Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
And when you care about people, doing things for them was an honor.
The Defender didn’t love me. He’d let me hold his hand out of pity. He’d originally offered to help me because he thought he owed me.
I was a responsibility, not an option. Someone had wanted him to find me because of some ancestor that gave me stomachaches. I didn’t owe that person anything either.
Alex hadn’t wanted to meet me in the first place.
If I’d learned anything in all the romance books I’d ever read, it was that you wanted someone to pick you.
But I could pick myself, and that’s what I was going to do.
“Okay. Whatever is easier,” I said to him.
Those purple eyes stayed on me.
“Thank you for calling her.”
“Selene did,” he claimed.
All righty then. “Then thank you for telling her. I’ll pay you back for the visit, or I’ll ask her if I can pay her directly in a day or two.” Might as well make that clear.
He just kept on fucking looking at me.
Did that bother him too?
“Lexi?” a female voice called out.
He gave me one more look before he replied, “In here.”
“I can’t stay long,” the unfamiliar woman kept talking from what seemed like down the hall, her voice getting progressively louder. “Asami has an appointment this afternoon, and you know how—oh. Hi.”
A face appeared just behind that big shoulder. Her dark hair was tied back in a neat ponytail, her makeup clean and light. She was very, very pretty and maybe somewhere in her forties. Maybe.
The woman gave Alexander a look as she pushed around him into the room, carrying a leather backpack and a satchel in each hand. There was a little red, yellow, and green key chain hanging from one of the handles. “Hello,” she greeted as she set her things down on top of the dresser.
I cleared my throat and reminded myself that she was here to help me, that I didn’t have to hide, at least while I was here. “Hi,” I said again, setting my hands on my lap before extending one out to her. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Gracie,” I said, extending my hand toward her.
She took it instantly, her hold firm, her smile bright. “Hi, Gracie. You can call me Agatha. We don’t really use honorifics in the family.” Her head swiveled to the door where Alex was still standing, arms crossed over his chest. “What are you doing, Lexi?”
“Standing here,” he said plainly.
“Do you think you’re going to stand there during her checkup is what I’m asking?” she asked him in a tone that made me blink.
His gaze flicked to me briefly, his chin going up. “She doesn’t know you.”
Agatha’s eyes moved toward me too.
“I don’t feel unsafe around you,” I told her directly before looking at ol’ Grumpy Shit. “I’ll be fine. I’m sure you have better things to do.” He had some brooding to do. Some grumpy faces to practice in the mirror.
Those dark eyelashes fell over his eyes. “I can hear your heartbeat.” He shot Agatha a look I couldn’t interpret before taking a step back. “I’ll wait out here.”
Fuck. “It’s fine,” I tried to tell him.
Without another word, he walked out and took a stand with his back to the wall beside the doorway.
She shook her head. “Want me to close the door?”
It wasn’t like he couldn’t hear through them anyway, and what did I have to hide? “That’s okay.”
“There’s no privacy in this family, as you’ve already figured out,” she said, opening her backpack and starting to root around in there. “Secrets get old. It’s not so bad. You get used to it with time.”
That was a weird comment.
Either way, I wasn’t going to be here much longer, so there wasn’t going to be much to get used to.
She pulled a few things out of her bag before moving toward me. “Can you fill this out for me first? Then I’ll check your vitals.”
“Check her lungs,” Alex suddenly spoke up. “She swallowed and inhaled a lot of water.”
We both glanced toward the doorway.
“Thank you,” I told her, hearing the hoarseness in my voice. I took the tablet from her and filled out the online questionnaire that covered my medical background and that of my family. At least what I knew, which wasn’t really all that much. I hesitated with my last name and settled on Castro.
What all did they know about my family anyway? How had his grandmother known where to look? How the hell hadn’t I wondered about that before? Was that another superpower?
Just how lazy had I gotten with staying under the radar that everyone had fucking found me?
And who the hell was the cousin who had supposedly ratted me out?
It made me upset. Made me angry too, to be honest. Because look where I was. Look at everything that had happened. Everything that I’d missed out on.