Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Seraphina. Cyclone. Even Matt. Marie. Theresa. They were all stopping by, all checking on Bailey, and I couldn’t blame them. I’d have done the same if I wasn’t the one holding her in my arms. But I hated that building. Give me an apartment building with a clear escape route next to me, or my own place like the villa, and I was happy. I’d been staying at the villa almost since I first moved in with the Francis family.
I’ve always been like this. Wired. Always feeling in a corner. Waiting for my grandfather to come.
It was now.
Calhoun Bastian had delivered a devastating blow, and I hadn’t been able to fire back, not yet, but I knew I had to. God. My chest burned. I was thinking it, and it would take me away from Bailey.
And fuck my grandfather because he did his research.
He came to her school.
I thought it was about trying to scare me, to show me how close he could get to Bailey. It hadn’t been about that, and I knew it now. I knew it too late. He’d been testing me. He’d been gauging me, seeing how much I cared for her, and I showed him. Freely. Willingly. I pushed back on him, hard, and it’d been a mistake. He saw how in love with her I was.
She was my weakness. Not the Francis family anymore, but Bailey.
I wanted to hunt him down now, stop him now.
“We haven’t talked about…”
I let Peter’s statement hang between us. No. We hadn’t talked. Peter had fallen in love with Chrissy Hayes, and my grandfather had taken his woman away. What was there to talk about? I heard his tone, how he was trying to warm up to the real conversation. And that he wanted to do it here, in a fucking college building. I wasn’t angry at Peter, but I was angry.
I was angry at everyone, everything.
I was angry because the real person I wanted to tear apart would require me to leave the woman I had hurt, the woman I loved, and I wasn’t sure if that’s what she actually needed more than anything.
God.
“Kash—”
“Don’t,” I gutted out, cutting him off.
“Kash.” He tried again.
I turned to him. “I said don’t.”
Peter swallowed. His chin firmed. He was taking what I was showing. I shook my head and turned back to watch Bailey, like I’d done a thousand times over the last three weeks.
“I need to go and you know it,” I said.
I heard his swift inhale. “She needs you.”
“She needs me to kill him more.”
The decision was made. I had to go. The sooner the better.
He frowned. “Kash.”
I shook my head. “No. You know I’m right. I’ve been fighting him using board moves. I set up chess pieces and still never saw him coming. He took her mother out. He took your woman, and that’s on me.”
“It’s not—”
“It is!”
I seared him with a look. He shouldn’t be fighting me on this. He knew. He knew more than anyone how this was my fault, how he hadn’t brought her into the family in the first place because of me, because of who I shared blood with.
My men were stationed around the entire room, and at the sharp exchange, I saw Josh separate from the wall. He was coming to me. I looked at him, shaking my head to tell him to stay back, but he kept coming. It was then that I saw he had his finger to his ear and was listening to something being said in his earpiece. A resolved look came over him, making his hard face seem even harder, and he never slowed. He didn’t falter one bit.
Something was happening, and he was coming to tell me.
Making eye contact with Scott, Fitz, and Derek; all three of them were watching Josh’s movements.
Fuck. This was the call I set in motion three months ago when I took Bailey to Burriotle. She was getting a lunch, but I was meeting an old friend, Robbie, preparing for this call.
Josh stopped next to me.
“What is it?”
“They made contact.”
My chest swelled and I clipped my head down. “Fine.”
No. It wasn’t fine. It was good.
I had to go.
“How is she going to sleep at night?” Peter asked.
I gave him a sharp look. “You got cameras in our room?”
He’d been paying more attention than I thought he had been.
“I have cameras in the hallways. She paces at night. You come and get her. She doesn’t leave again after you do that.” He stepped closer, dropping his voice. “I know you help her sleep. How’s she going to sleep now?”
How could I kill my grandfather if I couldn’t leave her side?
“I can’t take her with me.”
He stared at me.
I stared back.
Neither of us said a word.
Then, a break, and Peter nodded. He stepped back. “Fine. I can see if Seraphina will stay with her.”