Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“She’s not your fucking woman, Grim. You’ve been treating her like shit ever since she got back,” I snapped at him. “How you could expect her to even want to be yours with the fucking way you’ve been treating her is fucking beyond me.”
“I’m a hairsbreadth away from putting a bullet in your skull,” Tristan threatened.
If I was getting a bullet in my skull, he was going to get a fucking wake-up call, and I hoped that Adelaide would choose to go back to Joey. The man had changed in the year she’d been gone, and I knew he would finally love her how she deserved to be loved if he got a second chance with her.
“If you would treat her right, Grim, you wouldn’t ever have to worry about another man like me,” I told him honestly.
He reached for his gun, and I clenched my jaw, my eyes flickering to Adelaide’s panicked ones. “No!” she screamed, shoving Joey off of her before he could get a better hold on her. She roughly crashed against me. I stumbled with the force she knocked into me with, wrapping my arms around her as I steadied us to keep us both from falling to the concrete floor.
“You’ll kill me first,” Adelaide seethed at Tristan as she clung to me, using every bit of her strength to stay with me.
He clenched his jaw, hurt flickering in his eyes. “Why him, Addy?” he asked her, sounding broken. I almost rolled my eyes. How the fuck could he be hurt about this shit when he had been doing nothing but treating her like pure garbage? Like a dog that might bite someone? “The first second that I’m gone, you hook up with the one man that I trusted with you mere hours after I just fucking had you in my damn bed.”
“I’m not the same woman I was a year ago, Tristan,” she told him, her voice apologetic. I knew she still loved him. Still cared about him. She didn’t want to hurt him, and she didn’t want him finding out this way.
I smoothed my hands over her back, holding her with me, giving her the strength that she needed to say what she needed. She couldn’t keep biting back her feelings.
“I don’t give a fuck, Addy!” he roared, thrusting his hands through his hair. Adelaide flinched. I tightened my hold on her, narrowing my eyes at Tristan. “Fucking hell, woman, you know that I fucking love you! Why would you do this?!”
She audibly swallowed, pain flashing across her face. I gritted my teeth. “You never saw me, Tristan,” she quietly told him, sounding broken. “You saw the girl you wanted me to be. You only saw who I was before you ruined me on my eighteenth birthday.” His face shattered, revealing the broken man beneath his mask. The man all of us knew he would be without her. Her bottom lip trembled. “Please, Tristan, if you love me, you won’t kill him.”
With that, she reached up and trailed the tips of her fingers over my jaw before she strode out of the warehouse, trusting Tristan to make the right decision for her.
She had a hell of a lot more faith in him than I did.
Tristan’s eyes met mine. I was blown away by how shattered he looked. But this shit? It was his own fault. I didn’t feel bad for him at all.
“You’re banished from my fucking club, River.” I had figured as much. Not like I wanted to stay anyway. “You’ve got twelve hours to pack your shit, turn in your cut, and get the fuck out of my town. The only reason I’m not putting a bullet through your traitorous heart is because Addy cares about you, and I won’t hurt her more than she already is.” He looked toward the doors she had disappeared out of. “I’ve fucked her up enough as it is.”
With that, he turned on his heel, disappearing into the office inside of the warehouse.
Joey looked at me, and he heaved a sigh as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “I fucked up with her numerous times, River. That woman… she has a fucking heart of gold. Love her like she’s always deserved to be loved.” He drew in a deep breath. “She’s going to fight you at first. The woman loves me more than she probably should, and she’s going to do her damnest to try not to completely betray the love she feels for me, but I talked to her. Tried to talk her into letting me go.”
So that was why she’d come in looking a mess.
“She’ll always hold you with her, Joey,” I told him. He sighed as if he knew that, too. “I can bear that, and I can bear her love for you.” I shrugged my cut off my shoulders, holding it out to Jesup. He nodded once at me. I was surprised to see a prideful glint in his eyes as he took my cut, almost as if he were proud of me for finally standing up for what I believed in. I looked back at Joey. “But as long as you make her happy, I don’t give a fuck how long she holds you with her, even if that’s the rest of her life.”