Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104729 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Before I know it, we are on the plane, and then we are landing. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know, my eyes are opening, and the plane is no longer moving.
“Where are we?” I ask.
“New York,” he answers. His answer takes me off guard. Normally, because of business, my father keeps a residence in Miami, so why are we in New York?
He must read my question because the moment we are alone in the back seat of his car, he leans forward, his arms resting on his knees.
“When you disappeared, so did the deal with Alaric.”
The deal that paid off his debt.
“You’ve been hiding in New York this whole time. Did you even try to find me?” My voice cracks.
“Of course. I did, but after a week …”
“You thought I was dead.” He looks down at my words, distraught. I reach my hand across the car and take his hand in mine. “You couldn’t have known, and you wouldn’t have found us.”
“How?” He shakes his head, and I know he wants to ask how I am alive, but he’s too emotional to do so.
“Alaric. If it wasn’t for Alaric, I would be dead.”
He grits his teeth at my admission. It’s obvious there is still bad blood between them.
Not wanting another confirmation, I turn to look out the window. For the first time since I have been rescued, I let my mind wander, and my thoughts go straight to him.
In my mind, he’s beside me, and it makes the pain spreading through my body more powerful.
Everything hurts.
My father must notice because he turns and says, “The doctor will be waiting at the apartment … at the hotel.”
“You’ve been staying at a hotel?”
“No, I was somewhere else. Where no one could find me.”
“And now?”
“When you were rescued, one of the men who worked for Alaric told me where you would be and that my problem was taken care of. He would honor the original deal and that what he did to you was enough.”
My father’s fists are clenched, and I can only imagine what he must think. What he must think Alaric did to me.
“Dad—”
“No, I don’t want to know. I don’t think I can live with myself if I knew.”
My teeth bite down into my cheek. I don’t say anything, though. The truth is, that’s a conversation for a different day. I don’t have the energy to go there anyway.
Soon, we are pulling up to the hotel, and I’m being whisked away.
My brain is going a mile a minute, and I can’t even take in all that’s happening. My father doesn’t just have one room for us; he has rented the whole floor. A hotel security guard waits for us as we exit the elevator.
“Is this really necessary?” I ask, but he doesn’t respond.
When I’m finally alone in the suite that I’ll be staying in, the first thing I do is strip naked and stare at myself in the mirror.
I knew I lost weight, but now looking at myself, I can’t believe how much.
I look skeletal. My skin, although sun-kissed from the days fishing in the sun, still looks pale. Like my body was starved of nutrients, which it was. My hair is brittle and no longer shiny, but as I stare at my hip bones, I don’t think about anything other than the fact that I lived. Looking at myself, I now see how close I was to dying.
Turning on the shower water, I step in once it’s hot. A moan escapes my mouth. After weeks of bathing in a lake, a warm shower feels like heaven.
I let the hot scalding water wash away the past few weeks, and by the time I step out, I feel a little more like myself.
Like a Phoenix.
Reborn after death.
42
Alaric
It’s been thirteen days since I’ve seen her, and I still look around as if she is just up the beach from me.
Leaving her was much harder than I thought it would be. But it was also the most necessary thing I have ever done.
Despite what she says, her father killed my brother.
I can’t be with her.
Despite what I needed for myself, I put her first and let her father live. Then like the fucking lovestruck pussy that I am, I paid off his debt and let him go free of any consequences.
The only one being that his life was in my hands, and I gave it back to him.
For a man with as much pride as Michael Lawrence, it’s almost enough.
But for me, it’s not, so I have to stay away.
I’m sitting on my newly refurbished yacht in the port of Miami when Cristian approaches.
“How is she?” I ask because no matter what I say, I have my men checking in on her.
“No one has seen her.”
That makes me lift my brow. “What do you mean?”