Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
“They went after him through me. They went after me. He knows this. He’s not going to let that go. I feel it. I see it in his eyes.”
“He promised you that he wouldn’t act. You proved you have the power to affect his decisions.”
I down my drink. “You just put the world on my shoulders.”
“No,” he says. “The world is on his shoulders and has been for a very long time. You can ease that pressure. You can make him let go of the past once and for all.”
“I’m part of his past. I’m part of them and he hates that.”
“He’s a part of them, too, but both of you can choose to walk away.”
“They won’t let us, Grayson. I believe in my heart that they tricked me into setting him up for my own murder.” Saying that out loud to someone other than Eric twists me in knots. “I need another drink. No. I need Eric here. Now.” I reach for my phone and remember that I don’t have it. “I have no phone. I have no purse. I have no clothes.”
“My wife, Mia, is bringing you some necessities, including a new phone.”
“Because Eric’s like a brother to you and you’re protecting me to protect him.”
His eyes warm with that statement. “Eric is my brother.”
Brother.
That word radiates through me and I walk to the bar myself, refill my glass and down it again. “I believe he’s hit a limit,” I say when Grayson offers me his glass to fill. “If you really love him like a brother—”
“I do,” he says, taking the whiskey in my hand from me.
“Help me stop him.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I don’t know, Grayson. I just know if he does this, he’ll lose sleep. He’ll feel pain over it. Even if he doesn’t get caught—”
“I wouldn’t get caught.”
At the sound of Eric’s voice, I whirl around to find him standing a few feet away and relief washes over me. He’s back. He’s already back.
“And I told you, Harper. I would sleep just fine if he were dead, but I don’t plan to kill him or anyone. That would be too gentle a punishment.” His cellphone rings and he pulls it from his pocket to glance at the number. His expression is stone, his entire body more stone than man, as he allows seconds to count down before he answers the call.
He takes the call, gives a clipped greeting, listens several seconds and then says, “When?” Another few beats pass and he adds, “I’ll be there.” He disconnects the line and cuts his stare, seeming to think, perhaps calming his mind a moment, before he says, “I’ll be back,” and turns and heads for the door.
Warning bells go off in my head and I run for him, planting myself between him and the door, watching him slip into a jacket. “Who was that, Eric?”
“My father.” He opens a drawer to the foyer table, pulls out a gun, checks it, and sticks it in his pants.
“You need a gun?”
He faces me, his stance wide. “Would you rather me go without one after what happened at the warehouse?”
“You’re not going to meet him. Not tonight. Sleep this off. Think about what comes next.”
“I don’t need to think.”
“You aren’t going to meet him.”
“Yes,” he says. “I am.” And once again, he sets me aside, opens the door, and leaves.
I try to follow, but Savage steps in my path. “Sorry, honeybunch,” Savage says. “I can’t let you leave.”
“Move, Savage, or I swear, I’ll hurt you.”
“You do appreciate the ridiculousness of that statement, I’m sure.” He steps back just enough to indicate another man with sandy brown hair and lots of muscles, standing beside him. “I brought back-up. This is Smith. He’s going to be your regular doorman.”
Smith gives me a nod, confirming that I’m outnumbered. I grimace and turn back to the apartment. Grayson appears in the foyer. “He went to meet his father. He won’t kill him, right?”
Grayson’s eyes darken. “That’s not his plan.”
“That’s not a no.”
“It’s the only answer I have for you.”
Chapter sixty
Eric
The past…
Jennie pulls her giant truck to the edge of the trailer park and stops. “I have to let you off here.” She looks at her watch. “Hurry. You have to go. I’m so late to work, it’s insane. If I get fired, my mom will be pissed and we won’t be going out this weekend.”
“We aren’t going out this weekend,” I say. “You know that. I’m staying with my mother.”
“You’re only sixteen. You still have to live.”
“What part of she’s dying do you not understand?”
“I can’t date a guy who can’t ever go out.”
I cut her a look. “Then don’t date me.” I open the car door.
“Eric, damn it.”
I don’t reply. I get out of the truck. “Thanks for the ride.” I slam the door and slide my backpack onto my shoulder. I have homework that will take me all of about thirty minutes. I can do it in the morning before class, but my mother likes to see me open books. I’ll open them for her.