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)
Her interest piqued. All cute as her face lit up as she spied what she was looking for.
Gummy worms.
She grabbed a bag.
“Those are disgusting.” I grunted it under my breath.
“You’re disgusting,” she shot back.
Touché.
She wasn’t wrong.
Then she grabbed three packages of Peanut M&Ms and a bag of barbecue potato chips like she was stockpiling for the apocalypse.
“What? Lulu’s food isn’t good enough for you?”
Her glance at me was exaggerated. “Like I’m ever going to be able to show my face in front of Lulu or Elena again. I can only imagine what they thought when I went running out the door last night.”
Apparently, I wasn’t a quick learner because I couldn’t help but edge closer.
Mouth not quite hitting the shell of her ear as I murmured, “Never be ashamed of fighting, Brinley. In this world, we do what we need to in order to survive. You were just fighting the wrong person.”
Energy blasted from her.
That fine line between hate and desire tossing her into uncertainty.
Unfortunately, right then, that hate didn’t seem so severe.
I hesitated then added, “Elena was worried about you this morning.”
“How you have people who are so sweet related to you, I have no idea.” There was no fire behind it. It almost sounded like a tease.
I grunted as Elena and Kai’s faces traipsed through my mind.
Barbs of loyalty speared through my consciousness.
“At the end of it all, my family is the only thing that matters.”
“The club?” she asked, her head tilting to the side.
“Sure, they’re a part of that. My family. But my blood? They’re the reason I’m in this life. So I can take care of them.”
Fuck.
She didn’t even ask me, and I was dishing dirt like I was a TMZ reporter.
So fuckin’ reckless.
Brinley peered up at me. Devotion fully exposed. “Taking care of my family is the most important thing to me, too.”
A tiny, self-conscious laugh rippled from her. “Though Dereck is the only one I’ve got left.”
Unease twisted my stomach. My abhorrence of her brother clashing with the clear care she held for him.
I hated it for her.
That she got tangled in his bad decisions and she didn’t even know, but I supposed that was often the way life went down. You were trapped before you realized you’d become a pawn.
We both startled when the cashier called, “Next,” and my head popped up to find the customer in front of us scrambling to grab their bags, scuddling out the door like a spooked cat.
Casting wary glances behind them as they raced to safety.
No doubt, thinking I was gonna rob the place.
Brinley stepped up to the cashier.
Piled her things onto the counter.
The guy working behind it scanned the items while he clocked me from the corner of his eye.
Likely thinking it, too.
I wondered if every single one of them could taste it. The violence that dribbled from my flesh, or if it was just the exterior on which they cast their verdict.
Didn’t matter either way. They had a right to be leery. They should be.
The guy rang up Brinley’s items, and she went for something in her pocket, but I was already pulling out a hundred from my wallet and leaning around her to set it onto the counter.
My chest brushed her back as I did.
She exhaled a shaky sound. Then that irritation rose again. “I can pay for my own things.”
“Not on my watch, you can’t.”
She huffed out in disbelief, though I could feel some amusement rimming it as she took her bag while the cashier counted out the change.
She glanced back at me. “Do you think buying me sweets is going to make me like you more?”
I reached around her again, accepting the change, my lips just brushing her jaw. “A man can only try, can’t he?”
Was I flirting with this girl? I edged back, trying to shake whatever insane reaction she conjured in me, and started to usher her out.
A hand at the small of her back.
That touch I convinced myself was only due to the fact that I needed to stand guard over her.
Keep close.
It had nothing to do with itching to let my hands roam over every lush curve of her body.
Her ass swayed just below my hand. A stirring of dark vibrancy with each brush.
By the time we stepped outside, her breaths had gone shallow, and she inhaled something deep like the fresh air might squash the heat.
All while I forced myself to take in our surroundings.
Glittery light embossed the late afternoon air. The sun beginning its descent toward the verdant canopy of trees.
Birds flitted from branch to branch.
But in it, there wasn’t a modicum of peace.
There might as well have been a viper curling up my leg with the way I sensed it.
The wicked disorder that rolled over me.
I was in front of Brinley in a flash, gun pulled from the holster I had hidden at my back, though I kept it low and close in hopes the few people out in the lot wouldn’t notice.