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)
TWENTY
SILAS
I crept into my room like a wraith haunting the night. A dark shadow emanating from within and wisping out in front of me.
Guilt and gluttony vied for dominance.
A tugging at my insides as I slipped into the energy that filled the walls, pressing into her presence that glowed and radiated from where she slept in my bed.
Yeah, I knew full well I could have approached this differently.
I could have set her up with Trevan. It would have made more sense.
All of us knew it.
Bringing her here, taking her under my roof and into my bed, wasn’t doing anything but inviting trouble. Welcoming it with open arms.
No question about it as I gazed at her through the lapping darkness of the room.
Like autumn had descended and was sprawled out on the left side of my bed.
Calm for the first time since she’d come here.
A cascade of brunette locks streaked with golds and reds strewn over my pillow.
Only a simmer of that explosive energy emitted from her soft, sensuous flesh.
One side of her face was barely visible where she was curled on her side, that delicious body barely covered by the thin sheet that was only pulled up low on her waist.
Woman wearing a lacy camisole. A riot sent to rock my mind and to decimate my senses.
She was a test.
She had to be.
One that seemed futile and impossible to pass as I kicked off my boots and peeled myself out of my jeans and tee.
I needed to plant my ass on the couch. Or better yet, at one of the empty rooms at the clubhouse.
But no.
I crawled in beside her like a thief intending on stealing what he could never afford.
Heat radiated from her soft skin, and I swore I could feel her spirit crawling the walls of the room.
I forced myself to keep to my side. Eyes on the ceiling.
Should have known they were going to drift.
I shifted my head so I was staring at her through the shadows.
Stared at the distinct lines of her face. Watched her eyes flutter beneath her lids.
I reached out and traced my fingertips down her cheek. Voice the scrape of a murmur. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. I won’t fail you like I failed everyone else.”
TWENTY-ONE
SILAS
TWELVE YEARS OLD
“Stop bein’ such a little pussy and do it. It’s about time you learned to be a little more like your old man.”
Silas’s father looked across at him from where he sat in the driver’s seat of his beat-up pickup truck. Grinning that disgusting smile that drove into Silas like rusted nails.
He hated it.
He hated what his stomach felt like as he sat on the passenger side, one hand hanging onto the door handle like it might be able to stop him from having to unlatch it.
His molars ground so hard it was giving him a headache as he warred with what to do.
His momma would be so disappointed in him if she knew what his dad was putting him up to. He knew it was wrong all the way down to his bones.
“I don’t want to,” he finally mustered up the courage to say.
His dad laughed a boisterous sound like he thought it was hysterical before the back of his hand came out and cracked at the side of Silas’s mouth.
Silas flinched hard with the impact. A splutter of pain and the taste of blood.
He shouldn’t have been caught off guard. He should have known exactly what would be coming for him if he disobeyed his father.
But his momma had always told him to do what was right. To stand his ground against anyone who would try to persuade him into drifting onto a dangerous route.
He figured his dad was included.
“Didn’t ask if you wanted to, boy. I told you. Now get your scrawny ass out of the truck and do it before I give you the kind of whooping that will leave you unable to sit for the next week.”
Nausea boiled in his guts, and his skin felt hot and sticky, his breaths coming hard as his heart pounded with fear.
Anger bubbled on the underside of it. He wanted to lash out the same way as his father had done. Strike him across the face. Maybe take the brick he clutched in his opposite hand and smash him on the side of the head with it.
His dad must have been able to see it because he swept in close, his voice cutting like razors across Silas’s face. “You want me to take your disobedience out on your momma for raising such a pathetic piece of shit?”
Silas bowed with the words. Terror ripped through him at bringing more attention to his mom. He tried his best to protect her. To stand in the way when their dad was coming for her.
Things had been good when their mom had kicked him out. Months of peace and his momma smiling, joy in her as she took care of him and his little sister and brother.