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)
My eyes meet Eric’s. “I know you hate her. I know this makes sense to you because of that hate, but it doesn’t make sense to me. Why would she run? It makes her look guilty.”
“Or afraid. You said she sounded panicked when you talked to her, right?”
“Yes. I think she thinks she’s next. She thinks everyone in the family is going down. She thinks someone is coming for them. Or us. For all of us.”
“I’m still not a hundred percent convinced we’re not the fall guys for something this family has gotten into.”
“You think Isaac and Gigi were the ones setting us up? Not Gigi and your father?”
“My father’s in a hospital bed. That doesn’t spell guilt to me though there’s no question, he was here to protect himself. Maybe that means he was turning on the family. As for Isaac, my first instinct is always to blame that little prick but he has limits. He’s not smart enough to plan any of this alone.”
My eyes go wide with a memory. “Gigi made a comment about you getting your brains from her.”
“Nothing about me came from that woman but the bottom line here is I do believe she knows exactly what’s going on.”
“Then we have to talk to her.”
“Agreed but right now, I need to talk to Davis and get us out of here. And I need your help. Talk to Mia. Make her understand how dangerous this is for Grayson. She’ll get him out of here. Just get them away from this. Even if it means you leave with them.”
“I can’t leave. I’m not leaving you, and as you said—if we don’t deal with the police, they’ll come to us. We need legal counsel.”
“I’m an attorney surrounded by attorneys,” he argues.
“But you don’t want Grayson close to this. A Bennett attorney pulls him in.”
“If we need a criminal law expert, outside the firm, we’ll get one, but there is nothing to protect ourselves from right now. It’s a heart attack.”
“They didn’t say it was a heart attack.”
“They will.”
“You don’t know that.”
He kisses me, a hard press of our mouths. “Trust me.” His voice is low, rough, a demand and question all at once that only Eric could make possible. “I’m asking you to trust me to protect you and us. Help me protect the only other people other than you that matter to me. Grayson and Mia.”
My heart squeezes with the realization that they are all he has, or they were. He now considers me a part of a small, intimate group of people he allows in his life. “I so need to be right here with you right now, but yes. I trust you and I’ll come through for you.”
His eyes darken, warm, seem to soften and then harden again. “Go now. I need to know they’re out of this.”
I press to my toes and kiss him. “I’ll ask Mia to have coffee, but Grayson will—”
“Be right by my side. I know. And Davis will be, too, and he, like me, protects Grayson.”
“Because he’s a friend?” I ask, wondering why he denies Davis that title.
“He’s not Grayson.” His reply is flat and curiously hard.
I don’t know what that means, but I don’t push. Not now. I’ll understand at some point. “I’ll get Mia to help.” I turn away and all but walk right into Savage.
“Just a wall hanging out,” he says, when I stop dead to avoid blasting into him. “I’ll keep him safe while you’re gone.”
Yes, please, I think, ridiculously relieved to have Savage stay by Eric’s side. Eric can take care of himself.
I step around the beast and head toward Mia and Grayson, who are standing in a waiting area just around a corner, and in deep conversation with Davis. “What’s happening?” Mia asks the minute they spy my approach.
“He’s stable,” I say, joining them. “That’s all they’ll tell us.”
Davis discreetly steps away, headed toward the ICU, but Grayson fixes his attention on me. “How much trouble is he in?”
“He didn’t do this,” I say. “I’m certain of it.”
“Who did?”
“I’ll let Eric share his theories on that,” I say, “but Grayson, as long as you’re here, he won’t think his way out of this.”
“As long as I’m here, he’ll be forced to think beyond his damn family, and find a way out.”
I blink. “I don’t understand.”
“When a Kingston is involved, that brain of his goes swimming in shark-infested waters where any productive thought dies. He needs reasons to think outside those waters. That’s me and that’s you. You’ll stay close to him and so will I.” He starts to walk away to follow Davis, and I catch his arm.
“Wait.” He turns to look at me. “His thoughts aren’t the only thing that goes swimming in those shark-infested waters. If you force his hand, if you put yourself in harm’s way, he’ll find a way to end this and I’m not sure either of us want to know where that leads him. You don’t know—”