Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
He managed to not roll his eyes. Instead, he got out of bed and walked to her. He stopped in front of her and cupped her cheeks. “I told you I’ll take what I can. Tomorrow I’ll get you in Sanctum and we’ll play for a couple of hours. Then we’ll get our son and come home and I’ll tuck you both in bed. I’m looking forward to it, and Roman is definitely looking forward to the party on Saturday.”
A smile crossed her face. “Yeah, a party will be fun. I’m eager to see what Big Tag thinks a family celebration looks like.” The smile faltered. “I should go to bed.”
She needed to run away but she wasn’t going far, so he leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Good night, Kim.”
She stepped back. “Good night.”
She practically ran out of the room and he realized he wasn’t going to be able to sleep. He took a quick shower, grabbed fresh pajama bottoms and his phone.
It wasn’t fair but he couldn’t sleep, and his brother was part of the reason.
He’d thought about Ezra all afternoon. Since they’d been pulled over it had run through his head a thousand times. He could lose his brother again.
He dialed the number and in seconds a groggy voice came on the line.
“What? Is something wrong?” Ezra asked.
“What was Roman like as a baby?”
Ezra had offered earlier in the day. Now Beck found he needed to listen.
If Ezra was upset it was after midnight, it didn’t show in the tone of his voice. “He had the fiercest cry. When he was hungry everyone knew it.”
Ezra started to weave his tales and Beck started to forgive his brother.
Chapter Fifteen
Kim took her seat at the conference table and tried not to think about how nice the morning had been. She’d woken up to the smell of bacon cooking and the sound of her son giggling. Then she’d heard Ezra’s voice, and for a single moment she’d feared she would open her eyes and be back at the fort, back in her tiny room looking out over the Mediterranean, and it had all been a dream. Finding Beck, coming to the States, being free.
For that moment, she’d felt a panic that still echoed through her brain hours later.
And that wasn’t good.
“Hey.” Charlotte slid into the seat across from her, a mug of coffee in her hand. “I heard Beck had one of the bodyguards pick up Ezra and drive him over to your place for breakfast. At first Ian was worried Beck was going to murder Ezra and bury him in the backyard, but I saw him earlier and he looked alive.”
Ezra had been sitting at the breakfast table laughing with Roman when she’d walked out, and Beck had placed a mug of coffee in her hand. He’d been standing at the stove, turning bacon and looking so handsome in the early morning light that her heart had done a stupid flip-floppy thing.
She was in serious trouble. “Apparently they talked last night, and they seem a little better. I don’t know. Part of me doesn’t trust it. Beck’s always been so angry. It has to be somewhere in there waiting.”
“I don’t know. He’s done a whole lot of therapy in the last seven years,” Charlotte countered. “Almost all of it centered around dealing with his anger. Men are weird. Women are taught to handle their anger from a young age. Men are taught to punch things.”
“Punching things used to work for me.”
“Shooting things used to work for me,” Charlotte replied with a chuckle. “I think Beck is into breathing now. I drink a lot of wine. And it helps to not be so angry. How are you dealing?”
“Well, I’m hoping we find something that leads to Levi dying in prison.” She’d thought about the mysterious Reva when she wasn’t thinking of how much better it would have been to sleep wrapped around her husband. And he wasn’t her freaking husband anymore, which was precisely why she was in trouble. “And not like he dies of old age, if you know what I mean. I’d like for him to be hard-core shanked and die in a puddle of his own piss.”
“We all want that. Though I suspect Ian would like to do the shanking.” Charlotte glanced back at the door as though trying to make sure they were alone. “I wasn’t talking about being angry with Levi. That’s easy. The anger you must feel toward Beck has to be harder.”
“Why would I be angry with Beck? He’s apologized. He’s been good with Roman. What more should I ask for?”
Charlotte’s eyes went wide. “Kim, he upended your life not once, but twice. Some might even argue it was three times. He divorced you.”
She shrugged and shoved the emotions that threatened to well down deep. That was where it all belonged. “Yeah, well, I was lying to him. I hid his brother from him for years.”