Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
My tone was suffocated when I pushed, “You, all of you, beat up a single woman?”
“Yes.”
I stood there, silently dying as I stared at him, waiting for more.
But that was it.
Yes.
If that was true, then everything else Eleanor said was too.
No mercy.
“You told me you weren’t good for me,” I whispered.
He didn’t wince, reach out to me, move my way.
He stood there, his lifeless eyes locked on me, and that was it.
“You didn’t lie.”
With one last look at him, I did the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life.
I turned my back on Dustin “Hardcore” Cutler and walked away.
20
HOURS
Hellen
Within twenty-four hours, I knew it wasn’t a club, it also wasn’t a gang.
It was a cult.
And cults never let you get away easy.
Archie texted seven times, and called three.
Jagger called twice.
Dutch and Rush both called once. They did this even though I’d never had any direct communication from them before. I only knew it was them because they identified themselves before I stopped listening and deleted their voicemails.
Janna, who I liked a whole lot, she seemed sweet, I was considering asking her if she wanted to hang with us during our Fortnum’s Sundays, but we had yet to exchange that first phone communication, texted once and called twice.
She was the only one I responded to.
I didn’t read her text, but I returned one, politely requesting that she communicate with Core then tell me when it would be a good time for me to go to his house and get my things, without him there.
I worked from home and spent an hour and a half drafting an email to Web about how I’d need to give them thirty days’ notice because I was voiding our contract.
This was all the work I was capable of doing due to being glassy-eyed and exhausted from crying, emotion and no sleep.
I did not contact Marcy, Kyra or Li. I did not call my mom.
And I did not hear from Core.
Within forty-eight hours, I’d gone from heartshorn to pissed.
Because I’d spent an uncomfortable five minutes huddled in my fucking house, having to ignore Archie calling through the door.
But I was oh so much more pissed because I loved him enough to keep his secret.
And because he made me into the woman I never wanted to be.
Because I still hadn’t called Marcy, Kyra or Li, but when I eventually did, I couldn’t tell them the man Core was. I didn’t have it in me to make them feel some of the heartbreak I felt in knowing the person they liked so much, the person they liked with me, was so insanely awful.
I couldn’t tell my mom.
I certainly couldn’t tell Andy.
I’d have to dodge and weave when the time came and I explained why we were through.
When I explained why Core and me, who were perfect together, suddenly were over.
It actually caused me real, physical pain to think of them knowing what I knew about Core, not the actual knowledge, but how they’d feel about him when they knew.
I loved him so much, even when we were done, I felt I had to protect him from people thinking he was an asshole.
Oh yeah.
That pissed…me…off.
And I had to keep this all to myself because I didn’t want them to know how badly I’d been duped. I didn’t want to come up against those questions about just how he took care of the Greeks. How I knew his club waded into shit like that. How they were not Angels of Death, nor Angels of Vengeance, they were mercenaries, and I’d bought into his, “Don’t ask, baby, I can’t share,” line of bullshit.
I’d allowed myself to become that woman.
But he was the one who put me in the position of feeling ashamed and embarrassed.
I was Bree times a million.
Because he hadn’t stolen my jewelry.
He’d stolen my heart.
Within sixty hours, I was furious.
I was because I still hadn’t told Marcy, Kyra or Li, and I was still working from home because, if I left my house, between here and there, I didn’t want him to have the chance to ensnare me and use his biker charm and empty promises of making it worth it to try to get back in there with me.
I was furious because I was scared to leave my house because I loved him so much, I knew if he caught me, I could talk myself into believing. Turn the other cheek. Live my life and just be good, never share club business and never rat, and I’d be fine.
I was furious because I spent ages typing out angry messages to him on my phone, and then deleting them.
I was furious because I was powerless on another matter.
But what could I do?
Everyone in the family loved Jagger. How did I tell them he was probably just like Core? He knew what Core’s club had done, and his first thought was to cover for him.