Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 53212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 266(@200wpm)___ 213(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 266(@200wpm)___ 213(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)
Fuck.
She’s spiraling. And I’m the reason.
Kylie
I need to get out of this car.
I have no idea where Rook and his brothers are taking me, but I know they always teach women to never let them get you to a second location.
My eyes dart to the window again, the one I can no longer roll down because Kane put on the fucking child locks, and my brain struggles to form a coherent, logical thought that could get me out of this situation.
But there’s no exit. There’s no escape. And the only thing my body wants to do is scream.
So that’s exactly what I do—loud and at the top of my lungs, and I don’t stop.
I just scream. And scream. And fucking scream.
My ears can barely register Rook trying to calm me down, telling me to breathe and relax and whatever the hell else he’s saying. I’m pretty sure Kane and Calloway are doing the same, but I just keep screaming.
“Let me go! Let me out of here!” I shout. “Let me fucking out of here!”
“Kylie, calm down.” Rook’s hand covers my mouth, and I twist and thrash against it, tears starting to fall of their own accord.
Please, God. I can’t die like this. It can’t end this way.
I fight as he pulls me into his lap. I fight as he pulls me toward him. I fight through one breath and the next and then another until, out of left fucking field and in the shock of a lifetime, his lips crash into mine.
He kisses me.
And suddenly, I can’t fight anymore.
A shaky, broken sound slides out of my lungs like I’ve been holding my breath for hours. And my hands clutch at his jacket, fingers curling into the fabric like they need something solid to hold on to.
All the while, the panic drains out of my body in a rush that leaves my body melting into his.
Eyes closed and filled with tears, I marvel as an out-of-body experience consumes me and transports me through fire and light and stars and more. I feel like the world is spinning around me while I form my own, new axis.
I’m whole and warm, and all the fight inside me is extinguished completely.
I don’t just feel compliant—I feel found. Whole. Like every single moment in my life has been a flash of orchestration, meant only to lead me here.
As Rook pulls away, his startled eyes and shaking hands giving way to a very real, raw fear, I start to tremble.
Reality is a figment—a lie. Everything is.
I don’t even know my ass from my elbow, much less the meaning of my life or anyone else’s.
I want to be the woman who’s resisting—but she’s gone.
I just wish to hell and fucking heaven and back again, I knew why.
Rook
I didn’t plan it. I didn’t think about it. I didn’t ask.
I just kissed her.
It wasn’t soft or gentle or the way a man kisses a woman he’s trying to charm. No. I kissed her with all the desperation I have for her, like I was physically trying to anchor her to me before she drifts away completely.
Now, her eyes are wide and her lips are parted and she’s looking at me like she’s trying to make sense of it all.
And every cell inside my body calls to her, wants me to kiss her again. Every instinct ingrained into my otherworldly DNA demands to be with her in the most intimate ways. And my mouth waters with the anticipation of knowing what she’d taste like if I sank my teeth into her neck.
Fuck.
“Rook?” Her voice is a whisper, and she mindlessly reaches up to touch an index finger to her lips.
“I’m sorry,” I say, the words ripping out of me. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
She swallows hard. “Why did that…help? Why…why did it feel like that? Why… W-what is happening, Rook?”
Because you’re mine. Because your body knows before your mind does.
“I don’t know,” I lie.
She studies me like she’s seeing me for the first time. Like she’s really seeing me. And I can feel that something has shifted. The space between us is no longer neutral. It’s charged. It’s awake. It’s alive. It’s fucking pulsing.
“You can hate me,” I say quietly. “I won’t stop you.”
She shakes her head once, slowly. “I don’t hate you.”
Her gaze drifts to the window again, the trees blurring past, the world rushing forward without her consent.
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“Somewhere safe.”
“You keep saying that.” She lets out a humorless laugh. “But I wish you’d define safe.”
I don’t answer, because safe is a temporary condition right now.
Because I didn’t just cross a line—I erased it.
Because whatever comes next could hurt.
Because I love her. Deeply, madly, and all-consumingly in a way you can’t describe.
Because they are going to come for her. For me. For us. And I’ll let them kill me before I let them have her.