Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
From the age of seven, I did what I needed to do. I stole a loaf of bread to fill my belly. I slipped a diamond ring off the finger of a tourist in Edinburgh when I was twelve. As I filled out, I took on odd jobs shaking down rich geeks who owed money to loan sharks. Despite those crimes, I never imagined killing anyone. Not until I was sixteen and walked in on a man raping my mother. Bashing his brains in with a frying pan felt good. Too good.
The pent-up energy festering in my blood was released in a storm of rage and retribution. I should’ve served jail time for what I did to that man, but my mother grabbed the pan and told me to burn my clothes and leave the house. Once she knew I was in the clear, she called the cops and spent three years in jail. The good news? She got clean while locked up. The bad news? I discovered I had a taste for killing.
Three years of surviving on the streets alone forced me into situations that no one should have to endure. One thing led to another, and I found myself face-to-face with Marcus Meyer. He took a scared punk-ass kid and turned him into a meticulous cold killer. I committed a string of murders in his name.
I’d like to say that meeting Marcus was the lowest point in my life, but it brought me my first taste of happiness with Atlas.
“Where are you going?” Atlas asks, walking toward me with a beer bottle in his hand. His eyes narrow as he takes a sip.
Atlas isn’t a fan of my extracurricular activities. He seems to think that leaving his father’s perverse lifestyle means we should put the past in the rearview. He’s tried to convince me to leave it be, to move on, but I can’t. He loves me and craves her, so he bends easily, but a part of me hates that I’ve turned his already dark existence to pitch black.
Atlas has always struggled with the darkness that resides within him. Constantly running from it, contriving an image that allows him to delude himself and those he comes in contact with into believing he’s upstanding. Didn’t hurt that he landed a trust fund from his rich mother. Money his father couldn’t squander. That wealth allowed him to set us up.
“Where are you going, Callum?” Atlas asks again.
“For a walk,” I lie.
Atlas squints, removing his light gray suit jacket and throwing it on the sofa. “It’s a lovely night for it. Let me get out of this monkey suit, and I’ll come with you.”
Two years ago, we started a security company. It’s rather amusing when I think about it: two criminals setting up the cops and government institutions with all their surveillance needs. It’s also come in handy with my other seedy activities pertaining to a certain girl who’s been consuming my thoughts.
“No, that’s okay. I’m sure you’re tired.” I tap on the earphones. “Thought I’d listen to some music and decompress.”
Atlas stalks me like a predator cornering his prey, his lips tilting up in a smirk. “Decompress by staring into a certain woman’s window?”
This is where I bend so that Atlas doesn’t break. Our little game soothes his resentment and allows me to feel like I’m taking care of him.
I back up until I hit the wall, allowing Atlas to see that I’m trapped. Shrugging, I flash him my most sincere smile. It won’t work on him because he knows what I truly am, but he enjoys these games where he has the upper hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. She’s probably still at work.”
Atlas’s body covers mine as he reaches for his tie and tugs it off his neck. He doesn’t say a word as he wraps the silk around my throat. I cough, and my hand automatically moves to the restrictive silk.
Atlas shoves two fingers between the silk and my flesh. “Not too tight, but tight enough to make sure you know your place.”
My lips twitch at his brazen words—words I’ve said to him in the past. I never thought I’d bend for someone like this, allow them to control me, but here we are.
It didn’t start like this. Atlas and I found each other amid violence and resentment. Two broken people, abandoned and alone, needing a place to feel safe and angry.
“Will you ever say no to him?” Atlas asked as he plopped down beside me on the concrete steps, puffing away on his cigarette.
Fuckin’ entitled jerk.
While sneering at his father’s underlings, the kingdom’s prince refused to soil his delicate hands. I knew what I was—a soldier for Marcus Meyer. I knew I was serving the devil, but I resented his son sitting at our table when he knew nothing of the life we led.