Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
“So apparently, I’m a Turner after all,” I half declare and half chuckle because the irony is fucking gut-wrenching. All this time he needed a Turner to get his revenge, but still, somehow I’m the wrong girl. Maybe I always will be the wrong girl.
“You’re not a Turner.”
As opposed to mine, his words are all declaration and even after so much time, they pierce me right in the chest. “My mom slept with Hank Turner at some point. To teach my dad a lesson but I guess it backfired, and she paid for it with her life.” I shake my head, looking down at the glass of water. “It doesn’t matter though because you’re right, I’m not a Turner. I’m no one. Except some girl you were sleeping with.”
Which is why they took me in the first place, I’m assuming. Because maybe they thought he cared about me enough to give up on his quest. He does care about me, but not enough to give up on ruining his life.
“A blowout,” he says then.
I look up. “What?”
“An oil well blowout,” he explains. “I was gonna rig their oil well, cause an explosion that’d destroy their land, their oil and every single thing on it. It’d make their land useless. And if there’s no land, there is no war.”
His revenge plan. This is it. I guess it makes sense, taking the land away, because they did it all for the land. Besides, Annie died in an explosion, so a retaliatory explosion would bring things full circle.
“So, you lied about letting them keep their business and sharing oil profits and all of that,” I say pointlessly.
Of course he lied. He told me he was lying. Again, I need to take a step back. I need to stop worrying about him and his affairs. I need to come up with my own plan now. My plan of exiting, going back to my old life and somehow living it.
“You know what, you don’t have to tell me anything,” I say, shaking my head. “I don’t—”
“I met her at the town fair,” he says, cutting me off, his eyes full of something shiny and glittering, something I can’t make sense of right now. “She was new in town. Never saw her before that day. Thought she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.” I flinch, and he catches it because he’s watching me with an intensity that’s making it hard for me to breathe. “I was a fool. Back then. Didn’t know what I was talkin’ about. I was young. I was horny, reckless. Girls would throw themselves at me because I was a cowboy, and I was a Grayson. So, I was a fuckin’ rich cowboy whose family pretty much owned everything and everyone. When she threw herself at me, I didn’t think it was anythin’ different. All I was lookin’ for was a good time, a one-night stand. Somethin’ I was very good at back then. I was good at not gettin’ tied down, no steady relationships. I thought I was some kind of a big shot, a stallion.”
He shakes his head. “But all I was, was a goddamn asshole. So when she kept comin’ back to me, I took her up on her offer. Told her it wasn’t serious and she agreed. Even though after a while, I could see she was fallin’ for me. I should’ve cut her loose then. But I didn’t.” His jaw clenches here before he goes on, “She was on her own, takin’ care of her sick mother and her younger brother. Had a job in town, on one of the ranches. She was bold, gutsy, adventurous. Everythin’ I thought I liked in a girl. Because again, I didn’t want any responsibilities, no one dependent on me.
“Anyway, somehow, we became steady. She’d come over to the ranch, spend time with my family. Haven, Ax. They both liked her. Not Mars though. Mars was suspicious. But then, Mars is always suspicious of everyone. Back then I was goin’ through a phase where I loved him but hated his guts so if he wanted me to do one thing, I’d do another. When he told me I should be careful with Annie, that no one knew where she came from, who her people were, I told him to fuck off. I told Rad to fuck off too. He wasn’t as bad as Mars but he was wary of her too. Sometimes I think that’s why I kept her around, as a big fuck you to my family. To show them they couldn’t control me. Fuck”—he scrubs his hands down his face, taking a deep breath—“I sound like a shithead. I was a shithead. Anyway, they all turned out to be right because one day a few months into our ‘relationship,’ she told me.”