Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142818 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
But him pulling a gun on Swiss would probably mean one of them would get shot. I didn’t want anyone to get shot.
“There was a time in my life when I might not have fought you,” Elden finally spoke, his voice even. “A time when I might’ve just let what happens happen. When I didn’t care if I lived or died. Because I didn’t have anything to live for.”
My mom clutched onto me when I started shaking from the force of my tears, remembering what he told me in the café. My sorrow for Elden and my terror that Swiss might actually do something mingled together.
“Now I’ve got something to live for.” Elden's eyes were no longer on Swiss but on me. “I’ve got everything to live for.”
My heart was beating in my throat.
“Not gonna argue with you that this got fucked-up,” he said to Swiss, still looking at me. “That I made some bad fucking choices in the midst of this. But you’re never gonna get me to wish away what I did. ’Cause I wouldn’t be standin’ right here.”
Still, he stared at me, despite the gun being pointed in his face.
It was sweet. Impossibly sweet. But sweet wasn’t going to penetrate Swiss’s fury right now. I couldn’t be sure that anything would penetrate Swiss right now. So I didn’t think. I just acted. Even though he wasn’t good at macho man declarations in the face of death, Elden was everything to me too.
My mother only let me go because she wasn’t expecting me to rush forward and stand between Elden and Swiss.
“Violet,” Elden growled the second I stepped in front of him, grabbing my shoulders. “Get the fuck behind me.”
I stepped out of his grasp.
“No,” I hissed, eyes on Swiss who had lowered the gun the second I stepped in front of it. “You’re not going to point a gun at him,” I snapped. “You are not going to threaten to kill him. You are not going to lay a hand on him.”
“You need to move aside right now, Violet,” Swiss said in a tone that cooled my blood. “This has nothing to do with you.”
I’d never heard him speak like that before. He didn’t sound like the man who doted on my mother, who cooed at my brother.
He sounded like a cold-blooded killer.
“Violet, get the fuck behind me,” Elden seethed from behind me.
But I didn’t move.
“I’m not moving.” I widened my stance, arms folded. “This has everything to do with me. And I swear to everything I hold dear in this world, including the man behind me, if you hurt him, I will never speak to you again. I will never stay under the same roof as you again. You will not meet this child.” My hand went to my flat stomach. “The one I intend on having, by the way.”
There was a venom in my voice I didn’t recognize, but there was also a promise there. I was willing to do it. To break up my family, to cause my mother pain and suffering if Swiss made the choice first.
And I also knew that he’d rather cut off his own hand than hurt my mother in any way. Even in this almost primal state he seemed to be in.
Silence rang out in the club, and everyone was on tenterhooks, waiting with bated breath. But I wasn’t looking at anyone else. I was only looking at Swiss.
His eyes went from me to the man who had now yanked me to his side, tugging at me until he was slightly in front of me. That pissed me off, but it still meant that Swiss wasn’t going to discharge his weapon with me so close.
Swiss’s eyebrow twitched with fury.
My mother walked toward him and gingerly took the gun from his hand. I was finally able to pull in a full breath of air when he let her. She handed it wordlessly to Hansen.
The tension in the room did not abate even a little, though. Because Swiss was not done.
“You’re getting married,” Swiss growled.
Both my mother and I gaped at him.
Elden was still in an alpha stare off.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I shrieked, not breaking their stares from one another.
“I’m not fucking kidding,” Swiss grated out.
I waited for Elden to come to my aid, but again, he was busy with the aforementioned stare off.
Which was fine; I didn’t need anyone to come to my aid.
“You remember my mom, right?” I addressed Swiss.
That finally made him break the alpha stare off. He glanced at my mother, who was still gaping at him, and his eyes softened, but even the crazy love he had for my mother wasn’t enough to fully penetrate his alpha fury.
“I’m familiar with her,” he grunted.
“Since you’re married and in love in a way that I wouldn’t have believed unless I witnessed it, I imagine she’s told you about her history.”