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)
I figured if I was already giving this much away, I might as well fully lay it out.
“Need you not to fight me on this. Because in my home? That’s where I protect the people I care about most.”
And I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight.
SIXTEEN
BRINLEY
Night seeped into the blue and pink sky, deepening it in ashen hues.
But I guess the silence had seeped even deeper as we traveled farther into the property toward Silas’s house.
Winding through the thicket of trees set in a dusky haze.
I sat in the front passenger seat of a pickup truck, my bags stowed in the back.
I hadn’t been able to process what was happening in the time that Silas had stuffed all my belongings into my bags and had me packed.
While I’d stood there dazed.
Trying to make sense of what had happened today.
What should have been an easy trip into town to buy hair supplies and snacks had turned terrifying.
I could admit that.
When Silas had drawn that gun and told me to stay behind him, I’d been petrified.
Then I was pissed. Just freaking pissed that I was in this position. That I’d lost all control. That I was just supposed to concede to every command that Silas Mercer made since no one had done me the courtesy of telling me anything.
Then Silas had pretty much let on too much, and I’d been stunned silent while he’d flown like a maniac through my things.
Of course, the jerk had paused an extra beat while he’d tossed in my panties.
I hadn’t even been able to hurl any snark at him for doing it because I’d been too caught up trying to wrap my head around what he’d implied.
Elena had been kidnapped by whoever these guys were who were apparently after me?
And…and Dereck was involved?
A toil of sickness toppled over my guts.
I attempted to blink through the nausea. To stub the visions down because I couldn’t accept it.
My brother wouldn’t do something so atrocious.
Would he?
Silas glanced over at me as he maneuvered the wheel from the driver’s seat.
I really hated to look at him after what he said.
“Need you not to fight me on this. Because in my home? That’s where I protect the people I care about most.”
I knew rationally that statement didn’t apply to me.
It couldn’t.
He didn’t even know me, and I didn’t know him, and the few things I did, I sure as hell didn’t like.
Well, except I kind of wasn’t hating the sensation that licked up my arm and crawled to my cheeks when he stared across at me.
It felt fluttery and warm and nice.
God knew it shouldn’t.
Not when that dastardly gaze was fully intrusive and breaching all boundaries of human decency and respect for privacy.
He might as well have been flaying off layers of my flesh to see what was hidden underneath.
But still, nice.
I knew it made me an outright lunatic for even thinking it, but God, I was so tired of fighting all these battles on my own.
Who could blame me that it gave me a tick of comfort to maybe have someone else in my corner?
Probably every logical person out there, but guess what, there was no logic here.
Not when I was in this mess. Treading dark, dangerous waters that were bound to drag me to their depths.
Demons laughing raucously as they pinned me down so I would drown.
I just hadn’t quite put my finger on whether Silas was one of them or not.
I finally looked his way.
I knew better, and I had to barricade myself against the outright severity that blasted back.
It was truly unfair that he was so obscenely hot.
My stomach that had been in knots of dread flipped with something it shouldn’t.
He arched a sharp brow. “You good?”
An incredulous laugh arrowed off my tongue. “Am I good? I just saw you pull a gun on a man who may or may not have been out to hurt me, then you fly back here like a bat out of hell and throw all my clothes into my bags, demanding that I stay at your house, and you want to know if I’m good?”
“Yeah.” He offered it with a shrug.
Like it was just another simple hiccup in a regular day as he wound down the gravel lane through the dense thicket of trees.
I blew out a flustered sigh. “No, Silas, I’m not good.”
Hazel eyes found me again.
A flash of fire and an assuaging of fear.
Maybe I really was in shock because the second he looked at me it was tempered.
“I’m going to see to it that you are.”
“Is that a promise?” I tried to make it come out a taunt, but it was shaky.
Clearly, I was losing my touch.
A big, tattooed hand landed on my thigh, and he gave it a squeeze.
I nearly flew out of my skin.