with you,” he confessed, making my heart twist in my chest. “Pretty girl, I know what Jessie said to you. I never put a hitman on you. I tried to set up a meeting to get one off of your back, but it didn’t fucking work.” Shit. “There’s a man that’s supposed to be bringing you back to me, but he’s not going to hurt you. He’s supposed to protect you until he can get you back here to me.”