Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
He was harder. Darker. Less receptive to talking.
It was funny, really.
Dante was the big brother. The protector.
Now he looked like a man possessed. Like something was on the tip of his tongue, and he was about to let the whole fuckin’ world have it.
And honestly? Maybe he was.
Maybe he was going to fuck everybody up, and it was only a matter of time.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he barked.
“Yes,” I answered his earlier question. “He told me this whole sordid tale that centers around you and everything—everyone—that you’ve decided to hurt.”
His eyes flashed for a moment, as if I’d hit home with those few pointed words, but just as suddenly as it appeared it was gone.
“Rafe didn’t tell you anything.” he snorted. “Not if he wants to fuckin’ live, anyway.”
I tilted my head and stared at him.
“What are you doing here, Dante?”
He turned his head and studied the darkened street where Rafe had disappeared.
“It’s time.”
“It’s time for what?”
“To return to the land of the living.”
“Why?”
I had a feeling it had a lot to do with the little girl that was currently inside with Krisney.
The little girl that we only got to see once in a blue fucking moon—IE, when one of us brothers got hurt.
Tobias. Travis. Baylor. Me.
“Because I have some unfinished business.”
“What kind of unfinished business?”
“The kind that I don’t want to talk about right now,” he amended. “But when I do, you’ll be the first to know.”
I growled.
“Dante, that’s bullshit, and you know it.”
He looked away.
“It’s got nothing to do with you, and everything to do with me.” He took a deep breath. “I…it’s a mistake I’m rectifying. Once I have it all figured out…I’ll be back.”
“You’ll be back,” I repeated. “Why? How?”
“Sometimes the darkness hurts,” he whispered. “I’m…fucking tired of seeing only black. I want to see sunshine again. I want to be a better person. Mary needs me to dig my way out, and that’s what I’m doing.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“I need a favor, though.” He returned his gaze to me.
“Anything.”
I didn’t even hesitate.
I could tell I surprised him, causing me to grin.
That grin quickly fell with what he had to say next.
“If I die…”
“Dante…”
He held up his hand to stop me from speaking.
“If I die, you have to take care of Mary.”
“You know I will,” I said. “We all will.”
He nodded once. “I need to go…just remember one thing.”
I waited for him to say what he had to say, and immediately regretted letting him say it.
“You’re stronger than what you think. I’ve always admired you.” He looked at his hands. “Don’t let her go. Don’t waste even a second.” He took in a shaky breath. “Don’t be like me. Don’t take one single freakin’ second for granted…because sometimes they don’t make it home like you’re expecting them to. Sometimes life rips your soul to shreds and then expects you to go on living as if your heart wasn’t just ripped right out of your chest.”
I closed my eyes.
“Don’t waste it.”
***
“I used to babysit a little girl who had Down Syndrome,” Krisney said softly.
My eyes were wide open as I replayed what Dante had said to me an hour before.
After Dante had collected his sleeping little girl from my fiancée’s arms, he’d walked out of the door and straight to his truck without another word.
An old company vehicle. One that I hadn’t seen in a while.
The one and only time I’d seen him out and about after the accident that had taken his wife and kids—as well as his car—he had been on a motorcycle. He still had his wife’s car parked in his garage, but I knew he wouldn’t drive it. Not ever again.
Hence the old company tow truck.
He could put the little girl into a car seat in the back seat.
“Oh yeah?” I murmured.
“She was the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful little girl that I ever met,” she whispered into the darkness. “She gave the best hugs, and I adored her from the tips of her piggy tails to her pink little toenails.”
“She sounds like a sweet little girl.”
“She was,” she agreed. “But…Reed, that little girl absolutely adored everyone and everything. Unfortunately, the reverse wasn’t true for her.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she cleared her throat. “That Mary, Dante’s daughter, has a tough road ahead of her. Not everyone is as accepting as we are, and one day, Mary’s going to be the target of some hate. I just hope when that day comes, that Dante doesn’t go off on some ignorant teenager who may be acting like a jerk but isn’t really a bad person.”
I grunted.
“Dante…” I growled. “Well, he’s getting there.”
“Why now?”
“Mary.”
She rolled over slowly until she was pressed to my side.
My chest felt like it warmed fifteen degrees just by the simplest of touches.
I knew she wasn’t comfortable, but I could feel her determination to stay there.