Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 48632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 243(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 243(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
My housekeeper moves through my home like a whisper—quiet, careful, always trying to disappear. She thinks staying invisible keeps her safe from what burns between us. But all it does is make me crave her more.
One day, everything changes, and in that moment, the line between wrong and right disappears completely.
Letty doesn’t just capture my attention.
She becomes my world.
And I’ll do anything I can to protect my kitten
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
LETTY
One Year Earlier
Run.
Run.
Run.
Three letters, one syllable, and the only word I keep in my vocabulary as a consistent word. Looking back, I should have seen the signs, except I'd been naïve. Growing up the way I did will do that to you, time had always been tough in the Barnes household.
The wondering how rent would be paid, if there would be enough money for power, and no longer stretching food to last as long as possible stopped.
When Mom met Joshua when I was fifteen, things changed. We moved into a home, one with a yard, where you didn't have to wedge a chair under the handle of the front door because god forbid the landlord fix such a thing as a deadbolt. I also didn't have to sweep the floors of the grocery store or bag said groceries while maintaining my grades in high school. Mom was swept off her feet, and in doing so, so was I. My blinders were perfectly in place, and they weren't yanked off my face until that day.
The day they were married started one of the happiest times of my mom's life. The cloud had lifted, and she smiled a true smile. The dark circles beneath her eyes slowly disappeared, and while she still preferred to work, no longer did she need three jobs, choosing to keep only one. A clerical job at Nicholas' office. Funnily enough, that's where they met. Mom had been a cleaner there, working late at night when they stumbled upon one another, and one thing led to another. Dates came along, overnight stays happened where I'd been invited, unlike all the other losers mom had met before, and I'd fallen for him, like a girl who needed a father figure in her life.
Years of solid good in our lives turned bad in the blink of an eye, with a phone call that changed our lives forever. I'd come home from college, where I'm studying to become a teacher, trying to help others like a lot of others had helped me. Everything came to a screeching halt—a hit and run, dead on impact, no suffering involved. At least that's what the police officers said when they knocked on the door to deliver the news.
Mom was gone.
Joshua wasn't home. I'd been by myself, and the officers stayed as long as they could. I held it together, telling them I would be alright. They still needed to deliver the news to my stepfather, proving it unsuccessful since they stopped at the house while another officer went to his work. When they asked me where else he might be, I only shrugged my shoulders. Mom kept tabs on Joshua, not me, though I found it odd they didn't ride to work together that morning like they usually did.
There would be no more Saturday morning pancakes, no more Mom listening to me talk about the drama happening with the girls at school, no more having a rough day and plopping on the couch beside her while she played with my hair. Those days are gone, and ever since we laid her to rest last month, I mourn them more and more as each day passes.
I never thought the day would come when I'd be in the predicament I'm in now—hearing what I'm hearing, seeing what I'm seeing, all while perched on the top step of the staircase. My arms wrapped around my legs, chin propped on my knees, tears streaming down my cheeks.
"I don't have the money," Joshua's voice is riddled with fear. I'd feel sorry for him if I hadn't just heard the other man say what he did, the one with the darkest edge, wearing brass knuckles on both hands. He’s the size of a linebacker and has the face of a beast.
"And how do you suppose we'll get it out of you?" A different person is talking now, one I can't see, and I'm not risking a single movement. I'd noticed a few things missing here and there at home, my stepfather's sports car being one of them. Another was the gold Rolex watch he wore on his wrist at all times. Still, I didn't think it would come to Joshua sitting in a chair with a menacing group of men surrounding him.
"Give me another week. I promise I'll have it. All of it." I roll my eyes. I've watched enough movies with loan sharks to know this isn't going to work.
"I'll give you twenty-four hours, then I'll take everything I can from you, including your stepdaughter. How old is she now, twenty?" My stomach sinks, and the overactive imagination inside my head takes hold. Movies and books are my outlet, the way to quiet the noise that seems to rattle around when the world is too noisy. Mafia romance, motorcycle club romance, and the like are among my favorites. Which also means I know what's coming.