Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
I feel the blood dripping down my palm and plopping onto the hardwood floor as I warn, “If you touch her, I—”
“I have no interest in touching her,” Brecken says smoothly. “All I want is my sister back and this land business over with. You have twenty-four hours.”
With that he ends the call, and I spring up from my seat. Twenty-four hours is too long. Too fucking long for her to be on that ranch. Where her daddy abused her, beat on her, fucking terrorized her.
She needs to come home right the fuck now.
And this is her home. With the Graysons. Who care about her. With Haven, who became her friend on day one and has been distraught ever since I showed up at the main house looking for her. With Ax even, who looks fucking traumatized by her disappearance and thinks it was somehow his fault because he was supposed to be watching. With Rad, who’s been on her side since the beginning, since before I even brought her here.
“What do you need?” Rad asks me, reminding me that I’m in Mars’s office.
But I focus on Marsden, who’s sitting behind his desk. “Let me know when the lawyer calls back. I need to know when it’s done.” Before he can respond, I turn to Rad. “Peyton.”
“Peyton.”
“What about her?” he growls back.
If I tell him, he’ll lose his shit. But he needs to know so I growl, clutching the knife, “Peyton’s gonna help us get her back.”
We’re both at the door when Marsden’s voice halts me in my tracks: “She loves you.”
I turn around to face him. Sitting at his desk, he looks every inch the landowner he is. His shoulders straight, his eyes hard. “You know that, right? ‘Cause if you don’t, then you’ve gotta be the blindest fool to ever set foot in Black Rock. Everyone at Rawhide knows. She loves the Dark Stallion and he’s been toyin’ with her. Haven thinks you’ll come around, but I know how stubborn you can be. How fuckin’ hardheaded. And now there’s a chance you’re gonna lose her. You’re gonna lose the girl who somehow, some-goddamn-way loves your fool, reckless ass, all because you can’t let go of the girl you loved eight years ago.”
He’s right. I can be stubborn. I can be hardheaded. But I’m no fool, and I’m not blind. I know she loves me. I knew it before she told me tonight.
I didn’t want her to love me, though.
So I kept reminding her, kept telling her she shouldn’t. I’m not the man for her. I could never be the man for her. Her future is elsewhere. My sins are too big. My crimes are too harsh. I just wish now that instead of being a selfish motherfucker, I had told her the whole story. She would’ve known then.
To stay away. To keep her heart safe from the likes of me.
“I know you looked into Annie,” I tell him. “I know you’ve got a file on her and I know you think I’m a fuckup. But if you don’t butt out of my business, we’re gonna have a big problem.”
I’m going to tell her now, though. I’m going to tell her everything. Because she has a right to know everything about the man she loves. And because if I knew how to love, she’d be the one for me. But first, I need to get her back to where she belongs.
In her home.
Safe.
I KNOW WHERE I am. It smells like tobacco and mold. My old house. My old room. I also know I’m not alone. There’s someone else here with me.
My father.
I should open my eyes now because I’m awake. I’ve been awake for some time, but I can’t bring myself to. My heart is racing so hard, and my skin feels too tight for my body. I feel like a little girl again, pretending to be asleep so my daddy will pass me by instead of raining down his wrath on me. All panicky and terrified. My stomach is churning, and it feels like I’m going to throw up.
But I’m not a little girl anymore. I haven’t been a little girl in years. The last time I was in this house, I was eleven. I was leaving for summer camp and so thrilled to be going just because I’d be away from my mom and dad. And then I got this unexpected, miraculous reprieve. I was saved by the man who wore a bull mask. He didn’t know he was saving me, but that doesn’t diminish what he did for me. He sprang me out of this prison and freed me from years of abuse.
So I can do this. I can open my eyes.
And as soon as I do, I see him, my father.
He’s sitting at my desk by the wall with a beer bottle in his hand. He looks old, as expected. His dark hair has thinned, and his face that always looked too sharp and cruel has sagged. The last time I saw him was at my mother’s funeral, which was six years ago. He wore a suit and a tie, and of course his black Stetson. He stood there all somber and serious, looking down at the casket and the woman he killed. And I stood beside him, the only person who knew he was a murderer. People came and went, paying their condolences to us, and he received them, though he had no right to.