Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“I don’t know,” I replied. “She’d never been physical before. Today, things just escalated.”
He was studying my dirty, scraped hands and dusting them off when his eyes shot back up to my face. “Escalated? Meaning she did something to you before today?”
“Just verbally. She’s not very fond of me.”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by verbally?”
I sighed, figuring she’d been fired now so this wasn’t me telling on her because I couldn’t handle it myself. “She would say nasty, hurtful things, make me shovel out stalls when you were gone, get her coffee, other chores.”
He lowered my hands. “Make you?”
I shrugged. “Well, I mean, she told me to. I did it. I was trying to win her over. She’s a tough nut to crack. Clearly, I failed.”
Bane turned and started stalking toward the stables. Then, his hand reached back, and he pulled a gun from beneath his shirt.
What the heck?! What was with these people and their guns?
“Bane!” I shouted and started running after him.
He didn’t slow down; in fact, his long strides got more determined.
“Where is the bitch?!” he roared as he walked into the stables.
“Oh, are we not through yet?” Grissele asked calmly.
Holy crap! They were all deranged. Nothing about what I had just told him warranted being shot.
“BANE, PLEASE!” I cried out loudly.
He finally stopped and turned back to me. The fury blazing in his eyes was unsettling.
“Don’t do this. Put it away. She is leaving. I am fine. She did nothing to me that I’d not dealt with before. I was raised by—”
“That’s not helping, pretty girl,” he warned. “You start telling me you were mistreated right under my goddamn nose, and I will have to kill someone.”
Dang. Not what I’d been trying to do.
I held up both hands. “I’m not. I wasn’t. I love working here.”
His chest was heaving as he stared at me. The gun hanging by his side.
Adalee stepped out of the office with her leather satchel over her shoulder. At some point, Grissele had retrieved her gun from her purse, and she had it pointed at the woman again.
“Not just yet. We might not be done here,” she told Adalee.
“Please, Bane. Please,” I pleaded. “Let her go. I am begging you.”
If he shot that woman for me, I’d never forgive myself.
He glared at Adalee. “Come here,” he ordered.
She looked sick. Like she might throw up at any moment. I was right there with her.
“Bane, if you shoot her, I will blame myself. Forever.”
His eyes met mine, and his nostrils flared.
He shoved her hard, and she fell down, much the same way I had.
“Get on your fucking knees, bitch,” he snarled.
She scrambled to her knees as she began to sob.
“Bane,” I begged.
Why wasn’t Grissele helping me? Surely, she saw how wrong this was.
“Apologize to her,” he ordered.
Adalee looked at him, and he pointed the gun at her head.
“Not me! Look at Halo and fucking apologize.”
She turned to me, fear taking over any other emotion in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Not good enough!” he barked.
I looked at Grissele, silently pleading for her help.
She shrugged. “I agree. She can do better than that. It was weak.”
And to think I had decided that Crosby had taken after his mother and Bane had more of his father in him. Seemed I hadn’t known this about Grissele.
“I am sorry,” she wailed this time.
I looked down at her. “Okay, it’s fine.”
“NO, the fuck it is not. Stay your ass on the ground. Now, tell her that you are sorry for every fucking word you spoke to her. For everything you made her do. Tell her that she is the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen and you are jealous of her. You want what she has. You want to be like her. That you wish your smile lit up a goddamn room the way hers does.”
The flicker in Adalee’s eyes almost looked as if she’d rather him pull that trigger. I wasn’t going to let that happen if I could help it.
“That’s not necessary,” I told him.
“Yeah, it is, pretty girl. I need to hear it. I need her to say it. Because if she doesn’t, I can’t promise you I’m gonna be able to put this gun away.”
She let out a sob, then began, “I’m sorry for everything I said to you and the things I asked you to do—”
“MADE! Don’t paraphrase my fucking words,” Bane growled.
“Made. Made you do. And you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I’m jealous of you. I want what you have. I want to be like you.” She stopped, sobbing again.
“FINISH IT!” Bane shouted.
She was shaking as she forced herself to look back at me. “I wish my smile lit up the room the way yours does.”
Grissele finally stepped forward and placed a hand on Bane’s arm, pushing it down until he lowered the gun. “We don’t need to make her take the Lord’s name in vain. Might as well not add to her sins,” she said gently.