Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“What the fuck do you know about anything?” I yelled. My emotions were all over the place. I wanted to feel more physical pain because JJ’s emotional hits were worse. To hear him actually say the words after everything that had happened…
JJ shoved me hard enough that I was forced to release him. This time, he was on the attack.
“I know that they’re going to put you back where you belong. I know it tore my brother apart to find out his best friend tried to kill his little brother. I know… I know…” His voice cracked.
“You know what?” I shouted because if he was going to come at me with everything he had then I wanted it done because I knew I’d made a terrible mistake. I’d spent two years planning for this very moment but the sight of JJ, actually putting my hands on him, hearing his vicious words, only served to remind me of the things that had happened before that night. I wanted to laugh because I’d been feeding off the taste of betrayal for so long that I’d forgotten what I’d really been hanging on to… what had kept me going every day of a life that had no longer been my own.
Hope.
Hope that JJ would admit the truth. Hope that we could go back to what we’d been. Hope that maybe this time he’d fight for me, for us.
JJ didn’t miss a beat. “I know you took something from me that night. Something you had no right to take. I know that I wish you’d had better aim because leaving me this way…”
My anger flatlined as I watched JJ coming apart at the same time that he was desperately clinging to control. To know he wished the bullet had hit its mark made me physically ill. What the fuck did his last words mean, anyway? I’d never seen him more physically fit or known him to be so bold, not mincing his words at all.
“What way?” I asked.
JJ remained quiet for several beats. He seemed to deflate like a tire that had picked up a nail.
“I trusted you,” he finally said in a whisper. “As much as I trusted my brother.”
The despair in his voice broke something inside of me.
“Finish it, Cass. Finish it or go and never come back,” JJ said quietly, his eyes holding mine with weary determination.
His words were like a slap in the face, another knife being plunged into my back.
“You’re not the only one who lost,” I responded before I could stop myself. I shook my head and glanced at the tiny pebbles that lined the road’s shoulder. I suddenly felt tired. Tired and unsatisfied.
“Go to hell, JJ,” I managed to say before I moved past him so I could get in my car and do what JJ had said.
Go.
Go and never come back.
CHAPTER 4
Jj
Ishould have been relieved as Cass brushed past me. Based on his demeanor, I knew he wasn’t going for any kind of weapon, so I should have been thanking the man upstairs for letting me off so easy. Cass hadn’t been a guy to fuck with before he’d gone to prison.
Actually seeing the man in the flesh made me realize how stupid I’d been when I’d told Axel we had a tail and to get our charge to safety while I confronted whoever was following us. I’d already known who it was, of course, and I’d ignored every one of Axel’s orders to get back in the car. My frustrated colleague had finally followed protocol and done his job… get our charge to safety first.
I’d been so certain I was ready to confront Cass in person after seeing only images of him via the media. His hair had been much longer than I remembered. He’d always kept it short since that was what the military had required. It was still the deep shade of brown it had always been, but he was no longer clean shaven. His lips, those had been drawn tight with fury. I’d never been on the receiving end of that look. I’d only seen him smiling. Even with all the horrors he’d likely seen as he’d served his country, he was always smiling whenever he’d been able to come home between deployments.
His striking blue eyes had sucked me in from the moment he’d pressed his chest against the barrel of my gun. His physical transformation had kept me so preoccupied that he’d managed to disarm me like I’d been nothing more than a child playing with a toy gun. Cass was heavier than he’d been, but it was all muscle. He’d still had tattoos running up the length of his right arm but the beautiful image of a flock of blackbirds flying away from something had been marred by a long, thin scar. He’d been wearing a gold watch on his wrist and a matching chain around his neck, both gifts from his grandmother that he’d received when he’d turned eighteen. The combination had made him look dangerous and distinguished at the same time.