Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Goldie, we don’t deserve you,” Rye said. “No matter how much Kit liked you, we had no right to kidnap you, to bring you to our mountain, to force you into all of this.”
“This isn’t about what is right,” I said. “Hell, nothing about what happened is right. This is about what started happening that first day I walked out of that woodshed. It is about all the days between the moment you took me from my home—my past—to bring me here, to start my future. A new life. A better life—”
Banks shoved his chair back so hard it banged into the wall. “That’s just it. There is no better life. We couldn’t even keep our baby sister alive! You almost died in the barn!”
“But I didn’t die!” I shouted back. “Yes, we lost Kit. But that wasn’t your fault, or any of yours. You aren’t gods, you are men. You couldn’t know Cook would show up that day. You were doing all you could to keep her safe, to keep all of us safe. And, yes, it’s horrible, it hurts like hell. She’s gone and we will always miss her. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you keep me from fulfilling the promise I made to a woman I considered my sister, too.”
“Goldie…” Jay said, but I just shook my head.
“I-I love you. I love you all so much. Please… Oh God, please don’t send me away. Please let me stay. Even if-if you don’t love me back, please let me love you.”
I had no idea I was sobbing, shaking, until I was suddenly surrounded by the brothers. Arms wrapped around me to hold me up, to press me to Rye’s chest, hands stroking down my arms, my back, through my hair, as each of them attempted to soothe me.
“We didn’t mean to hurt you, Goldie,” Rye said, bending to place a kiss on top of my head.
“We just wanted to set you free,” Jay said from my right, kissing my cheek.
“To let you know how sorry we were for scaring you,” Banks said from behind me, before he bent forward to brush my hair aside to press a kiss to the nape of my neck.
“Kit was right,” Rye said. “You are a very special woman.” He kissed my head again. “She’d have been so mad at us if she’d known what we did,” Rye offered. “She never would have agreed to any of this. But… well, she really liked you and… after that day we all met you in your store and that time in my truck… well, we decided we wanted you.”
“You did?” I asked, a little baffled. “Then why didn’t you just tell me instead of kidnapping me?”
Jay answered for them all. “Because you’d be a fool to agree to be with us. We aren’t good men.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “You might have done things outside the law, but that doesn’t make you bad men. Kit knew that. I not only liked her, but I also loved her. She was a special young woman and a wonderful friend.” It was my turn to pause, tears threatening to spill yet again. But these men needed to know, needed to hear. Clearing my throat, I looked at each one of them. “She loved you so very, very much. God, she was so proud of each of you. She knew you weren’t perfect, but it didn’t matter. You were her whole life.”
“It should have been us, not her,” Banks said, the man who was normally so cocky, so confident sounding so forlorn.
I turned to face him. “But that just proves how very much she loved you all,” I said, reaching up to place my palm against his cheek before turning to look at Rye. “You were willing to give your life for her, but she chose to give hers for yours.” I could see the pain in his eyes and placed my hand over his heart while looking at each of them again. “And while you couldn’t save her, you avenged her. You avenged your parents. All she wanted was for you to find the happiness you’d given her for her entire life. If you truly wish to honor her, to make her sacrifice mean something, then truly start over, put the past behind you, and build a new life.”
25
Goldie
“Tell me again why you are so adamant about this,” Rye said the next day as he turned off the ignition, turning to look at me.
“We’ve gone over this a dozen times,” I said, a bit exasperated that it was necessary to go over it yet again. “Because it is the right thing to do. You cannot arrange a service over the telephone.”
“I—none of us have set foot in a church since we were kids,” Banks said from his seat on my other side.