Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
I knew this. I just didn’t get why we were doing it. Mom wouldn’t care about some girl her nephew was attached to. I doubted Oz had even talked to her about it. But Dad would know. He had agreed with Oz if we were going through with it.
“Mom doesn’t need this. Her sister’s shit isn’t hers to worry about.” I was sobering up from anger alone.
“Mom isn’t going to be told about it,” Kash said. “You’re right. She doesn’t need to worry about anyone but herself. We are taking care of it for her. She’d want us to, and you know it.”
Maybe. Probably. Okay, yeah, she fucking would. She loved her sorry-ass sister even though the woman didn’t deserve Mom’s love.
“I’m moving to the Bowens’,” I said, deciding now was the time.
“No, you’re not. It’s part of Linc’s requirements. All three of us stay in the house. The family will protect her, but she’s our responsibility. Not theirs.”
Fuck. I should have moved out months ago.
Kash pulled up to the security gate and tapped in the code. I straightened in my seat as we continued the drive up to the house.
“I’m scared too. I’m angry. I want to be furious with the world. But that isn’t going to help Mom get better. She wants us happy,” Kash told me.
“And we are all doing our damnedest to act like it for her sake. When she’s not around, I can’t keep it up.”
Kash pulled into the parking spot that had become his in the garage. “Don’t take your rage out on Calvin’s friend. She lost both her parents suddenly and violently.”
I reached for the door handle and shoved it open. I was aware of her situation. I just didn’t care. She wasn’t mine to worry about. She was a stranger whose father hadn’t done his job and protected his family. Slamming the door behind me, I stalked toward the house, wanting to get away from my little brother’s lecture.
While I wanted to just go to my room, I knew Oz would be expecting me in the great room. His truck was parked out front, along with one of the family’s black Escalades. Which meant that the girl and Calvin had been picked up from the airport and were already here. Might as well get this shit over with.
I stopped in the game room and went over to the liquor cabinet to grab a bottle of whiskey.
“Don’t,” Kash said behind me.
“Didn’t ask permission,” I replied, snatching one of the better bottles from Carver’s distillery.
“Are you trying to cause shit with Bane and Oz?” He sounded annoyed.
Shrugging, I opened the bottle and took a swig before responding. “You numb the pain with Cressida. I numb mine with this,” I replied, holding it up, then continued to the great room.
He muttered a curse behind me, but I kept going, staggering to the left a little, then smirking. Maybe I was still drunk. I could hear their voices before I entered the room. Oz’s gaze swung to me the moment I walked in and then to the bottle in my hand. Although my eyesight wasn’t completely steady, it was clear that he was annoyed.
I chuckled under my breath and made my way toward an open spot on the sofa.
“Forge,” Oz said, and I plopped down, then glanced up at him.
“Yes, Oz?” I asked, grinning as I took another drink.
His jaw was jutted out as he clenched his teeth. He needed to lighten up. I shifted my focus to the guy to his left. It had been years, but I recognized Calvin. He had more of our mother’s features than we did, and that pissed me off. Why? I didn’t know, but it did.
“Long time,” I drawled, sticking the bottle between my thighs and stretching an arm across the back of the seat.
“Yeah, it has been. I appreciate y’all doing this for me,” he replied.
“We’re happy to help,” Kash told him.
I just laughed. Because, no, we fucking weren’t.
“Ignore him. He’s drunk,” Kash informed him, as if that wasn’t obvious.
My gaze moved over the room. I didn’t really care what else was said. I wasn’t sure I’d remember it anyway. A pair of wide gray eyes stared at me. I paused momentarily, forgetting that I was pissed and annoyed. Thick black lashes made them appear almost like a pale silver instead of gray. There was fear and something else I recognized, but couldn’t place. It was forlorn, lost, dark.
When they blinked, I snapped out of whatever trance I’d been in, and my gaze began to take in the owner of those eyes. Hair the color of the blackest ink, parted in the middle and hanging in waves over her shoulders. Skin that reminded me of porcelain yet not as pale in color. Then, finally, I checked out the lips, and, mother of God, they were a perfect Cupid’s bow, unpainted yet a rosy pink.