Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Our moms were really close. Even after everything went down, she said Fia was her best friend. She missed her. She loved her.”
Tiernan swallows everything in his glass, then runs a hand through his hair, pacing the room. “Keep talking.”
“After I was born, my mom started having second thoughts about their lifestyle. She worried about my father being killed or something happening to me. She was stressed and overwhelmed by it all every day. It consumed her. My father…he just loved her. Loved me. He wanted us to be happy. To be a family. When he saw what it was doing to my mom, he knew he had to get us out.”
Tiernan doesn’t speak, doesn’t stop moving, the anger rolling off him like steam.
“They weren’t going to steal anything. They would never have ratted. They just…needed a different life, or my mom was going to lose her mind. They planned to leave.”
“You don’t just fucking leave.”
“I know,” I reply, then move so I’m sitting on the edge of the bed. “My father did too. That’s why he had a plan for us to get out without him. Your father found out, felt betrayed. They came to our house in the middle of the night. They would have killed us all, but my mom hid with me… Sloan put a bullet in his head, and I saw the whole fucking thing.” My hands fist, my anger bubbling up because it’s hard to talk about that, to remember it, even though this moment, betraying Tiernan, is also breaking my heart.
“My mom…she was never the same. She tried to be strong. The things I told you are true. She was overprotective. I didn’t have friends. I didn’t have a life. She was always afraid of your father finding us. And then…one day she died too, and I was all alone.” A tear falls, then another and another. “I was so fucking angry. It felt like Sloan took them both from me. Took my life. Everything my father did was to protect us. He loved your father like a brother—”
“He betrayed him!” Tiernan shouts, throwing his glass against the wall, making it shatter, the dark carpet now flecked with what looks like diamonds.
“He just tried to make us safe! He would have gone to Sloan if he could trust him!” I shove to my feet, rub a hand over my buzzed hair, try to settle down and get myself under control the way Tiernan says I need to. “I came to Ashford to get close to you so you could introduce me to your father…and I could kill him.”
“Get the fuck out,” he grits out between clenched teeth.
“That’s not what it is anymore. That’s why I’m telling you.” I take a step toward him, then another. “I want this. I want you. I fucking love you. Do you know what that does to me? To know I’ve failed my parents? That I’m doing the one thing they never wanted for me…that I fucking crave it? But I don’t care. I’ll sacrifice it all, give it all up if I can just have you. Even the fucking life. I would run with you if you wanted, Tiernan. I’m yours, and that’s more important to me than anything else.”
His breathing picks up, fast and short. Tiernan bends over, hands on his knees, sounding like he’s hyperventilating but trying to get himself under control—that thing he’s so much better at than me. Except now. I did this to him. I hurt him. I’ll never forgive myself for that.
“Tiernan…I’m sorry.”
“Get the fuck out!” he bellows again before quick steps take him to the nightstand, where he picks up the gun, releases the safety, and points it at me. Without lowering his weapon, he goes over and opens the drawer where my things are, throwing pants and a shirt at me. “I will fucking kill you.”
“I know. I’ve known it for a while. You should. I deserve that.”
His hand shakes. Tiernan uses his free one to swipe at his eyes. “I trusted you. I let you inside me.”
He’s not talking about the sex.
“I’m sorry. I hate myself for it. I’ve never felt more like myself than when I’m with you. You’re the only happiness I’ve ever known. I betrayed that. I…” I turn around, then lower myself to my knees, making it easier on him.
I hear the soft sounds of his feet against the carpet before the gun presses against the back of my head.
My eyes fall closed.
Time stops.
An eternity goes by.
“Get. The fuck. Out of my house.” The gun is gone, and then Tiernan is jerking me to my feet. He grabs the clothes he threw before pulling me toward the door.
I don’t fight him, let him do whatever he wants to me.
He doesn’t let my arm go as we leave the room, take the stairs, and he opens the door, shoving me out and throwing my clothes at me. “Stay the fuck away from my sister, or you won’t walk away next time.”