Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
She jerked back, flinching.
Life had a funny way of knocking you on your ass. Just when you thought you had it all figured out, it laughed in your fucking face.
I would remember the next words that came out of her mouth for the rest of my life…“He’s not my husband, Jameson. He’s my father.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
LUKE
BOOM.
For the second time in a short period, I had yet another bomb dropped on my fucking head.
Nothing compared to the way this had instantly killed me inside.
It carved.
It cut.
It sliced me up into tiny little pieces, making me bleed from the inside out.
I never expected she’d have it in her to completely fucking destroy me. Burying me alive to suffocate in the lies and deceit she had spun for over three months.
I was blinded by anger.
By her presence.
By my love for her that I couldn’t shake.
I needed to keep going.
I had to remain strong.
I dug my fingernails as hard as I could into my palm to keep from giving in to my true nature. Her only saving grace was I truly cared for this woman.
This was the only thing that was keeping her alive.
The only thing that was keeping me alive, too.
I should have put a stop to this, to her. Knowing that all it would take was a pull of my trigger finger, but the thought alone had the power to bring me to my knees.
She had the power to bring me to my knees.
I missed her so fucking much, and she was standing right in front of me. I couldn’t concentrate on that. I had to stay focused on my hatred for her, on her web of lies that bonded me to her betrayal.
Even then, it still felt like it wouldn’t be enough, it wouldn’t matter because my love for her would prevail.
Possibly ending us both.
“His daughter?” I scoffed out, disgusted with what that meant. “But he… he…”
“He doesn’t touch me, Luke, but that doesn’t mean he stops other men from fucking whatever hole they want on my body. You can decide which one’s worse.”
I couldn’t believe the words I was hearing.
More lies? Or the truth?
She didn’t stop there, admitting, “He’s been selling me off to the highest bidder since he forced me to become a woman at twelve.”
Her eyes didn’t just water that time, they burst, and two symmetrical tears streamed down her gorgeous face.
I fought the urge to comfort her.
To hold her.
To tell her everything was going to be okay. That I would make it okay. I did none of those things. I just stood there and waited for her to continue. I didn’t even think I was breathing, so it wouldn’t keep her from opening up to me.
She was there, but she wasn’t.
Her eyes faded into a familiar place I was currently standing in.
Hell on earth.
You’d think after everything I discovered, I’d have the will to keep her at arm’s length.
I didn’t.
If anything, my desire to hold her was stronger, more vivid and alive. Beating into me with each breath she took. I wanted to fucking kill him, so I grabbed my whiskey glass instead and threw it as hard as I could against the bulletproof window, spraying the contents everywhere. Shards of glass shattered in every direction.
It still didn’t stop her from declaring, “I didn’t want to do it then, and I don’t want to do it now. I’ve never wanted to do it. I hate him! I’ve hated him since I was a little girl. He’s an evil bastard. Always slapping my mother around and treating her like shit. He’s a nasty drunk and snorts blow like it’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” She frowned for a moment, inhaling a deep breath. “My mom always protected us. She always tried to hide us from him. We’d spend summers in Europe, and it was the only time I remember being happy as a kid. He never followed us there for whatever reason, but I knew it would be short-lived. The end of summer would come around, and we’d have to return to Cuba for school. She tried to push boarding school to get us out of the house, but he refused, so we went to a religious school instead, which was the biggest irony of it all.”
“Sloan—”
“I prayed all the time. I thought if I was a good girl, God would save us… but God never came.”
I couldn’t imagine being raised in that environment.
To have a father abuse you wasn’t something I expected out of her mouth for one second. It was one thing when she was his wife. It was a whole other when she was his daughter.
The insanity of this was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I dealt with a lot of different fucked-up men, but this motherfucker took the cake. It was his daughter…
Like what the fuck?
She took another deep breath, anxiously shaking a bit. “I was born into this life, Luke. This life is all I’ve ever known. Violence. Made men. Trafficking. Guns. Drugs… it all goes hand in hand. My memories are what keep me up at night. It’s why I don’t sleep. I don’t know how to sleep without worrying that someone is going to come into my room and show me how powerful of a man they are.”