Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“They’re looking for me, you know.”
Drake sneered.
“I know,” he growled. “I have cameras all over this facility.”
“What facility?”
“I wasn’t just fucking around while Marianne was gone. I was building a fortress using stuff I acquired from my new friends. Cobie let me stay in her house, and during that time I had a few alterations made to her property.”
“What kinds of alterations?”
“The kinds where I don’t have to be in the main house to still be ‘on the property.’”
The kinds that meant he’d been there all along, and we were probably still there.
I was being looked for, but it was highly unlikely I’d ever be found.
In the past thirty days, I’d had a lot of time to think.
A lot of time to contemplate my life.
And a lot of time to plan.
There were a few things that I was more than sure about.
One, I wanted to hold Mary again.
Two, I wanted to make up with my family. I wanted to forget the past, remember the good times that I had with my children and wife, but not live for just them anymore.
Three, I wanted to marry Cobie. I wanted her in my life. No, I needed her in my life.
I said some pretty nasty things to her because I’d felt guilty about how much happiness I’d felt while having her. There were feelings running through me that I hadn’t even felt with my wife—which had been the real kicker in the guilt department. I wasn’t supposed to love anyone else more than I loved my wife—but I did. I loved Cobie. I loved her with my whole heart and soul… and distance wouldn’t change that.
I don’t know how she snuck in there, but she had.
I was forty-one fucking years old. I most certainly had a good life with my wife and kids while it lasted. I hadn’t needed anything else—or so I thought.
But I did need something else.
I needed someone to take care of. Someone to love me. Someone to love my Mary.
And Cobie did… she loved us.
Sometime while taking care of her over that six-week period, she’d stolen my heart. She’d shown me that there was something more to life than what I was giving it… and I hated that I’d thrown it all away because I’d been scared of those feelings that I was having.
But, if I was being honest, I was scared to lose those feelings again.
It was better—at least I thought at the time—to lose her now than to really let her get under my skin, and then lose her. But, she’s already under my skin, so that’s a moot point.
Even now, one month after she’d stormed out of my life pissed off at me, I was still feeling the burn of each one of the tears I’d seen fall down her face.
And I was certain, that as soon as I got out of this hell hole, I was going to make her mine. I was going to apologize.
I was going to marry that girl.
She just didn’t know it yet.
***
61 days captive
I’d lost a lot of weight.
I was also very fucking tired of living on bread and water.
I craved a steak like never before, and I missed my family. One that was officially mine—Mary—and one that wasn’t—Cobie.
But she would be… soon.
If only I could get out of here.
“You’re not listening to me.”
I felt the whip lash against my skin, but I didn’t even feel it anymore.
Nope, not me.
Seriously, if there ever came a time when I did feel it, I’d be happy.
Why?
Because that would mean that I’d be on the way to healing.
There were open wounds on my back that started the first day that Drake took me, and today, he continued to reopen each and every one.
“You know what else is funny?”
I gritted my teeth.
“I can’t find her.”
My brows rose, and my head, which had been hanging, lifted.
“You think that’s good, don’t you?”
I nodded once.
“It’s not.”
“Why?” I rasped.
Was that really my voice?
I sounded like a newborn kitten.
“Because if I can’t find her soon, they’ll start looking for her.”
“Why?” I asked.
I sounded like a fuckin’ parrot, but my goddamn heart was slamming against the wall of my chest as I waited for him to answer, and I couldn’t form a coherent thought.
“They think she’s mine.”
And then he smiled.
I wanted to kick him in the front teeth, but I couldn’t even raise my leg far enough to do a goddamn thing, let alone kick him in the face.
My foot twitched, and he started to laugh.
Laugh it up, motherfucker. You’re going to eat my heel one day, I’m goddamned sure of it.
***
94 days captive
He’d unhooked the chains from the wall, but not my wrists, thinking I was too weak to fight back.
I was… mostly.
But I knew that if he came close to me, I was going to kill him.
Today was the day he ‘cleaned my cage’ according to him.