Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 134598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
“Samantha, stop!” Polly cried.
Samantha grabbed Cate’s wrists and tugged her hard.
Pain shot up her arms.
“It’s all your fault!” she yelled.
Cate sobbed. Samantha’s face morphed into her aunt’s. She could hear the older woman yelling at her.
You’re a waste of space!
Look at me when I’m talking to you!
Stupid idiot!
“Get your fucking hands off her!” a deep voice roared.
The noise was too much. She couldn’t cope.
Then Samantha was removed from her eyesight just before Cate was picked up and held against Ethan’s chest. She breathed him in.
“You’re all right. Everything is fine. No one is going to hurt you.”
His words soothed her, pushing back the panic. The rest of the world faded away as he took her into her bedroom.
“Polly, go and tell Rhodes what happened!” Ethan ordered.
“All right,” Polly replied.
“Nooo! This isn’t fair!” Samantha screeched.
Cate shook in Ethan’s arms.
“It’s all right, baby. It’s okay.”
Ethan walked out of the room as he heard a door slam, then Rhodes speaking urgently.
“No,” she said faintly as he moved into her bedroom and toward the closet. “I’m all right.”
“Baby, you’re shaking. I fucking can’t stand it. I knew I shouldn’t have left you.”
It was only a quick trip to the airport, so she should have been fine. But she hadn’t realized that Samantha was home. She was supposed to be out most of the day with the local bodyguard they’d hired.
“She wasn’t supposed to fucking be here or I’d never have left you,” Ethan muttered as though he’d been reading her mind.
“I’m . . . I’m okay.”
He sat with her on the bed, holding her tight as she trembled and tried to bring herself under control.
Maybe she should go into the closet.
There was a knock on her bedroom door.
Ethan got up and walked over with her still in his arms.
“Hey,” a strange voice said as the door opened. “Rhodes is talking to that bitch. He dragged her outside, but she’s lost her mind. The quiet girl told him what happened and he’s livid. Seth is out there with them and that other guy, Kevin, is trying to get them to be quiet, probably because she’s got a screech on her that will reach the neighbors.”
“Just stick close by.”
“Sure thing. Your girl okay?”
Cate tensed. She knew that she should turn around and greet the man standing there. It should embarrass her to be held like a child against Ethan’s chest in front of him. But she just couldn’t move.
“Thanks, Butch. She’ll be okay soon. Is Polly okay?”
“I’m gonna check on her now. You want to call the cops?”
“I’ll talk to Cate about that.”
The police?
She heard the door shut before Ethan walked back over to the bed and sat with her on his lap. Then he drew her back so he could stare down at her face.
“That fucking bitch. Did she slap you?”
She raised her hand to where her cheek felt warm and tender. “Yes. But it’s not that bad.”
“I’m going to get you an ice pack.” He attempted to stand but she whimpered, holding on tight.
“No, please don’t leave me.”
“I’ll be right back, baby.”
“No. There’s a first aid kit in my bathroom. It has one of those ice packs that you activate by snapping. Can’t we get that?”
“Okay.” He carried her into the bathroom with him and got the dry ice pack. He also checked her wrists before kissing them both gently.
“I’m going to kill that bitch,” he said darkly.
She stared up at him in shock. He sounded . . . he sounded murderous.
“You sound like you really mean that.”
“Baby, I do.”
Wow.
“Are you sure you don’t want the closet?” he asked.
She did. But she also didn’t want to move off his lap. Did he have to go and deal with all of this?
But she didn’t want him to leave her.
“All right, baby. It’s okay. Daddy has you.” Standing, he carried to the closet and walked inside.
She whimpered, wrapping herself tight around him. “Don’t let go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Somehow, he managed to sit on the cushion without letting go of her. Then he drew her blanket over her.
She felt so . . . so needy.
“I keep ending up in here.” She bit back her apology, but she couldn’t help but feel high-maintenance.
“And that’s a problem? Because I don’t see it as one. You know you need a safe place when the world gets to be too much. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
There wasn’t?
This had been her safe place for years . . . but she got the feeling that her safe place was becoming less a place and more a person.
Him.
Cate buried her face into his neck as he grabbed her pacifier, popping it into her mouth.
There was a knock on the closet door about fifteen minutes later, which made her jump. She’d been close to falling asleep, which was weird. She guessed it was the adrenaline drop.