Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 119184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
The way my stomach churns takes my breath away.
In public, I can lie to myself that he doesn’t scare me.
But not while he’s in my face with no one else around to see what he’s doing. My phone is inside, and I don’t know if I could get the cops to take this seriously, anyway.
Even if I scream and a neighbor hears it, will he just laugh it off?
So many doubts whirl through my head. The worst superpower Harry Jay ever had was shredding my self-confidence.
There’s no proof he’s harassing me. He’s barely touched me.
And the scariest thing of all is that he’s a public figure with money and power. People know him. People like him.
My breath comes quicker, and I’m cracking.
I hate that he sees it. His inhuman smile spreads, wider and wider, until it’s on the verge of devouring his entire face.
Honestly, I’m living a horror movie.
But I’m not about to let him turn me into a helpless deer.
Maybe when I was twenty, when I didn’t know any better, and when I was so desperate to be loved.
Not anymore.
Not by him.
“I said leave me alone!” I snap, lunging at him. I push against his chest with all my might, and it must be the shock that moves him, because he’s taller and stronger than me. “I will call the cops. Just try me.” Even if they don’t believe me—even if all they do is escort Harry off my lawn—it’ll be worth it. I can still get a police report.
If I’m lucky, I can make him leave.
Right now, I’ll do anything to get him away from me.
“Big mistake,” Harry whispers as he looks up, brushing himself off. His eyes are slitted and cold. Worst of all, he doesn’t fucking move. “Use your brain, girl. Think really, really carefully about your next move because—”
“Lena!” a rough voice explodes behind him.
I glance over Harry’s shoulder just in time to see Brady charging down on him like a raging bull.
Harry might as well be the matador’s red cape.
Holy shit!
I barely have time to move out of the way before Brady has Harry’s jacket in his hands, whirling him around, slamming him against my house’s old shake siding so fast I barely have a second to breathe.
Never mind scream.
With them next to each other, it’s obvious who’d win in a fight.
Against me, Harry feels huge, a human tower built to destroy.
But Brady—he’s an entire mountain. A dormant volcano like Mount Rainier, and right now, he’s erupting.
Holy. Shit.
His shoulders flex and bulge as he leans in toward Harry’s face, baring his teeth like a wolf.
Harry tries to shove him away, but that only makes Brady hold on tighter, choking him in a headlock until his eyes bulge and Brady’s knuckles whiten.
Harry’s jacket is ripped now. Torn down the middle.
Neither man seems to care.
Harry will when he gets home, though. He’ll hate the fact that Brady ripped his fancy clothes, and he might press charges.
He’s the first to scream to the authorities, even though he’d curse anyone who called them on his disgusting bully ass.
When he was at my doorstep, I knew I’d made an enemy.
Now, with Brady looming over him, I know Harry will stop at nothing to destroy me.
“Stay the fuck away from Lena,” Brady snarls as he lets go, watching Harry stagger a few steps back, gasping for breath.
I’ve never heard a voice like that. Low and destructive, like a mountain lion preparing to launch itself at an intruder.
When Harry stops rasping enough to look up at me, there’s such hate in his eyes it stalls my pulse.
“Get moving. Fuck off home,” Brady bites off.
“If you ever lay hands on me again,” Harry warns, “you’ll regret it. Fucking simp.”
Enough.
Enough. I can’t do this.
My hands shake as I fumble back inside, coming apart at the seams.
I slam the door behind me, not bothering to lock it, knowing I don’t need to when Brady is right outside like a bodyguard. But I need space.
I need a minute or two of distance to breathe.
The violence splatters across my eyelids in glorious color.
The way Brady’s muscles rippled and his lip curled with dark promises.
The two men at war.
And the terrible promise in Harry’s eyes that this has only begun.
A sob rips free from me as I press my hands against my face with a terrible realization.
My buyout was supposed to close one chapter and open a new one.
Now, this isn’t even close to over.
What have I done?
XII
Working Dog
(Brady)
I’ll admit it.
I can be denser than a damn rock sometimes, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the one who fucked up here.
That guy was a catastrophe, and I’m not sorry.
I scattered his miserable ass so he’d stop growling in Lena’s face.
He had to go.
And if he wasn’t leaving when she told him, someone had to make him. Now he’s gone and the danger is over, so why is she coming apart?