Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Something he should have realized before.
North was talking to her. Actually talking to her. Not polite chitchat that meant nothing, which he’d perfected in his role as Jared’s assistant.
And he wasn’t ignoring her.
What the hell was going on?
“Yeah? What you going to do about that?” she challenged.
Oh, he was leaning toward her being foolish. Didn’t she know how dangerous North was?
Jared stepped closer to her, giving North a warning look. North’s eyebrow twitched as he stared back at him.
“Oh, I’m not going to do anything. He is.” North nodded at Jared.
“Leave me out of your . . . whatever this is,” Jared told them. “I’m starting to get annoyed because my questions aren’t being answered. The two of you seem to be more interested in griping at each other instead. So are you planning on answering me at any time?” He kept his voice soft but knew they heard the threat in it when Angie winced and North took a step back, away from her.
“Angie, sit,” Jared commanded. He’d noticed her trembling. She was still recovering.
She glared but sat on the bed.
Jared sat on the only armchair in the room. Then he pointed at Angie. “You. Speak.”
“You know, manners go a long way,” she said.
He shot her a look and she swallowed nervously.
“You might want to start thinking before you speak,” North told her.
“I know that. It’s hard, all right?” Her shoulders slumped and she gave them both an exhausted look. “After I got free of Fergus I promised myself that I wasn’t going to have to watch every word, every action. It took me a long time not to measure out everything I was about to say in my head first.”
Fuck.
He didn’t like hearing that.
“I am not like my father,” Jared stated.
In no way did he ever want to be compared to that bastard.
She stared at him worriedly. “No, I know. I didn’t mean to say that you were.” She rubbed her forehead. “See what I mean? Out of practice.”
Jared crooked a finger at her. “Come here.”
He wanted her close, partially because he liked touching her, but also because she looked slightly broken.
Jared turned to North who seemed to be studying her as well.
She sighed but didn’t argue.
“Nice to see you can obey,” North said as she got up and moved toward Jared.
“Don’t get used to it.”
North just glanced away.
Yeah, there was something going on there.
Jared drew her between his open legs. Then he lifted her to sit on one thigh. “Listen to me. I am not my father. You don’t have to watch your every word or movement. I will never punish you for what you say to me.”
“What if she’s saying negative comments about herself,” North suggested.
Hmm. That was surprising. He hadn’t thought that North would care if she said anything negative about herself.
“That’s different,” Jared allowed. “That’s against the rules.”
“I don’t have any rules,” she stated. “Because I don’t live here. I’ve been kidnapped. So you can’t make rules for me and you can’t punish me if I break them. Well, I guess you can, but it will be without my consent. Not that North seems to care about consent that much, anyway.”
North shrugged. “I don’t.”
Jared inwardly sighed. This wasn’t going well. And he still didn’t have his answers.
Plus, she was right. They didn’t have a right to make and enforce rules for her.
Because she didn’t belong to them.
But that wasn’t going to actually stop him from doing it.
You’re not keeping her, though, are you?
Jared took hold of her hands, warming them between his. “Why are your hands cold?”
“I told you.” She couldn’t look at him, her gaze roaming around the room. Which told him that she was uncomfortable.
That she didn’t want to answer.
“Angie. Tell me.”
“I have poor circulation because . . . because your father used to beat me. Sometimes brutally. Over time that affected my nervous system. It’s left me with all sorts of lovely things that I now have to live with.”
Mother. Fucker.
God, he wished that he’d been the one to end that fucker’s life.
“What does that mean? What do you need?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“What other repercussions are you living with?”
She pressed her lips together, staring down at her hands.
Fine. She didn’t want to answer? He’d figure it out. Even if he had to get North to hack into her medical files.
“North, find her a blanket.”
“I don’t need a blanket,” she protested, trying to tug her hands from his. But he continued to hold her gently, not ready to let her go.
“North.”
“Here.” North held out a blanket and Jared wrapped it around her.
“What is happening right now?” she whispered.
What was happening was that he was losing his mind. He wasn’t supposed to let her close . . . to want her.
He should be calling Zander right now to come get her.