Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 755(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 504(@300wpm)
In the gallery, Ocean backed Hunter against the wall first, ignoring the dead bodies strewn around us as he checked her for injuries. Hunter silently endured it since she was doing the same to him. She had a few wounds that would need care, but her lips trembled at seeing that she was okay. When Ocean kissed her, his relief and anger were palpable. He poured it all into their kiss. I watched him whisper something to her when they came up for air, and whatever Hunter whispered back made him squeeze his eyes closed.
He barely collected himself before he was on me, checking me over as thoroughly as he had Hunter. I ran his hands all over his body, not caring how crazy it looked. I needed to see and feel for myself that we would all walk away from this night. Afterward, he kissed me with all the sorrow and unrest of a man who’d almost lost everything.
If Hunter and I had died, Ocean would be alone again. I would never let that happen, and I conveyed that promise through our kiss. Pulling back just enough to see his face, I whispered, “I love you.”
The knot in his throat bobbed and then kissed me hard one last time. “I love you more. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Mhmm. Thanks to Hunter. She kicked their asses. Kellan, Coco, and I helped. Oh, my God! Coco!” I’d left him outside with a dead body. Hunter was going to kill me.
“I found him right before I found you. He’s fine,” Hunter assured me.
“Oh, good,” I said while trying and failing to sound relieved. “So happy the little rat survived.”
And then I froze, remembering I hadn’t seen Kellan either since Ocean or Abel arrived in the nick of time to save our asses.
“What’s the matter?” Hunter asked, noticing my worry.
“Has anyone seen Kellan?”
Hunter shrugged and then leaned against the wall. I had no doubt she was exhausted, but she was trying too hard to appear casual. Oh God… she killed him, didn’t she? “We got separated in the smoke. I’m sure he’s fine, though.”
Unwilling to take that chance, I walked back into the living room with Ocean and Hunter trailing me like two mother hens. I searched the carnage for a familiar face and prayed I didn’t find one. Behind me, I overheard Ocean asking Abel if he’d see Kellan.
The four of us searched the house and grounds that night, but there was no sign of Kellan.
He wasn’t the only one missing, either.
Deborah was, too.
Everyone assumed Kellan had stolen the car and taken off during the chaos, but the single key now hanging around Hunter’s neck told me differently.
HUNTER
Coby really did make a beautiful bride. And as it turned out, so did I.
Our wedding was small and intimate, with only Abel, Effie, and Ocean as witnesses.
This came two months after Coby and Ocean’s glamorous—and completely fake—wedding, with an even faker priest performing in front of the entire Fola.
And what a performance it was.
The only thing real about it had been our vows to one another.
Of course, all it would take to uncover our duplicity was for someone to look for the nonexistent marriage record between them. Ocean was confident that no one would ever think to since his family had seen them marry with their own eyes.
As for my secret, legal marriage to Coby, Ocean bribed a judge to seal the record, so no one would ever find proof of it either. If anyone ever went digging, we could simply say there must have been some mix-up at the court.
Word had gotten around about our unconventional relationship, so there had been plenty of whispers, but no one dared let the new Boss of the Fola hear them. People were far more scandalized by the undoing of Malcolm Kilpatrick and the fact that Ocean had left him alive to wish he were dead.
Malcolm would live to break the vicious cycle he promised Ocean would continue with his own son one day.
So Ocean chose another path. He chose to keep him alive, but it was far from an act of mercy.
It was unheard of for a former Boss to survive his succession, and it left us all vulnerable to Malcolm seizing control again, so after the attack, Ocean had plucked out his father’s remaining eye, cut out his tongue, and taken out his ears so that the man could never see, speak, or hear anything ever again.
Malcolm Kilpatrick became nothing more than a brutal reminder of the past.
Effie was delighted.
“My feet are killing me,” Coby groaned as soon as we climbed inside the Bentley Mulsanne, this one a grand limo. She kicked off her white heels and wiggled her freshly pedicured toes at Ocean. She already knew not to point them my way. Wife or not, bestie or not, I didn’t do feet. Ocean chivalrously took Coby’s small foot in his hand and began massaging it. “Are we really spending our honeymoon on a yacht?” she asked him, then perked a brow. “Just how rich are you?”