Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
These men could be working for him, for all I know.
But, if I’m trusting my gut, that’s telling me they’re not.
But they’re terrifying, big and muscled and tattooed. Wearing leather jackets. They don’t look like home.
They don’t look safe.
“You don’t have to talk to them, Raven,” Erin whispers. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
“Her name is Ellie.”
The man, the one who hasn’t taken his eyes off me, says this in a gruff tone. He’s terrifying. His eyes seemingly black pits, full of despair and pain. That is written all over his face, but his eyes hold his greatest secrets. He’s big, huge even. Bigger than anyone I’ve ever met. He’s muscled, tattooed, and has a scar on his face that tells of his rough life.
And yet he’s incredibly breathtaking.
So beautiful, I’m struggling not to stare.
But holding his eyes makes me nervous, and I can’t bear to keep looking, in fears I won’t be able to calm myself down.
“Maybe to you,” Erin snaps, “But Raven is all she knows. So for now, until we know you’re telling the truth about her, Raven is who she is. And if she doesn’t want to talk to you, she does not have to. Ya’ll might be big and scary, but I promise you I will fight you if you even attempt to come any closer to her without her permission.”
One of the men, who is also wearing a jacket, but has lighter hair than the rest, laughs. “I like her.”
Erin glares at him.
She’s been my rock.
My support.
My friend.
My sister.
I couldn’t have gotten through without her. She makes me feel safe. She makes me feel stronger. She’s always lifting me up. Helping me through. Getting me through my darkest days. That first six months was hell, a mix of nightmares and fear, and she was there every step of the way.
I owe her my life.
And I trust her with it.
“Can we at least talk to her?” The big man says, still staring at me.
I step a little more behind Erin.
“She agreed to let you come here when we saw the ad, but if you so much as push her, you’re out. Do you understand?”
He nods.
“What’s your name?” Erin asks. “I didn’t catch it when you called.”
“Slater. Slater Knight.”
I search my memories, for something. Anything. But it’s blank. Empty darkness. That’s all I see.
“Come in,” Erin says to the three men who turned up. “Don’t push me.”
I step behind Erin and stare at the floor, too terrified to even move as the three men walk in, and sit at the dining table. Erin turns to me, her big brown eyes locking on mine. “You do not have to do, or say, anything you don’t want to. Do you understand? Nobody, and I mean nobody is going to make you do anything. The second you want them out, they’re gone. Do you understand?”
I swallow, and nod. “Yes.”
“Come on, honey.”
We walk over to the table, and I sit, far too close to Erin but I’m too afraid to move away from her. I stare down at the table surface, not really sure what to say.
“You say you know Raven, and it was you that put up the signs searching for her, want to explain that to us?” Erin begins.
“Been the love of my life since I was twenty-one years old,” The man called Slater says, his voice gruff.
I jerk.
The love of his life?
I was...with him?
So many questions swirl through my mind, and my heart begins to race. He must be wrong. I’d remember him. If we were in love, I’d remember him.
I take a staggering breath, and keep staring down at the table surface, running my eyes over every tiny scratch, too afraid to look up.
“Care to elaborate a little, anyone could come in here and throw that one at us,” Erin says, her voice calm and collected.
“Was gettin’ to it,” Slater growls, his voice low, and deadly.
“Easy brother,” Someone else says. “Been waitin’ a fuckin’ long time for this, go easy.”
He’s been waiting?
Searching maybe?
Curiosity burns in my chest, and I want to know more, yet I’m hellishly afraid of the answers.
“She lived in a foster family, next door. Moved her in when she had just turned seventeen, I was twenty-one. Her parents died when she was young, no siblings, no family wanting to take her in, so she went into the system. Me and my brothers took a liking to her, she became like a sister to them, but the moment I laid eyes on her. She was mine. She was always fuckin’ mine.”
I can’t breathe.
My breath comes out in hard pants.
This is too much. Too much.
“Go on,” Erin says, reaching over and squeezing my hand.
“She was always soft, and quiet, and she took a liking to us. We all became like family, but her and I, we were a fuck load more than that. We were a fuck load more, Ellie.”