Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Oh, Cian,” she crooned. “How awful.”
I let her closeness soothe me for a few minutes, keeping her warmth clutched to me. She ran her hand up and down my back, stroking my neck until my breathing was under control. When she sat down, she wrapped both her hands around mine, holding tight. “What happened next?”
I shook my head. “I’m not going into day-by-day details. I can’t.”
“Just tell me what you can.”
“After the funeral, my uncle told me I could live with him. He was only ten years older than I was—a really cool guy. He and my dad got along great, even though there was such a huge age gap and I thought of him more like a brother than an uncle. I always enjoyed his visits. From what I understand, he was a bit of a surprise to my grandparents.”
She grinned. “I suppose so.”
“He quit his job and came here to live so I could finish school, and he looked after me. He said I was all he had left.” I shrugged. “I guess he was all I had left too.”
“He sounds great.”
“He is.”
“You’re still in contact with him?”
“Skylar, Sean is my uncle.”
She gaped at me, then smiled. “Well, that makes a lot of sense, actually. He does fuss over you like a dad. The two of you get along very well.”
I snorted. “Not always. I was angry after my dad died. They told me it was a home invasion, but I knew they were lying. My dad was too nervous about that trial—too much on edge. The coincidence was too great. But I was shut down every time I tried to do something or talk to someone. Even Sean shut me down. I started drinking and hanging out with the wrong crowd, getting into trouble a lot. Sean and I argued all the time.” I sighed. “I put him through so much bullshit.”
“You were in mourning.”
“I was. I was angry too. And the anger got worse as the time passed. I felt my dad’s murder was being ignored. I couldn’t even find out what case he’d been working on. Nobody would tell me anything.”
“You were a kid, Cian. I’m sure they were trying to protect you.”
“I know that now. Back then, I didn’t.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried getting into the drug scene. I thought I might be able to find out the identity of this guy my dad seemed so concerned about. I knew he had something to do with my dad’s death, and I was hell-bent on revenge.”
Her eyes widened. “That was dangerous.”
I nodded. “I wasn’t really thinking clearly. Then Sean found out.” I arched my eyebrow at her. “Now, that was dangerous.”
“What happened?”
“He screamed and yelled at me for days.” I shook my head at the memory. “Threw me in his car and brought me here. He said it was for my own good.”
“So, it’s family trait, then, this kidnapping urge you have.”
I chuckled, lifting her hand and kissing it. Even as hard as this was, she made me smile.
“So, I was stuck here, isolated with him, and he yelled. He yelled a lot. And as loud as he wanted to—which was pretty fucking loud. He refused to let me leave until I talked to him and told him where my ‘dumbass-fucking mind’ had come up with ‘such a stupid, inane plan.’”
“And?”
“I finally snapped and told him what I was doing and why. We talked for hours. He told me he felt the same and was trying to find out information. By then, he had established his own surveillance company, and he did a lot of work, discreetly, for the force and other government agencies. He is incredibly gifted when it comes to software and computers.”
I huffed a sigh. “He said there was an investigation going on and what I was doing was only hurting it. He talked to me like an adult. Man-to-man. He made me see sense, and I agreed to stop my behavior and let him handle it.” I used my free hand to scrub my face. “It felt good to get it off my chest.”
“You needed to know someone understood your pain. That someone else heard you.”
“Yes, I did. I needed to feel like I wasn’t the only one who remembered my dad—or what happened to him.”
“Sean did.”
I nodded. “Sean did so much for me I never really appreciated until I was older. He gave up his life and career for me—he put me first. He knew he was all I had and it was too dangerous to stay an active agent, so he left the force and started working on his own. He concentrated on being behind the scenes—he’s brilliant at it.” I grinned at her. “As you well know.”
She shook her head, even as she grinned back at me.
“And?” she asked. “What happened next? I still don’t understand.”