Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Could I have remembered the wrong name?
Could all of this be undone if I just had more time to untangle my memories?
“Please, Kill. Don’t do this,” I whispered as he dragged me toward a black SUV.
Kill gritted his jaw but didn’t reply. His hand stayed latched around my wrist, his legs chewing up the floor as if he wanted to break into a sprint and run far away from me.
My heart stuttered at the hate reverberating from him. I didn’t fight—there was no point. But I wished he would just stop for one moment. Just stop and…
What? Expose himself from years’ worth of denial and put himself in a place of agony to try and believe? Something like that would take more strength than anything, and as much as I hated it, I could understand his reluctance.
It was easier to continue living a lie than deal with the consequences of what it would mean if I were Cleo. So many questions would then exist… How were we separated? Why did he think he killed me? What really happened all those years ago?
I reached out, wrapping my fingers around his arm where he held me. He didn’t stop or look down.
“I’m sorry, Arthur. I’m sorry for the pain you’re going through. I’m sorry to make you confront things you obviously aren’t able to. But please don’t do this. Let me go. Release me. I’ll never come back and you’ll never have to see me again, but please. Please don’t sell me.”
“Don’t use my name.” He tugged me faster, reaching the black 4WD and opening the back door.
My heart winged frantically. “You have to know I didn’t mean to hurt you! It’s all true inside my mind. Everything I feel for you—everything that happened, it’s all real.”
How is it real?
Did my mind steal someone else’s memories or was everything a story—told to keep myself from going insane with no past?
Kill refused to make eye contact. Grabbing me around my bronze-encased waist, he threw me onto the backseat of the car.
My teeth rattled as he punched the door closed, shaking the entire vehicle.
Two seconds later, he climbed behind the steering wheel and pressed the garage door opener.
Twisting the key in the ignition, the engine started with a growl, then slid seamlessly into gear and exploded from standstill to motion.
“Ah!” I slid wildly on the pristine tan leather as he floored the acceleration, shooting from the garage and into Florida sunshine. He drove like a damn lunatic, taking corners too fast, making the wheels squeal.
My stomach crashed against my insides. Nausea made me sweat as I fumbled for a seat belt.
Did he not care at all?
He’s such an… ass. An uncommunicative ass who doesn’t want to face the truth.
“Kill—”
He swiped his hand through his hair, pressing harder on the gas. “Don’t.”
I hugged my chest, slip-sliding even with the seat belt tight as he careened around a corner. “Please… you have to listen to me. I didn’t do it to hurt you! I honestly believe I know you. I can’t explain it—”
“You don’t need to explain it. You’re done here. You succeeded in seeing me again and you’ve made it worse for yourself.”
“How?”
He clutched the steering wheel, his knuckles going white. “I told you before that you wouldn’t get sweet or caring from me. I told you not to lie to me or to try and touch me. Yet, you did all of those fucking things. You dragged more emotion out of me in a few days than anyone’s been able to do in years and I fucking hate you for it. Not only did you force me to come back and listen to more of your lies, you think after everything you’ve done that I’ll just let you go?” He shook his head, chuckling sadly. “That’s not how sins work, sweetheart. They demand payment. Same fucking payment that I paid.”
He sped past street signs, driving like a reckless idiot.
“And vengeance? What of that?”
His head swiveled, green eyes latching onto mine before returning to the road. “You don’t know a fucking thing about vengeance. Don’t spin another tale. I’m done with your bullshit.”
“You’re right. I don’t know about revenge. I have no enemies—that I can remember. But I do know what they say about it. That carrying out harm to others not only hurts your intended victims, but yourself, too. You end up being hurt. Forgiveness—”
“Forgiveness?” he yelled, punching the steering wheel and making the horn blare. “You dare talk to me about forgiveness? You have no right—none—to try and preach how I should live my life. You don’t know a damn thing of what they did to me. To her. To my fucking future. They ruined me!”
The twisted agony in his tone turned my heart into a mangled, useless thing. I wanted to take his pain and cure him. I wanted him to let it go so it didn’t fester and kill him. The more time I spent with him, the more I wondered what happened to the simple, kind boy from my past.