Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
She shook her head. “I’m really not that kind and compassionate. I wish I were.” She bit her lip. “If I had my way, Rainier, you’d move in and stay with me forever.”
“Even if you lose your parents over it?”
She took a deep breath. She knew that it was a possibility, but she didn’t know why. At the back of her mind, there was a little nagging thought she kept shutting down. “Yes.” Her voice wobbled. She wanted it to be stronger. Her resolve was strong, but she despised hurting her parents, and she knew this decision would.
“Be sure, Shabina. I move in, I stay. We get married immediately and quietly. I wouldn’t put it past your father to try to hospitalize you if I’m called out of town. It would be like him to do something like that to get you away from me.”
She wanted to deny it, but it was the truth. “You keep saying I have to be sure, Rainier. You need to take a good look at what you’re getting. Please look at the real me, the one falling apart every few months. Do you really want me for the mother of your children?”
“I told you. I’ve built my life around yours already. I’ve started a business, so when I decide to retire, I’ll have something I can pass on to others, training and giving jobs to men like me who need somewhere to go when they’ve had enough of government work.”
“It’s settled, then. You’re moving in with me. There’s an entire side of the closet empty.” She felt extremely courageous telling him so matter-of-factly when she was shaking inside.
His palm smoothed over the back of her hair. For just one moment his eyes lit up and a very brief smile softened the cruel edge of his mouth. “Brought the necessities with me, and I can easily get the rest. I do still have work to finish. I’ve got a lead on a couple of the men I’ve been hunting. The last place they were seen was in Jordan. As soon as I know you’re going to be fine, I’ll go after them. I need to have solid intel first because I’ll have to get in and out of the country without detection.”
The idea of his leaving her alone again terrified her, but she tried to cover the reaction by crossing her arms over her chest and hugging her body tightly.
“I’m not going until I know you’re one hundred percent, Shabina.” He unfolded his large frame and sauntered over to his duffel bag. “These customers of yours that aren’t always nice, maybe we should talk about them.”
Shabina considered pretending she was so exhausted she couldn’t continue with their conversation, but Rainier would never allow her to get away with that. He disappeared into the closet, but when she remained silent, he stuck his head back out, raising his eyebrow.
“That bad?”
“You’ll be upset that I didn’t tell you before this. Raine has been collecting video from the various establishments to prove harassment. I can’t go to Rafferty, the local sheriff, because Bale Landry is related to him. Evidence always disappears. We have a plan in place, but we need to gather all the evidence before I file a restraining order.”
She tried to give him the explanation fast. Now that he was standing in front of her again, his hard features grim, those piercing eyes looking like steel, she thought it was a big mistake on her part not to have informed him.
“Don’t leave out any details.”
Shabina told him everything, starting with the way Bale, Edward, Sean and Jason had harassed Zahra and her almost from the very beginning when they’d moved to Knightly. At first it had been snide comments, but lately the behavior had escalated. Not from Jason, but mostly from Bale and Sean. She tried to keep emotion from her voice when she related the details of the graffiti on the walls of her café. The many times they came in and complained about her meals, refusing to pay and even going so far as to file a police report saying she tried to poison them.
Rainier was still, his features expressionless, but his gray eyes had gone a scary mercury. That didn’t bode well for the men. He didn’t interrupt to ask questions, so she continued to tell him about the recent murder and how Bale had threatened her both at the café and at her home.
She kept her gaze fixed on his. His stillness gave him the illusion of fading into the background—something difficult to do for a man as large as he was. But the color of his eyes changed radically. Gray went to mercury. Mercury went to a darker silver. She could see a black ring around the silver. A storm, a desert storm, one with lightning and thunder, all right there in his eyes. A little shiver of apprehension slid down her spine.