Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 93683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
The woman everyone in the barn is terrified of – for good reason – slowly angles her face in his direction, tone even despite her twitched glare. “The type of question that’s my fucking job as the owner and the GM to fucking ask.”
“Language,” reminds Margot Adelstein, her taupe skinned, second in command.
Hennington sucks her teeth, briefly shoots her eyes up to the sky, and shifts her focus back to me. “It’s also the type of question that you, Gillian Blanc, need to answer for yourself.”
Her words hit me like an exposed nerve being tapped by the end of a dental probe.
Holyshit…
She said the words that needed to be said.
That I need to say.
I do need to answer for myself.
For what I’ve done and what I do and how I just hurt the love of my life when he just defended me with his.
“You’re right,” I slowly concur, head bobbing on what feels to be its own accord. “I do.”
“See!” aggressively barks my best friend.
“She’s right, M.” Our eyes connect to aid in my reiterating, “I do need to answer for myself.” No reluctance occurs when turning back to the beautiful, striking woman patiently waiting beside Dixon. “I do wanna press charges, Hennington.” My arms fold across my Dalvegan green scrubs covered chest. “He assaulted me. He violated me.” The tipping of my chin a bit higher is thoughtlessly done. “He needs to be held accountable by the law and the league.”
She begins to smirk yet abruptly stops to sass at her best friend, “Am I allowed to smile at that or am I gonna get called two for instigation?”
“Four for continuing altercation if you keep poking at your faithful pal, Pluto,” Bricks playfully point out from the doorway he’s leaning in.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Husband, do you not have a job you should be doing that isn’t micromanaging me, which is her job,” Hennington points to the dirty blonde beside her, “in case you’ve forgotten.”
“I love you too,” he lightly laughs.
“Love me further away.”
“The boys couldn’t make it past Dix to get to Blanc,” Bricks casually announces, “so they sent me.”
“We do not need more players involved in this,” Dix less than quietly informs. “One is more than enough.”
“Legally, one is too many,” Adelstein adds.
“Agreed,” Hennington quickly insists. “Tell Ewers he’s on. Blanc is unavailable for the remainder of the game. And send Groffee up to Dix’s office. We’ll meet him there.”
“Yes ma’am,” he retorts prior to exiting.
“He called me ma’am because I called him teenager,” she unhappily murmurs to her second. “How was that not continuing the altercation?”
“Not the time for your weird foreplay,” her assistant hisses while gesturing Hennington towards the door. “Or for your stomach to be showing in that shirt.” A finger wag is pointed at the area. “Button up. We’re about to talk to actual law enforcement in an official capacity.”
“I take offense to that,” Dixon unhappily murmurs.
“We’ll meet you in the main security office with DPD in six minutes,” Adelstein states to me and my brother.
“I choose private security work,” he loudly proclaims. “I have more qualifications than most of the officers on the force – including the ones we’re about to talk to.”
“Seven minutes,” the round face woman casually corrects while cracking the door behind them, cutting off our ability to hear his continued complaints.
Post their voices fading, I exhale for the first time since this particular shitshow started.
Not to be confused with the other shitshow of absentmindedly trying to hide my boyfriend when it would’ve been the time to announce our relationship.
Why didn’t I just do that?
Why is it when I needed my voice the most, I couldn’t find it?
Fuck, why did I even consider lying about us for a second?!
I know he heard me hiccup.
That stupid tell has always been a fucking curse!
I’m honestly more upset that I hurt Jukes than I am about some waste of space cup sweat fuck boy getting fresh with me.
Priorities out of order?
No.
I just know exactly how to deal with that.
Recover and repair.
As for what was severed up between me and the man I don’t want to live without?
Not so much.
Anger and worry and sadness simultaneously flow through my system as I retreat to pack up my few supplies that were spilled during the altercation.
“This shouldn’t’ve happened to you,” M growls barely above a whisper.
“It shouldn’t’ve,” leaves me in a lower volume, “but it does.”
“Maybe if I had-”
“No.” I snap at the same time I drop the container of dental wax into my bag that’s on the table. “This is not about you.” Outrage and disbelief and deep unchecked irritation fuse together until they’re foaming uncontrollably past my parted lips. “Not everything has to be or become about you, Milano!”
“You’re in my barn, Gillian.” A single step is taken in my direction. “You were attacked by a team my boys were playing. A team my boys tillied with. A team out for obvious vengeance against us.” Fury flares on his face in tandem with his tone. “Of course this was about me!”