Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
This is why.
This is why I wanted to come alone.
This is why I spare people I love.
“Like I told the waitress at the lounge, forget the stage,” Steve kept going. “If Eve ever decides to make house calls with her little act, I’ll be her best customer.”
Madden moved in a flash. One second, he stood beside the driver’s-side door, the next he was in front of Steve Kirk, staring the man down from a good six inches higher, the front of the man’s shirt twisted in a shaking fist. “Get the kids in the car, Eve,” he said, sounding strangled.
Eve jolted into action, her heart hammering in her throat as she hustled the kids toward the truck, babbling to them about cooking and baseball, hoping to distract them from whatever was taking place between the men twenty yards away on the sidewalk. Thankfully, they seemed totally oblivious to the tension among the adults, more concerned with their upcoming adventure.
Eve buckled the sister and brother in, closing the door behind them just in time to hear Madden say, “I warned you years ago about leaving her alone, didn’t I? Did you think I forgot? I didn’t. Maybe I shouldn’t have assumed a piece of garbage like you could evolve. Or grow the fuck up. That’s my mistake. Yours was speaking to her like that.” He twisted Steve’s collar until his gasps were silenced and his arms started to flail in panic. “If the kids weren’t watching, you’d be having your jaw wired shut this afternoon. I’d be doing the world a favor. When I let you go, you better use that first breath to apologize to her.”
Madden loosened his grip and Steve sucked down oxygen with a wheeze.
“I’m sorry, Eve. I’m sorry.”
“I sincerely hope you’re not here to pick up a daughter,” Madden finished. And with that, Madden threw him away like trash, causing the man to stumble backward several feet before righting himself. He looked around, fixing his hair, more concerned with being humiliated than his own behavior. Meanwhile, Madden appeared to be debating the wisdom of chasing the man into the wild blue yonder.
“Mad,” Eve called, jogging toward him and inserting herself between one of the best men she’d ever met—and the worst. “I get the anger, believe me, but you’ve done enough.”
Madden’s chest rose and fell like he’d just lapped the block. “I want to kill him.”
“I know.”
“Come to New York with me, Eve,” he said in a growled rush. “Get away from this.”
Shock made her eye sockets tingle. “What?” she said slowly. “You know I can’t.”
He seemed to snap out of his trance then, tempering himself as she watched. “Right.” His jaw popped. “Right, I know.”
“I’m used to it.” Eve tried to laugh, but the words wobbled out like jelly.
Wrong thing to say. Madden lit up with temper all over again.
“Hey.” She went up on her toes and forced him to look her in the eye. “That’s not what I meant. I meant . . . it doesn’t faze me like it did in high school.”
Madden searched her face. “You don’t have to lie to me.”
Then he did something she didn’t expect. Didn’t see coming.
He wrapped her in a bear hug. Lifted her against his body so securely, she could have let herself go limp and it wouldn’t have made a difference. She sucked in a breath and shifted on her toes, as they were the only part of her body connected to the ground, fighting against the lethargy that stole over her, even as her brain demanded she reassure him again that she was fine. I’m fine!
But what if I’m not?
Madden didn’t seem inclined to release her any time soon and her eyelids took that as an invitation to droop—and when that happened, New York painted itself on the backs of her eyelids, buzzing and flashy and vast and loud. Just for a moment, she allowed herself to picture herself walking into a doorman building, hand in hand with Madden, a million miles from the claws that had been dug into her skin since childhood. Free to go anywhere, do anything, with friends or anonymously. Out of the quicksand.
The vision started to feel so good, too good, that Eve’s eyes shot open with alarm.
“The kids are in the car,” she murmured breathily, wiggling until he freed her. Refusing to acknowledge the knowing look heating her back as she speed walked to the truck. “Let’s go make a disaster out of my kitchen.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Madden sat on the bumper of his truck, hands clasped loosely between his knees, his head lifting when Eve’s car turned into the parking lot of the middle school. He’d spent the afternoon in Eve’s kitchen with the kids making Spam and cheese omelets, followed by brownies, Lark and Landon delightfully making a mess while Eve sat at the kitchen island trying to mend the ruined chef’s hat.