Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
“You think you have this all planned out, don’t you?”
She exhales, shaking her head. “I’m just telling the truth.”
“Bullshit. You know there is such a thing as fate. What if I was meant to be in North Carolina? What if this is fate’s way of bringing us together, Doc? Did you ever think of that?”
“I’m not a big believer in fate. I think people make their own decisions and reap the consequences of those choices, be it good or bad.”
“You think it’s my fault I was shot? Hell, what kind of person do you think I am? It’s a wonder that you trust me to work puzzles with your daughter. Although, that might explain why Jeff is always close by, right?” I ask, suddenly pissed.
“Breaker—”
“Never mind. I think I have my answer. I believe it’d be best if I go ahead and move into the ranch hand quarters tonight,” I mutter, forcing my legs to brace so they can take my weight as I move to rise off the bed.
“Will you stop!” she snaps. Indy moves so quickly that before I even realize it, she’s leaning over my lap, using her body as extra weight to keep me from standing. “You are not going outside tonight. You would probably fall flat on your face before you took three steps.”
“What does it matter anyway? If I drop dead, you will at least know your daughter is safe.”
“You cannot seriously be mad that I would have someone watch over my daughter when I don’t really know you. You were just gunned down a week ago. This is my daughter, Breaker. She comes before anything and anyone else. Of course, I’m going to have her monitored while she is with you. Her father was a big enough dick. There’s no way in hell I will expose her to someone else that might hurt her.”
“I’d never hurt Tinny! I love that little girl.”
“You don’t know her!”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know her mother either, but I’m pretty sure that I could love her if she’d let me.”
I see the minute my words hit her. Her entire body jerks like it just suffered a hard blow. Her gaze locks on mine and I’m almost positive that I see panic brewing in those bright blue depths.
“You’re talking insane. Despite this crazy attraction between us, we don’t know one another.”
“Maybe I am insane, but I feel this need to have you in my life so deep inside of me that I know it’s useless to try to stop it. Everything about you calls to me. I may not know my past, Indy, but I know I want more of you in my present and in my future.”
“And if you happen to have a woman you love hidden away in your past? What happens then, Breaker? Take what we feel out of the equation. If I allow you to kiss me—if I allow this to go any further—how are you going to feel if there’s a woman back home grieving your death? A woman who loves you with everything in her. How are you going to feel then?”
“What if I never get my memory back, Doc? Am I supposed to be with a woman I can’t remember? Will she even want a man who can’t love her like the man she remembers?”
“That’s something you won’t know until you return to see what’s waiting in Kentucky for you.”
“Okay, I’ll make a deal with you.”
“A deal?”
“Jeff had the local news on today when I was trying to help him. They were dragging the lake. The police would only say there was an ongoing investigation concerning a tourist who had disappeared on a hiking trail. They didn’t even release a picture.”
“That’s kind of odd, isn’t it? I mean, I have to admit, I wondered why they aren’t plastering pictures of you all over town.”
“It is. Although Jeff has a theory,” I respond.
I don’t think she realizes that she’s still draped over my lap. It’s all I can do not to haul her up so that I can take her mouth and claim her as mine. I carefully let my fingers move to the ends of her hair and just the feel of it relaxes me.
“What’s that?” she asks. Is it my imagination, or did her body tremble against me?
“The people who shot me are still out there. They don’t know if I’m dead or alive, but just in case, he figures they don’t want my picture plastered everywhere, making it hard for me to hide.”
“They’d have to be pretty powerful to pull those kinds of strings.”
“Apparently this Savage Brothers MC is pretty big. They own a lot of custom garages across the US, although the most famous and lucrative one is in Kentucky. So, it is definitely possible. Plus, Jeff said the Feral Kings MC mostly own this town through violence and intimidation. It’s possible that my family—if it is them—don’t truly trust the government and police here either.”