Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“Do you have a plan yet?” Mike finally asks.
I swallow a bloody piece of steak. “I’m going to kill Rafael. He’s stupid enough to come Stateside. After all he’s done and all he’s threatened, he belongs in the dirt.”
“Won’t you get arrested?” Emma says, a hitch in her voice. That hitch… It brings me back to her graduation party and all the moments we’ve shared in this cabin, trapped in our own universe.
“No chance,” I tell her. “I’ve got friends who’ll make sure the right story is told. Nobody’s going to jail when Rafael’s in the ground. That’s if anybody even hears about it.”
“He sounds like a monster,” she says quietly. “He’s evil. Taking your mom like that.”
I stare down at my plate, trying to mask any feelings, but that was far easier before all this happened. Before the party, before I crossed the line over and over, nobody could crack me open. Now, with my Emma, I can’t shut myself off anymore.
“It’s what scumbags like him do,” I grunt. “He’s going to try to force me to bring you to him.”
“Or what?” Emma whispers.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I say fiercely, with far too much passion in my voice. Mike isn’t used to hearing Emma and me talk like this. We’re constantly crossing over the family-friend line and going into different territory.
“You can’t let them do that,” she mutters.
“Do you think I want him to kill her?” I say. “But if it’s a choice between losing you…” I quickly correct myself, looking at Mike. “… losing you both, then I know which choice I’ll make.”
“What if we can help?” Mike asks.
“It’s too risky,” I tell him. “I’ll handle this my way. I’ve been doing it three hundred and forty days a year for over a decade. I know how to handle scum like this.”
“This is different,” Mike points out. “We were never involved before. Your mother was never at risk.”
I shove another piece of steak into my mouth, refusing to listen to his words. This is different. Maybe there’s some truth in that, but he doesn’t understand what he’s asking me to do.
“I’ll take a shift tonight,” Mike says. “Make up for yesterday. You need to get some rest, Jacob.”
“I don’t mind going without sleep,” I tell him.
“You need rest,” Mike says firmly. “Give me the surveillance footage. I’ll wake you if there’s any movement.” When I open my mouth to argue, Mike says stubbornly, “Let me do this, please. I messed up yesterday. Let me make a difference. Even a small one.”
I sigh and nod. How can I refuse anything from him after everything I’ve done? How can I ever tell him no ever again? I feel Emma looking at me. She probably wants to reach out and place her hand on mine. She probably wants to hold me as hungrily as I want to hold her. Sickly, I find myself resenting Mike’s presence.
The blizzard, the isolation, the wind battering against the cabin… I miss it. Hell, I miss it a lot. Nothing was better than being locked in this place with my woman, nothing to worry about except our closeness, our heat, us.
“This steak is delicious,” Mike says. “Thanks, Emma.”
“Yeah…” I risk a look at her. I almost lean over the table and press my lips against hers. “Thank you.”
She offers a small, shaky smile.
I lie in bed, staring at the ceiling. Sleep seems a long, long way off. Mike is at the front window with a rifle and the tablet. I know he’ll stay alert, stay awake, and get me if there is a risk of any fighting. That’s not the reason I can’t seem to settle.
Whenever I close my eyes, I either see Emma or my mom. I see Rafael grinning sickly down at my mother, his gold and silver teeth glinting, reveling in his power over her. I see the worst-case scenario and try to tell myself I don’t care. She threw herself into drugs, ignoring what he was doing, ignoring her responsibility. Emma is going to be such a better mother.
I roll over and wrap a pillow around my head as if I can make these insane thoughts shut the hell up. It’s the sort of thing I shouldn’t even let myself start to think, let alone obsess over. Yet when I think of her perfect body, how I slid into her, exploded into her without a condom…
I sit up when my door creaks open. Emma slips inside, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and a tank top. Fuck. Is she trying to make me pound her so hard that her dad hears? She walks to the edge of my bed. Her hair is down now, wavy and sexy-messy past her shoulders. Without the battering wind of the blizzard, everything feels far riskier, far more real.