Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Turning, she took them in hungrily.
They looked tired. Worn and unkempt. Salem had a beard which was damn hot. Roman’s hair had grown longer and there were dark marks under his eyes.
Alexei had let his facial hair grow too. And there was so much anger in his face that it made her heart skip a beat. He was the one who had spoken and he took a step forward.
“Don’t come any closer.”
He took another step and she moved back.
“Alexei,” Salem warned.
“No,” he said. “I’m not going to listen to her. She doesn’t get a say in this. Her time to think is over.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to hurt any of you. But I can’t go back.”
“Why not?” Roman asked. “Do you not love us anymore?”
“What? No! Of course I do. That doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Coming back to live with us, to be ours, doesn’t have anything to do with loving us?” Salem asked.
She ran a hand tiredly over her face. When was the last time she’d slept for more than an hour or two at a time?
“I still love you. That’s why I’m doing this.”
“That makes so much fucking sense,” Alexei said sarcastically.
So angry.
And it’s all your fault.
“I can’t face a trial,” she told them. “I’m sorry. I know I’m a coward.”
“What trial?” Salem asked.
Huh?
“For all the things that I’ve done,” she explained.
“Who said there was going to be a trial?” Roman asked her.
“I . . . what?”
“You’re not in trouble,” Salem told her.
“How?” she whispered.
“Technically, you don’t exist so Roman has managed to get you a new birth certificate and identity. We changed your surname. As far as anyone in authority knows, you were never there, and Pinky never had a child.”
Relief filled her. “But you guys know.”
“Ask us if we fucking care,” Alexei said.
Salem stared at her intently. Now that she looked closer, she could see how cold he appeared. Roman just seemed quiet. Sad.
“Why are you here if not to take me back to face a trial? I mean, shouldn’t I pay for what I did?” She turned to glance out at the ocean again. “I’m not a good person.”
“So you’re going to punish yourself? Not happening,” Alexei told her.
To her shock, he suddenly appeared next to her. She was in a bad way if he could sneak up on her. He wrapped an arm around her waist, his touch surprisingly gentle.
“You’re not leaving us. I refuse to allow it. And until you understand that you don’t get a say in what goes on.”
She didn’t fight him. Or Salem, who injected her arm with a drug. Likely a sedative.
She had no fight left.
“We’re losing her.” Alexei paced back and forth in his office.
He was so angry.
And no amount of time in the gym or the boxing ring was helping him overcome it.
Roman was sitting on the couch, staring down at his feet despondently.
And Salem felt a wave of failure go through him.
He was letting them all down and it wasn’t acceptable. They were all disintegrating.
He was the leader. He had to hold them together.
Tamsyn had been home with them for a week and she was completely closed off. She wasn’t eating, barely drank anything and spent her time in her room.
Alone.
Nope.
No more.
“I have an idea of what to do,” he said.
Both men turned to him.
“What?” Roman asked hoarsely. “If she doesn’t want to be with us, what can we do?”
“We make her. Right?” Alexei asked, slamming his first on the desk. “We don’t let her leave us.”
“Yes. We’re going to have to be a bit hard before we can be kind. But it’s for her own good.
And theirs.
“Fuck, yes. I’m in,” Alexei said.
Salem glanced over at Roman. Alexei was the easy one to convince.
“Will it bring her back to us?” Roman whispered.
“At the moment, I think it’s our only option,” he told him.
“Then I’m in. Let’s do this.”
The plate of food was placed in front of her.
It looked amazing. Filled with several of her favorite things.
Lasagna and garlic bread.
Along with a salad on the side filled with seeds and nuts and feta.
Delicious.
Someone had taken the time to put all of this together for her and she should appreciate it.
She would if she wasn’t completely drowning in a pit of despair. There was no way out.
Everything was dark and horrible.
She’d betrayed them and they could never forgive her. Why would they?
But why was she here? Why didn’t they just let her go? Why had they come after her?
Go back upstairs.
She hadn’t wanted to come downstairs. She’d wanted to stay in her room, but Alexei had picked her up and carried her downstairs and she hadn’t had the heart to fight him.
At least upstairs she could hide under the covers and try to pretend that this wasn’t her life.
That she could go back to the way things had been before.