Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94436 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“I hope they die slowly,” Zoe seethed after a moment.
That shocked me into silence. Zoe was not ignorant to the violence of this world. She was realistic, cynical, living her life with one hand up as a shield because this world had yet to prove that it wasn’t out to hurt her.
But she’d never been violent herself. She’d had to deal with a lot in her life despite her parents working their asses off to give her a peaceful one. Zoe had had a choice, when faced with the realities of how cruel this world was. To take injustice and let it turn her bitter and angry, or to hold her head up high, not let a single person force her to bow down, to shrink. She’d chosen the latter. And she was the most regal person I knew.
Yet now she was out for blood.
“Me too,” I whispered.
I hung up, my world shaking, tilting. I knew that nothing was going to look the same after this was all settled, and I struggled against how powerless and small that made me feel.
When I looked up, Eric wasn’t in front of me. Karson was.
He was still wearing the same black tee and jeans he had been in when all of this happened. His eyes were bloodshot, heavy, showing that he hadn’t slept. I glanced down to his hands. Though he’d washed them, I didn’t miss the slightly pinkish hue to them. Blood.
He was staring at the door to Wren’s room, standing in the hallway as if he was a statue and not a man.
“It’s my fault.” His voice wasn’t flat, empty, harsh as I’d become used to with Karson. Even when he was with Wren it was like that. He wasn’t like Jay. He didn’t let even a whisper of his heart, his true feelings, slip out.
But his eyes, the ones that were dead and dangerous the night I’d met Jay, danced with life and love whenever he looked at Wren. Whenever Wren was in the vicinity.
To say those eyes were dead now wasn’t accurate. They weren’t just dead. They were decimated, ruined, obliterated. I saw something else too. Resignation. That alpha male glint that had been in Jay’s eyes when he’d walked out on me, thinking it was for the best.
“You’re leaving her?” I asked, sharpness in my tone despite looking at the naked pain on his face. I didn’t need him to say it out loud to know it was true. Fuck, if Jay hadn’t been married to me, if our lives weren’t coiled up the way they were, I was sure he would’ve attempted to leave me. As it was, I still couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t.
It was the way of these men, trying to protect us with more pain because they thought their absence was some kind of gift, some kind of mercy.
Karson rubbed at the back of his neck. “She’s better off without me,” he glanced to the closed door then looked back to me. “If she hadn’t met me, none of this would’ve happened. I need to go now. She’ll only know pain with me.”
I stared at this man. This ruined man. The one who I knew struck fear into the blood of whoever crossed him, whoever encountered him. The one capable of doing terrible, violent things to other humans. The man who my best friend loved with all of her heart. Her mangled, broken and bleeding heart after losing a baby she hadn’t known she wanted.
“You’re a coward,” I spat with all of my anger and sorrow. I leaned forward when I spoke, to make sure he knew I was not afraid of him. Not impressed by whatever sacrifice he thought he was making. Not one bit.
“Not just a coward but a narcissistic one at that,” I continued. “You know, if I hadn’t gone into Klutch that night, I never would’ve met Jay, never would’ve met you and therefore Wren never would’ve met you. That doesn’t mean this is my fault.” I looked at that door again, swallowing against the pain in my throat, the pain in my heart before meeting Karson’s eyes. “There is no one to blame for this except the people who did this. You took care of them, didn’t you?”
Karson nodded once, brusquely.
Yes. Taken care of. Dead.
I was happy. Glad that whoever tore my best friend’s life apart, who’d made it so she’d be scarred for life, broken for life, who killed her fucking baby was dead. I hoped it was long and painful.
“They’ve been punished. The people who are truly responsible,” I sighed. “You walking away now is not punishing anyone but Wren. Not hurting anyone but Wren. And that woman, that fabulous, kind, open hearted woman has been torn apart.” My voice broke ever so slightly at the end, but I soldiered on. “And so help me God, if you even think about leaving her at a time when she needs you most, I will hunt you down, and I will end you.”