Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 90315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
My chest swells. I love knowing that I did my job right, because she should always feel safe with me.
“All the guys are fine to have around. Except the one, you know.”
“The traitor.”
She nods. “Richie’s been with me forever. Others come and go. But you were my favorite.”
“I wasn’t exactly nice to you.”
“You were a dick.” She pulls away, laughing, and wipes the last of her tears away, and I breathe a sigh of relief because I do not want her to cry. “Barking orders, grumpy face. You’d never answer my personal questions.”
“I’m not there to—”
“—‘be your friend,’” she says, doing a horrible impression of me, and then she smiles, and I feel my own lips twitch. “Yeah, yeah. But so much changed after you left.”
Sobering, I pick her up and carry her into the living room and cuddle up with her on the couch.
“I never took you for a cuddler.”
“If you’re here, I’m a cuddler. What changed, baby?”
“I made it clear to Chelsea that there would be no more acting out on my part. No more games. And I was in such a depression for so long that—”
“What do you mean?” My voice is hard as fuck, and the anger pushes through me again.
“It had been a lot, Gideon. Not nearly as much as what you went through, but it overwhelmed me. And you were gone. Even though you weren’t there to be my friend, you were a safe presence, and you got hurt because of me.”
I’m shaking my head, but she continues.
“You were there because of me. If I didn’t exist, you wouldn’t have been there.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it.”
“I went back to college that fall. I graduated early because I actually hated college, got my own place, dated Howey the idiot for a while. I was already going to break up with him, but then we were at a party, things got heated, and he hit me. Richie had him on the ground so fast. It was quite impressive.”
“Howey’s lucky he isn’t dead.”
And he still might end up that way.
“I guess all I’m trying to say is, I’m not that girl anymore. Actually, I don’t think I was ever that girl. Therapy probably would have helped, and maybe I should still look into it. I’ve never talked about it with anyone until I came here.”
I scowl. I was able to talk to a therapist, and although I haven’t told Ry and Willow everything because it’s classified information, I’ve been able to talk about my feelings with them.
Lena has had no one.
“You can always talk to me, baby.”
“I’m just so relieved that you’re okay. That you have this great place, and a career you love. That you didn’t lose the leg.”
I almost did. It was touch and go there for a little while.
“It occurs to me that I don’t know what you do for a living.” I frown down at her and drag my fingertip down her soft cheek. “What did you major in in college? What do you do now?”
“I was a fine art major with a minor in finance. Which was a big waste of time. I’m not allowed to work as a financial advisor.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Because I’m the daughter of the president. I could be accused of insider trading. So no one will ever hire me.”
One more thing she’s lost or can’t do because of who her mother is.
“I want to create art.”
“Then that’s what you should do.”
“Someday.” She nods slowly. “Someone suggested I use a pseudonym. I kind of like that idea.”
Stay here and make your art.
I can’t suggest that.
Because this has an expiration date.
And I’m nowhere near good enough for her. She deserves so much better than me.
It’s five in the morning, but it’s seven on the East Coast, and I have to make some calls, so I left a sexy and sleeping Lena in my bed, and I’m sitting in the office with a cup of coffee at my elbow.
I hit the call button on the phone and press it to my ear, staring out the window into the darkness.
“Bishop.”
“James,” I reply.
“Report, James.”
If Lena thinks I’m short and to the point, she’s never spent any time with Bishop.
“All’s quiet. Blackbird is safe. There’s been no movement here.”
I hear the man sigh on the other end of the line, and that has the hair standing up on the back of my neck.
“We found messages on Tucker’s phone to an unknown number, which has since been disconnected, indicating that it wasn’t a one-man job.”
I figured.
“There’s been rumors, but nothing concrete. We’re still digging. As of now, she stays where she is.”
Every muscle in my body relaxes in relief.
She doesn’t have to go yet.
“I’ll touch base next week unless there’s a change.”
He hangs up, and I drag my hand down my face.
Who the fuck wants to hurt my Rebel, and why? And why, with all the tools at the government’s disposal, is it taking them so fucking long to find out?