Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
EIGHT
BRINLEY
“That stupid, arrogant, assface, piece of—” I clipped off the slew of profanities I was gritting through my teeth when the front door of the office swept open.
Great.
Another customer. Just what I needed when I’d had zero clue how to answer the questions of the first guy who came in.
But I guess I was really good at faking my way through.
Pinning an artificial smile to my face, I pushed to standing from where I’d been sitting in front of that dinosaur computer pretending like I was actually going to accomplish something using it.
Then my teeth were actually snapping shut when I saw who came through the door.
Nerves scattered through me on a gust of apprehension.
It was the woman and tiny boy from last night.
The toddler’s hand was in hers, and she was smiling this dazzling, sweet smile, like she’d expected walking through the office door was going to be the highlight of her day.
I itched on my heels.
Maybe it was gawk at the prisoner day.
Only warmth was oozing out of the young woman as she stepped inside, her voice riddled with anticipation. “Oh my gosh, you have to be Brinley.”
Gulping, I struggled to keep that smile pinned to my face. “Yep, that’s me.”
“When I heard you were coming here, I couldn’t wait to meet you.”
I wondered what she’d think if she knew the way Silas had had me pressed against that desk two hours ago.
Because it’d felt…scandalous. Like we’d been two seconds from something splintering between us and igniting into what it absolutely could not.
Or maybe I’d only been projecting, imagining that he was feeling the same insanity I was feeling whenever the man got within a hundred-yard radius of me.
A fool wondering what it would be like if he slipped his hand under my skirt.
Which that right there was the most outrageous, implausible part of it all.
The fact that I would even think it. Allowing even a moment’s entertainment of something that normally sent me into a spiral.
And he just had to be the man I was having those preposterous flashes of fantasies about. Not really afraid of him but afraid of the way he made me feel.
It made me sick.
I knew what this was, though.
It was the clashing of strain and trauma. The memories up against whatever bullshit Dereck had gotten himself into.
That was it and nothing more, and I wasn’t about to allow myself to fall prey to my own weaknesses and insecurities.
It had nothing to do with the fact Silas Mercer was regrettably the hottest man I’d ever seen and had this lure about him that kept creeping into my thoughts and whispering across my flesh.
A shiver raced again. I stomped it down into nonexistence where it belonged.
Get your shit together, Brinley.
This guy was married or taken or what the hell ever.
I mean, she was standing right in front of me.
She had that fresh face look. Rich, dark brown hair with matching freckles sprinkled across her cheeks.
Adorable.
Obviously sweet.
Bristling with some kind of unfound excitement.
I returned a smile that I hoped matched hers. I was lucky that poor little boy didn’t burst into tears because I was pretty sure the only thing I looked was deranged.
But he was grinning too, dancing back and forth on his little feet as he clung to the woman’s hand, a blue blanket that looked like he dragged it everywhere with him hooked in his elbow.
Okay.
Woman felt like a stretch.
She was young.
Twenty-one to twenty-three, tops.
More evidence against Silas Mercer’s lackluster character.
What a skeeze.
She had to be ten years younger than him.
“I’m Elena.” Her shoulders hitched to her ears when she said it. “We almost came over first thing this morning when Silas said you started at eight, but I figured I needed to give you a little time to get settled before we descended on you.”
Get settled?
There wasn’t going to be any ‘getting settled’ into this place.
Surviving or escaping were clearly the only options.
Escaping sounded like a really good plan right then.
“And this is our favorite little Kai.” Adoration gushing from her, she gestured at the little boy.
He raised his tiny, chubby hand that clutched a toy motorcycle and vroomed it through the air.
“Kai mowercycle!”
His little voice was garbled as he showed off what clearly was a prized possession.
I looked around, wondering how exactly I was supposed to be handling this.
I felt like I was being attacked by sweetness.
Kind of like death by chocolate but a little less enjoyable.
Or maybe the whole problem was them walking through the door was the first bit of comfort I felt since I came to this place.
“Hi, Kai. I’m Brinley,” I whispered.
“Hi, Bwinwey. I got a mowercycle. Vroooom.”
He flew it through the air.
Bwinwey.
God, was it possible a child could steal your heart in a beat? Because crap, this kid was adorable.
“That’s an awesome motorcycle,” I forced out.