Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
If they were about to try and take her away from me again, shit was going to get ugly.
“Why?!” I shot back at him. “I swear to God, I’ll take her and leave. Walk the fuck away from it all. You tell Linc that while he’s flexing his power,” I snarled.
Ransom stopped, and I prepared for him to start lecturing and yelling at me. This might be the day I planted my fist in his face. He’d had it coming for years.
“Baskin was shot outside of a motel in Jackson. He’s dead.”
Holy fuck.
“Who? When?”
“We don’t know. The shooter was hidden. And it happened ten minutes ago.”
Montana’s hand tightened on my arm, and I looked down at her. Not sure what to expect. He was her father. A shitty one, the world’s worst. But he’d been all she had.
“Let’s go,” she said, and there wasn’t pain or sadness in her eyes. Just concern.
“Are you okay?” I asked, leaning down close to her. Wanting to block out Ransom and his presence.
She nodded. “I am fine. But he had a little girl. She just lost her dad.”
Not once did she think that she’d lost the same dad years ago by his choice. No. She was worried about the kid he’d claimed. The one he had given a home to.
My dark soul wasn’t worthy of her, but it required her to survive. I didn’t believe in salvation. But if there was some in this world, mine came in the form of Montana Carrigan.
Epilogue
I couldn’t see him among the crowd of people in the stands, but I knew he was there. Along with Bane, Halo, Gathe, and Jayda. The football field was filled with my peers. Some I’d gone to school with since elementary school. Others who had come later in high school. I might not have finished my year as a senior at Monroe High, but it was fitting that this was where it ended.
Momma would have loved it. She’d have embarrassed me by yelling out in the crowd when I walked onto the stage to take my diploma. My eyes pricked with tears as I thought about her. I wanted to believe she’d be happy for me. She’d be proud of me. I hoped that she got to watch me today.
The cheers went up as our class was announced and snapped me out of my thoughts. Reaching for my cap, smiling brightly, I tossed it into the air with the other six hundred that flew high above our heads.
Happy shouts of, “We did it,” and, “We survived,” and, “Bring on college,” all went up with them.
I hadn’t decided yet on my next step. The past few months had been filled with a whirlwind of changes. Jericho’s sins had all come out after his death—well, almost all of them. The family had kept my relationship to him a secret, but it was the only thing they protected. He had been shot coming out of a motel room with a nineteen-year-old prostitute.
There was no saving his reputation after that, nor was there a reason to.
Than had wanted me to move into the house he shared with the others. I couldn’t do that. I felt like it was asking too much, and when I kept refusing and telling him I was getting an apartment, he moved a house onto the property his father owned. Living together had been a big step, although that was how this all had started.
Smiling, I followed the other graduates as we made our way out to the family and friends waiting on us. Somehow, Than had gotten the principal at my old high school in Monroe to allow me to graduate with my class there.
“Montana!”
I turned at the sound of Mallory’s voice. She was all smiles as she ran up to me.
“We did it!” she said, clapping her hands with excitement. “I’m so glad you got to graduate with us.”
“Me too.”
She scrunched her nose and gave me an odd look. “This is weird, but I was asked to give you this. Sorry if it’s creepy or whatever, but I think my brother’s friend has a crush on you. I told him you had a new hottie badass boyfriend.” She rolled her eyes, then laughed as she held out a blue letter, folded into a heart.