Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Damn right I was.
But I wasn’t done yet.
“We’re going back to the hospital,” I said as I caught her hand. “Come on.”
Her whimper even when I did that made my stomach sour and my heart physically flip inside my chest.
I hated hurting her.
No, hated wasn’t a strong enough word for what it felt like that I’d caused her pain.
Total and utter obliteration.
My heart was in fucking shambles right now.
“No.” She cleared her throat but didn’t pull her hand away from mine. “I don’t…it makes me nervous being there. I shouldn’t have sent you away.”
That made my heart feel a little bit better, but only barely.
“I won’t leave your side, but you’re going back, baby,” I growled.
“They said I didn’t have anything broken. I wouldn’t have left if anything was broken.” She tried to persuade me to not take her back to the place she didn’t want to be at
“I’m sorry, honey, you’re going to need to be brave,” I said. “They’re probably going to give you something for the pain. And I think you might need it later.”
“Chevy will prescribe it for me,” she pointed out. “Please, Piers? Please? I can’t see there. What if they come back?”
Again with the stomach clenching.
I studied her face, even with the edema and her eyes swollen shut, she looked desperate. “Fine,” I growled. “But at the first sign of trouble, you’re going back.”
Her shoulders deflated, and something inside me settled.
I turned back to Jasper and called, “Hey, Hush. I’m going to take her back to my place.”
“Sure thing,” Jasper called back. “Be careful.”
I nodded and said, “Come on, sweet girl. We’re going to my place. Do you want me to have your sister and brother-in-law stop for some of your stuff when they get a chance?”
I felt her shiver. “I don’t ever want to go back there.”
“You won’t,” I promised.
I was never letting her out of my sight again.
“You can’t kill my dad,” she said as she walked with me.
I slowed her when we got up to Jasper’s truck and helped her inside before buckling her in and saying, “You let me worry about your dad.”
I wouldn’t kill him, but I’d make him wish he was dead.
I was about to set Apollo out on a task that would utterly delight him.
I’d let him do a general security check on Barry when Barry and Elizabeth first met, and now I was kicking myself for not having him do a deeper dive.
Goddamn, I was stupid.
Stupid as well for thinking that Silver was involved with that man’s machinations in any way.
Of course she was innocent.
I knew she was, deep down.
I knew.
But I’d been fighting the pull of Silver Donahue—soon to be Silver Webb—since I’d met her over a year ago.
I would not be stupid enough to let her go a second time.
I placed my hand on her leg—the one that I could see through the hospital gown wasn’t black and blue—and said, “You okay now?”
“Yes,” she answered.
I studied her for a few long seconds.
Her head was dropped, and her hair—which was still up in my haphazard ponytail—was wilting listlessly to one side. Her face was a mask of mottled bruising, and it took everything I had not to punch the side of Jasper’s truck in frustration.
“Baby,” I said, touching her chin gingerly. “Can you look at me?”
“I can’t open my eyes. I tried on the way here,” she muttered as she turned her face toward me.
I gritted my teeth and ground them together for a few seconds before I said, “You’re not going back home. You’re going to stay with me. You’re going to sleep in my bed beside me. You’re going to forgive me for being an utter dumbass. And you’re going to give me a chance to explain.”
Her shoulders seemed to slump. “You hurt me, Webber.”
Back to Webber.
I sort of hated it.
I also hated that she’d pretty much gutted me with four words.
I’d hurt her.
I deserved to have this happen to me. Maybe if I’d been there, she wouldn’t have been alone. If I hadn’t gotten my head up my own ass where it came to her father, I would have settled that issue a long time ago.
“Just let me explain. I promise it’ll make sense.”
She sighed. “Fine. But when we’re back at your place. The truck is overwhelming. The engine is so loud it makes my head feel like it’s going to wobble off.”
I touched her chin, one of the only places on her face that wasn’t bruised, and said, “Okay, sweet girl.”
My elbow caught the glove box as I turned to shut the door, and the whole thing came off the hinges and fell at Silver’s feet.
She jolted, but I patted her thigh and said, “Just the glove box falling off. It’s okay.”
“Oh.” She laughed softly. Weakly. “That is such an old car problem. Mine hasn’t given up the ghost on me yet, though.”