Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
The lock clicked, and a cold dread settled over me. I braced both my feet and kept my gaze locked on the door. It opened slowly, and then Pirate stepped into the room, his focus on my empty bed. When he realized I wasn’t in it, his gaze narrowed and scanned the room until it landed on me.
The evil smirk on his lips made me shiver. I hated him. I’d felt guilty for that once, but he’d made it so that I no longer did. He’d caused this. He’d ruined any relationship we’d once had. The first night, I’d woken up to find him in my bed and his hand inside my panties. I’d thrown up several times that night. Sick from what he had done to me.
“A bat, Cressida?” he asked, amused, as he closed the door behind him.
“Yes, and if you come close enough, I will slam it against your head,” I warned him.
There was no fear or concern in his eyes, but they were black. His dilated pupils giving away the fact he was high. Something I doubted he shared with his therapist. His addiction to narcotics.
“You won’t do anything to upset your mom.” He slurred his words as he began walking toward me.
He never referred to our parents as his. From the first day in this house, he had been full of anger. I knew Mom thought that they could provide the emotional support and love he needed to fix him, but Pirate had been broken beyond repair a very long time ago.
I pulled the bat back, ready to swing, and that finally got him to pause. I thought it was because of fear that I would hit him, but his eyes shot to the window behind me.
“Motherfucker,” he muttered with disgust, but he paled slightly and began to back away. “You tell him anything, and I’ll kill your mother in her sleep,” he warned before leaving my room much quicker than he’d entered it.
I heard it then, the slight scratch of Kash climbing the tree outside my bedroom window. I rushed to the bed and shoved the bat under it, not wanting him to see it, then hurried back to the window just as he reached me.
If he only knew how many nights he’d saved me from Pirate, showing up like this. Kash Savelle was my own personal hero in a sexy, bad-boy package.
Present Day
Shivering under the covers, I stared into the darkness as the tears wet my pillow. It wasn’t the first time I’d cried myself to sleep over Kash Savelle, but it had been years. The wound that had been poorly bandaged on my heart was ripped open once again, and the hollowness was an aching void I had no way to fill. I’d survived without him before, and I knew I could do it again. But first, I needed to let the pain out. Mourn for all that was lost. The love that I feared I’d never know again.
Fourteen
Cressida
If Glenda noticed the dark circles under my eyes that I had done my best to cover with concealer, she didn’t mention it. I was thankful she hadn’t asked me if I was okay because, honestly, I was afraid I’d burst into tears if she did. The heaviness in my chest wasn’t easing as the day went on, and last night kept replaying in my head.
The doorbell caught me off guard since people rarely stopped by that Glenda wasn’t expecting. Actually, other than some Jehovah’s Witnesses last week, it had never happened.
“Lordy be,” Glenda called out from the sunroom. “I wonder who is stopping by for a visit. Could you get that, Cressida? I need to go put on something other than my nightgown and housecoat.”
“Yes,” I replied, already heading toward the door.
It could possibly be someone raising money for the less fortunate. That was common this time of year. If so, I was going to go get some of my savings I had tucked away. Thoughts of Burt came to mind, and I felt guilty for not going to check on him. While I was living in warmth and a comfortable bed, he was out in the cold and hungry.
With my thoughts on Burt, I opened the door without checking the window beside it to see who it was. The sight of Bane Cash standing there sent a jolt of fear through me. I’d not seen him in years. He was older and even more intimidating in appearance than I remembered. The man had a scowl that sent shivers down my spine.
Frozen, I stared at him. It took a moment for it to register in my head that Glenda was his great-aunt. He wasn’t here for me. At least, I didn’t think so.
Had there been a camera that caught me going outside to meet Kash last night after all?