Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
The mood darkens immediately. He clenches his fist, trembling. “Yeah, I did, and that’s why I pushed for you to stay with your mom. It was pretty damn obvious who was in the wrong there.”
“That wasn’t often.”
“Either way, it was evil,” he growls. “What happened to him?”
I shrug. “He went to jail for those four months, then he disappeared. He left. He never contacted us again. Mom said he once seemed scared when he called her from jail.”
“Good,” Landon snaps.
“I never saw him scared,” I say, a hopeless feeling gripping me. “Just big and tough and filled with rage. Mom always told these stories about what he was like before. It was almost like she was trying to convince me she had an excuse for being in this mess. He changed like that, apparently.” I snap my fingers.
“I saw it a couple of times,” Landon says. “He’d try to switch it up on me, but I knew what sort of man he was. I wouldn’t fall for his bullshit charm.”
“After it was all said and done, you scared him.”
“Did your mom tell you that?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. You scared him because there’s another side to you, right? There’s a demon in you.”
Landon unclenches his fist slowly. It looks like it takes a considerable effort. “Yeah, maybe there is. Or maybe I’m just a man who understands certain people will never learn their lesson. You’re right, Lily. I put the fear of God into your father. I held him at gunpoint, and I said some seriously deranged things so he’d get the point, and I’d do it again.”
“I’m not mad about that,” I murmur. “I just wanted to know, but what about the other thing?”
“Are you wearing a wire?” he grunts, then stuffs a slice of pizza into his mouth.
“Hilarious,” I snap.
“It’s not necessarily a joke,” he says after eating. “Just like there’s a world where I’m love-bombing you, and everything I’ve said is bull, there’s a world where your friends at work have asked you to record me. The thing is, Lily, I trust you. I killed that man.”
He speaks so coldly, so savagely. It causes a weird sensation to dance through me, like a combination of lust and righteousness.
“What happened?” I whisper.
Landon stares at me. This is difficult, but he won’t let it break him. He won’t look away. “At the house, that monster admitted to … hurting his daughter. He bragged about it to my face. I blacked out. When I woke up, I’d strangled the motherfucker. I was going to turn myself in, but the mother begged me not to. She said we could get away with it.
“My friend Ethan saved my ass. He has police contacts through his family. It was suspicious and close at certain points, but I got away with it. Carter’s right. There’s a demon in me. I won’t deny it, but I think he and the rest of them are goddamn hypocrites for branding me the way they have. They would’ve done the same if they were in my position.”
“Carter says we need to work inside the system,” I murmur.
“I don’t care what Carter says. I care what you think. Hearing the truth, do you hate me?”
“I could never hate you,” I whisper, warning myself to be careful, “but …” This next bit will be painful. “I can’t be with you.”
“You can’t be seen with me,” he says. “Did they come outright and tell you they’d fire you?”
“They’re being sneaky about it.” I shrug. “It’s my job, Landon. It’s everything I ever wanted.”
“Nobody can see us now,” he says in that husky voice, sending tremors all over me.
“Yeah, but what about the future? We can’t exactly date like this.”
He smirks. Suddenly, all the darkness seeps out of the room. I wonder if he knows how impressive that is and how strong his effect on me is. Nobody else has ever even come close.
“I’m not thinking about the future,” he says.
“What did the doctor say?” I ask. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
“The big C. I’ll get more details the day after tomorrow, but he made it clear I had months. Months, and I’ve wasted so many years helping to tear relationships apart, milking idiots.”
“Why?” I ask. “If you hate it this much …”
“That’s the thing. Before this diagnosis, I put little stock in how I felt or in what I wanted. I saw that there was a business opportunity. I promised Ethan I’d help, so that’s what I did. I lived my life on autopilot before …”
His gaze lingers on me. “Your diagnosis?” I fill in.
“No,” he snarls. “Before I saw you. You’ve made me feel alive.”
“Don’t,” I whisper.
“Don’t tell you how perfect you are?”
“Every time you say something like that, it’s like a little shot of dopamine right in my brain.”