Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“We’ll be back,” I muttered as I took her by the hand again.
She started to fight, and I pulled her in close, practically forming her body to mine.
I patted her ass. “No, we’re going to go have a little talk about this.”
“Fuck that.” She started to squirm. “Let me go!”
I took her to the judge’s chamber and slammed the door—which was where I’d been trying to get her to go into for the last twenty minutes.
Our family friend and local judge who just so happened to do all the marrying in this small town had happened to be at the club when this all had started. He was also a closet romantic and loved a good marriage ceremony—which so happened to be why he was more than happy to indulge me on this mission.
He’d even gone out of the way to have the clerk show up and get our marriage license sorted out—who also happened to be his wife.
There was no way we weren’t doing this officially. So, even though it would’ve been ten times easier to have this at the club, it needed to be done right. It needed to be documented, and it needed to be one hundred percent accurate in the eyes of the law.
“Get away from me!” She hurled the words at me.
She was like an angry, little kitten, hissing and spitting.
She was all meow and no bite, that was for sure.
I reached for her, and she yanked herself away.
“Go away. We’re done here.” She paused. “But make sure you leave me your keys when you do so I can get home.”
I started to chuckle under my breath.
We’d gotten here just fine. She’d been in a state of shock, but I hadn’t realized how opposed she was to this until my family had started arriving.
The more and more that crammed into the hallway of the courthouse, the more that Lark started to withdraw.
“Lark, look at me. Honey.”
***
Lark
“Honey.”
I refused to speak to him.
“Baby.”
It took everything I had not to turn my head and stare at him.
The sound of his voice was debilitating. All the love and caring he had packed in those two little words was enough to set me on edge.
Didn’t he realize what he was asking of me?
“You’re asking me to sign your death warrant,” I breathed. “I can’t...I won’t. Not to you. You’re off the hook.”
Then I was in his arms and he was forcing me to look at him.
“I don’t want to be off the hook.”
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, blocking my throat. I choked them back, but it was hard to breathe.
My breath hitched.
“Don’t cry.”
The first tear slipped down my cheek and curled around my nose. When it got to my lips, he licked it off, causing me to smile despite the worry ripping through me.
“You’ll marry me.”
I shook my head.
“You’ll be Mrs. Baylor Hail.”
I gasped for breath.
“Rita Hail, but you’ll go by Lark.”
“But what about the men from Free making me disappear? Won’t that be a problem? They said they erased me.”
He shrugged. “They erased your tracks from what I can tell. Kind of gave you a clean slate, so to speak. But you can’t truly erase someone. Unless that person knows absolutely no one—someone will always know who they are. And what was erased can always be rewritten.”
I looked at him then.
He was saying all the right words. The words that I wanted to hear…but I still couldn’t shake the feeling.
Hearing my name linked to his coming from his lips was almost surreal. Like an out of body experience that I never knew I wanted to hear. At least not until he said them, anyway.
“We don’t have to do any hiding anymore,” he said. “He knows you’re here. Why hide the fact?”
He had a point.
“When I left, Rita ceased to exist anymore,” I told him.
He pushed my hair back over one ear. Then cupped my cheek.
“You’re Lark now. I get that.”
I nodded.
“But for the sake of this marriage being one hundred and ten percent legal, we’re going to use your real name on the marriage certificate. Okay?”
“This isn’t a good idea,” I told him. “It’s just going to make him even more angry.”
I watched as his face transformed.
“You want to see angry?”
His question was deceptively calm, but I could tell he was no longer in the mood to do any more convincing. He was in an already-been-decided mood.
“No,” I quickly backpedaled. “I don’t.”
“I have more money than I know what to do with.”
My brows furrowed. “Uhh, okay?”
I mean, I hadn’t realized that, but it was good. Right? Nobody wanted to be poor. I was happy that he would never have to worry about finances.
“I own the club.”
My brows rose at that, thoughts swirling around in my brain.
“You do?”
He nodded.
“That’s cool,” I finally said. “You don’t strike me as a club person.”