Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“You like it,” I yell. “You LIKE it!” These words are coming out like an angry snarl. “Say it. Tell me you like it, Olive. You better tell me you like it because if you don’t—”
Something inside of me… flips. Or… flicks. Or… something.
All the anger drains out and I’m calm again.
Reset.
I was out of control. I was… never mind. It’s not important.
Olive is important.
I look down at her again, feeling so lucky. “God, you’re so beautiful. I love you so much, you know that, right?”
She looks me straight in the eyes, pressing her lips together as she nods.
“Say it, then. Say it, Olive.”
“I love you.”
I chuckle, smiling. “Of course you do. We’re partners, remember?”
She nods again. “Yes. How could I forget?” And then she laughs. “Oh, my God, what’s wrong with me?”
I pet her face. Her cheek is so smooth. I do this gently, brushing the back of my hand down her youthful skin. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Olive. You’re perfect. I should know, I made you this way.”
She lets out a long sigh, like my words comfort her. “Of course you did. Of course I am.”
And she’s so fucking cute with her disheveled look and all her messy edges, I have an overwhelming urge to kiss her. So I do. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself even if I tried. This kiss is gentle and soft, meant to heal any discord between us and put us back on the right track. “Of course you are,” I whisper right into her mouth. “You love me.”
“I love you,” she agrees.
“I am your mission.”
“You are my mission,” she repeats.
I let out a long sigh of relief as I slide off to the side of her. “Good girl. Now you get a reward.” I stroke her slow, at first, but when she responds by arching her back and panting, I push my fingers inside her.
Slowly moving them in and out until she comes and I wake up.
But Olive is not in bed next to me, there is no room, there is nothing now.
I’m all alone.
And in the dark.
“Wrong,” my grandfather says. And then a light appears. A spotlight that’s only meant for him. “Boy, you’re never alone. You know this.”
I nod, then look down at myself and realize I’m naked. I look back up at my grandfather and find him smiling.
“You’re a helluva specimen, Ambrose. But of course you are. You come from my bloodline, so I expect nothing less. You’re not embarrassed that I’m looking at you, right?”
I am, but I shake my head no.
“Good,” my grandfather says. “Because it’s time and we don’t want any complications, do we, Ambrose?”
Again, I shake my head no. But secretly, I’m thinking that a complication or two might do me some good right about now.
My grandfather is pleased. “Despite your father’s failures, I always knew you’d be good at this. I was good at this and you take after me, not him. You did a very good job with your asset. She’s the future. You should be very proud of yourself.”
He’s talking about Olive, I understand that part. But I’m not really following along with what he’s not saying just yet. I’ve learned over the years to just… fake it until you make it, ya know?
So that’s what I do. I show no emotion. I do not react. I become his asset. Because that’s what I am. He thinks for me, I act for him.
“Are you ready, Ambrose?”
“Yes.” I do not hesitate. I don’t know what he’s talking about, but I don’t need to know. He thinks for me, I act for him.
“Good. Let’s begin.”
20 - Shep
We’re just exiting the church when I ask Collin the obvious question. “So do you have a plan? For how, exactly, we’re gonna kill this puppet master? Because he could be anyone.”
Collin pans his hand down the driveway towards his house and we head that direction. “Well, they wouldn’t go to all the trouble of buildin’ some secret speakeasy in the middle of the fuckin’ woods if it wasn’t some kind of home base, right?”
My eyebrows shoot up. “You wanna send in a team?”
He shrugs. Like putting together a hit team to take out a shadow-government honeypot is just another one of his available services. “Why not? We’ve got an army. If I can’t use everything I have at my disposal to save my baby sister, then what is the point of all this?”
He’s not wrong. And if I were him, and I owned a private security company that amounted to a small army filled with damaged killers, I’d be thinking the same thing. If you can’t save the ones you love, what’s the point of any of it?
“But first,” Collin says, “we need to call up Penny Rider and you need to give her permission to tell us what she found.”