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)
I didn’t have the strength to get up and close the door, so I used the last of it to pull the stolen burner phone from my pocket, which I was still clinging to like a lifeline. I knew the reason. It was my only connection to Coby because it was the only connection I had to him.
And that’s why, when I passed out, I did so with it cradled in my palm.
When I woke up hours later, it was with the startling knowledge that I wasn’t alone. I was lying on the couch with a blanket tossed over me, and the house was quiet and warm. My eyes drifted around the room until they landed on the armchair near the couch with the last person I wanted to see sitting in it. Through the window behind him, the sun was setting.
God, I’d slept all day.
“You’re up. Good,” he said, sounding relieved when he noticed me. “I thought yo’ ass was dying.”
“What the fuck?” I croaked as I fought off my grogginess and sat up. “What are you doing here?”
Roshaun gave me a blank look. “It’s my crib, Hunter. I should be asking you that.” He stood before I could come up with an answer and left the room. When he returned, he was carrying a bottle of water and tried to hand it to me. I hadn’t had a drop of water in two days, but his offering—like all the others—more than likely came with a hidden price.
“Thanks, but I need to go.” Panic suddenly speared my chest when I realized I didn’t have the burner phone anymore. I started frantically searching the couch until I found it wedged between two cushions and sighed. Roshaun was staring at me like I’d lost my mind. “I need it to find Coby,” I explained.
Roshaun took a seat on the coffee table in front of me, and it was all I could do not to move away and give him the satisfaction. “Why?” He sounded genuinely curious, as if it wasn’t his sister in bed with the mob.
“Why?” I echoed incredulously. “Because she’s in trouble, Roshaun. Why else?”
“My sister is gone, and she ain’t coming back,” he snapped like I was dumb for thinking otherwise. And then he reached his arm across the small space between us to run his hand up my thigh. “But that doesn’t mean you and I can’t get our shit started again.”
Jerking my leg away, I snarled, “Don’t fucking touch me, Roshaun.”
All pretense of amity dropped from his face. “Oh, you too good for it now?”
“I was always too good for it. You were just better at taking advantage.”
“Ain’t nobody take advantage of you!” he roared, losing his composure.
“I was sixteen, Shaun, and you were a grown ass man, so what would you call it?”
He waved me off with a scowl, and I truly hated how much he looked like Coby, sans the copper-colored curls. His hair was a dark brown with the sides shaved into a fade. “Don’t act like you were some innocent virgin. You were already fucking so what’s the difference? And don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it.”
“The difference is you knew I’d do anything to stay with Coby, including lying down with a dirty dog.”
Roshaun’s features contorted with rage. “Get the fuck out!”
“Gladly.” Happy to have gotten under his skin, I smirked and pushed the blanket off me before rising unsteadily from the couch where he’d carried me while I was passed out—probably thinking it would earn him enough goodwill that I’d actually fuck his ass. “One of these days,” I said, turning to see him glaring at my back, “Coby will see you for what you really are, and when that day comes, I’m going to kill you. Just thought you should know. For old times’ sake.”
“And what am I, Hunter? Tell me.”
Scoffing, I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is how Coby sees you, and right now, she still thinks you’re a hero for what you did for her, but she doesn’t need you anymore. She needs…” An image of a dark-eyed villain with a panty-melting smile entered my mind, and a wave of comfort unexpectedly washed over me, knowing that Coby was safe from Roshaun at least. “She needs something much darker and less forgiving than you or me.” Opening the front door, I stepped out onto the porch while keeping my eyes on him. “You fucked up when you sold her to Ocean.”
I closed the door behind me and, out of habit, checked the burner phone to see an unread message waiting for me.
Unknown: Go home, Hunter. Something precious to us both waits for you there.
Back in the cold once more and with nothing left to lose, I started my trek back toward the center of the city—toward home and the one trap that Ocean knew I wouldn’t be able to resist.