Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“I’m not lying,” I bite out. Tipping my chin upward, I square my shoulders and then lock my gaze on Monster’s. “It could be Bragan’s men, but they wouldn’t want to hurt me. I was nothing to them.”
“If you worked for the bastard, then they’ll be gunnin’ for you. What did you really do in that house?” This time, I have to look away from the intensity of Monster’s glare. “Miren.” He says my name slowly, testing it on his tongue, and I want to run.
I want to turn around and run away, but I can’t because he’ll find me. There’s no place this man wouldn’t look if I were to try to disappear. But I can’t. Because the moment I attempt a getaway, my father’s men will find me. I want so much to be free; I even thought I had my freedom, but I’ve only imprisoned myself in another home where I’m nothing more than a distraction.
I finally turn my attention on Monster. “I don’t know why they would want me dead. I was in that house for a long time, but I didn’t see anything. It’s not like I was a witness to a crime.”
“Get her back to the clubhouse,” he orders, but he doesn’t look away from me. His attention is locked on me as if he can carve out the answers he needs. Sully steps forward, and he walks with me.
We leave the club, and the night air has a chill in it. It’s almost Christmas, and I’m alone with no family to speak of. I don’t know how to get to my mother, not when I’m being watched so closely. And after the attack, I’m probably going to have a twenty-four-hour guard following me around.
“He’ll come around,” Sully tells me.
He brings me to the room I was offered on my first day, and he waits on the threshold of the bedroom. Inside, it’s warm. With the heating on, the cosy atmosphere is so different to what it’s like in the club.
I turn to Sully. “Thank you.”
“Agh, there’s no need to be thanking me,” he says with a smile. “You get some rest. I’ll be out here if you need anything.”
“You don’t have to—”
The look he gives me tells me that he’ll be in worse shite if he leaves me here alone. “Just get some sleep.”
And with that, he pulls the door closed, and I’m left alone. My arm still throbs from the pain, and my head starts hurting with a dull ache that I know won’t go away with painkillers. It’s guilt. It weighs on me.
The people here have been so welcoming, but I wonder what they’ll do if they ever found out who I really am. As exhaustion takes a hold of me, I strip down to my underwear and slide under the covers. I’m too tired to do anything other than allow sleep to steal me.
I just have to get by until I can leave.
And it’s with that thought my lashes flutter closed.
TEN
MONSTER
I watch her in the garden. She walks amongst the hedges Da had always kept in good condition. Her fingertips trail along the leaves, makin’ them dance. When I first saw her, I was mesmerised by her beauty. I wanted to learn who this wee beauty was. My chest tightened when I thought about her in trouble, in danger. The need to protect took over and held me in a feckin’ tight fits. But I pushed them away—those feelin’s. I didn’t need to be distracted when I had my focus.
I should have sent her packin’. But feckin’ Donahue looked at me and asked straight to my feckin’ face. Granted, I would have agreed because he’s been good to me. For years I’d been broken. There was heartache that ran deep into my soul. And he knew it. He watched it happen as he laid Da to rest. And then, not too long after, he had to watch over Ma’s funeral. He spoke of her with fondness, which I can never forget. Everyone who met my mother loved her.
Which brings my attention back to Miren. She’s stopped to talk to a couple of the kids the old ladies brought to spend the day here while they work. She drops to a crouch, whispering in their ears secrets I’m not privy to. They giggle and nod at whatever she’s told them, and I find myself jealous of their interaction.
I’ve pushed her away. I’ve made sure she knows she’s not welcome here. But each time she’s close by, in the same room, I can’t help but look. Stare at her. There is a delicate beauty to her, but there’s also a secret. Somethin’ she’s hidin’.
“You stalking the new girl?” Rebel says as he walks up behind me.
The bastard is far too pretty to be a biker. And I’ve told him that. Time and again. We’ve known each other for years, since I knocked him out in a pub one night. Arsehole was hittin’ on a girl I wanted, so we did the manly thing and fought over her. I won of course. And that’s when I knew we’d be friends forever.