Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
He sent me a crooked grin.
Damn him. There was no stopping the fluttering that flitted in my stomach.
That spiral of energy that looped and weaved.
Tying me in knots of discord.
Maci took a big bite of her fajita, chewing as she garbled, “Whelp, tastes like we did a good job, Mr. Kane.”
“We sure did, thanks to you,” he said as he took a bite.
Warily, I turned my attention to the plate. Picking up the fajita mixture that was already wrapped in a tortilla, I brought it to my mouth.
Flavor exploded on my tongue.
All those scents I’d smelled amplified.
Onion and garlic and the perfect blend of spice against the melted cheese.
Dang, they really did do a good job.
“You like?” Kane asked.
I looked up to find him with some kind of arrogant tilt to his head. Like maybe he wasn’t referring to the food at all.
Rolling my eyes, I didn’t answer, I just took another bite, sure I didn’t do anything to hide the little moan that worked its way free at the taste. You know, considering the rough scrape of a laugh that lumbered out of him.
Then he picked up his phone that he’d set on the table next to his plate and waved it around a little as he turned his attention to Maci.
“So, my family has been blowing me up all day, asking when they get to meet you.”
“Who me?” Maci chirped around her food.
Protectiveness swelled, and I sent Kane a warning glance. He sent me one that promised he knew what he was doing.
“That’s right. Took everything I had to keep them from busting down the front door today, but they thought maybe you might like to go to a barbecue at one of my brothers’ houses this coming Sunday. The one who has the little boy.”
“You mean my new best friend?”
Something that sounded far too close to affection rippled out of him. “Yeah, that’s the one.”
“Do I even gotta give an answer? Duh.”
“Okay, sassy pants,” I reprimanded quietly, trying not to laugh.
Kane didn’t seem to see reason for restraint.
His bellowed.
Bouncing off the windows and walls.
Trembling over me in a warmth I shouldn’t feel.
“I thought you might like to, but figured I’d better check first.” Kane looked at me then. As if he were asking for my permission.
As if it mattered.
As if I mattered.
“Pretty sure they’re going to want to meet you, too.”
My brow curled. “Why?”
A bolt of potency rocketed out of him as he sat back in his chair, that torrid gaze demolishing me. “Because they make it their business to know anyone who’s important to me.”
TWENTY-FOUR
EMERY
Darkness reigned.
Confounding.
Confusing.
Terrifying.
Her breaths were harsh and shallow.
Her blood iced over from the fear, though her skin was drenched in a sticky sweat.
She tore at the ropes that bound her wrists and ankles, pain biting into her flesh as she struggled to break free.
But there was nothing she could do.
Nothing she could do for any of them.
Suddenly tires squealed and the van they were in careened, their bodies rolling and bashing against the back wall when it came to a jarring stop. No way to stop themselves from the violent crash. Fear thundered through her veins when gunshots rang out, and it felt like razors dragging up her throat as she begged for help.
Begged for it because she felt the fight slipping away.
The terror took hold and seeped all the way down to take her spirit captive.
Metal clanked and moaned, and there was a shifting of air.
Then her sister was screaming.
Screaming and screaming.
“She’s gone. She’s gone.”
With a cleaving of pain, my eyes bolted open, a rasp raking from my lungs as I was jerked awake.
Disoriented, my legs flailed as I scrambled upright, and my hands flew out to grip onto anything that would keep me from disappearing into the nothingness. To keep me from falling away with those who had been lost.
Then my hands clamped onto plumes of softness, and I gasped out again as I brought the plush blanket to my chest when I realized where I was.
The room I’d been given to stay in at Kane Asher’s house.
Darkness hung heavy within its walls, the only light the gentle glow from the moon that seeped in through the drapes.
The house was so quiet, I could almost hear its old bones moan.
Trying to draw a cleansing breath into my aching lungs, I pressed my palm against the hemorrhaging behind my ribs as if it might stand the chance of holding my heart inside.
Like it might keep the tattered, shorn pieces from completely sundering apart.
For years, I hadn’t suffered the dreams, but now that Emmalee was gone, they had returned in full force. It was as if the absence of her presence had ripped off the flimsy bandage that had covered the mangled, butchered wound from the trauma we’d sustained.
I’d believed I’d healed.
But no.
There it was. The hole gaping and amplified by the loss of my sister.