Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Ian closed his eyes, replaying the words, letting the images come to life. The girl who just wanted to be kissed … she brutally killed a man.
“Thank you. Have Jeanine help her get the paperwork submitted to expedite her passport.”
“Ian, you can’t seriously—”
“That is all.”
“Ian—”
“You’re dismissed!” He kept his gaze on the bed, jaw clenched.
“As you wish,” she replied with poison in her words. “Shane will pick you up in two hours.”
“Thank you,” he whispered with a tiny sigh of regret.
Twenty minutes later, as he zipped his suitcase, Jersey slipped into the bedroom and wrapped her arms around him, resting her cheek on his back.
He stiffened beneath her touch. “How was your walk?”
“Slow. Chris likes to smell the roses, only not really. He thinks he’s deadly allergic to bee stings. The only time he picks up the pace is when he sees a bee.”
“Bees, huh? Well, isn’t that interesting. And simple,” Ian mumbled.
“What’s wrong?” She ducked around, wedging herself between Ian and the bed, craning her neck to look up at him.
He chewed on the inside of his cheek, brows drawn together. “Are you running?”
“Running?”
“Running from your past?”
She blinked several times. “I grew up in the system—tossed out of homes, abused, lost—who wouldn’t run from that?”
“Max looked into your past. I didn’t ask her to do it. She’s just looking out for me.”
A few more blinks. “Okay.” She held his gaze without a blip of reaction.
“You have a record.”
She returned a tight-lipped smile. “Yes, Coop, I have a record. You’re not sharing anything new with me.”
Ian took a few moments to do his own blinking, studying her for some sign of nerves or regret.
Nothing.
“You killed a man who did something very bad to you.”
Not. One. Tiny. Blink.
“I did. G killed Fisher when I was seven. Seven, Coop. I knew at that age that if I was ever put in the same position, I would kill too. That’s been my fucking life.”
Ian drew in a slow breath. “Do you regret it?”
“No.”
“Were you scared?”
“No.”
“No?” He tipped his head to the side. “You were fourteen. You cut open a man from throat to groin and you weren’t scared? You weren’t scared of the consequences?”
“For the first time in fourteen years, I stood up for myself. I wasn’t scared; I was strong. How the hell I ended up with another foster parent as bad as Fisher … well, beats the hell out of me. But I did. After years of abuse, missing G, feeling alone, being the oldest in the house … I just snapped.
“I said no. He didn’t listen. I warned him. I said I’d cut him open and watch him bleed out. He laughed. So when his wife left town to visit her parents, I snuck into his room while he was sleeping. I restrained his hands with jump ropes, anchoring them to the posts. Then I jabbed the tip of my knife into his throat. His eyes flew open. His hands jerked against the restraints. I carved a straight line and watched him bleed out as blood gurgled at his throat.”
Ian swallowed hard. “Then what did you do?”
Jersey shrugged. “I went to sleep. Slept through the night, like a baby, probably for the first time in fourteen years.”
“I’m sorry …” he whispered.
“I’m not. Thirty-two. That’s the number of girls he sexually assaulted. Photos of thirty-two naked girls on his computer. Thirty-two girls he videotaped taking showers while he jerked off.”
“Jersey …” He ached to touch her, but the timing felt off.
“I’m not broken, Coop. But you’re right. I’m running. Only you don’t see the real picture. I’m not running away. I’m running toward something. I’m chasing something. I am the predator. The captor. Not the prey. Never again will I be the prey.”
He returned a sluggish nod, mentally chewing on her words, trying to connect the underlying meaning. “Who are you chasing?”
“Not who. What. I’m chasing the truth.”
“The truth about what?”
Jersey’s gaze slipped for a few seconds. Her intent expression pointed at his chest before glancing back up at him. “My life. Why it’s taken the turns it has. And who’s to blame.”
“You’re twenty-four.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Okay. You’re a twenty-four-year-old with a rocky past, but you’re on the verge of traveling the world with a moderately famous person. And said moderately famous person likes you … quite a lot actually. So why chase demons?”
Jersey frowned, a silent punch to Ian’s gut, leaving him feeling like a failure. What did he miss? Why was his question not well-received?
“I didn’t dream of traveling the world with some guy. And no matter how much of the world you show me, it won’t erase my past. It won’t give me what I’ve lost. It won’t be an education, a useful skill, a sense of independence, a feeling of normal … ness, a family.”
Family. That he understood.
“Are you chasing me?” Ian cupped the side of her face.