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)
I chewed up my bottom lip, rereading the text several times before I decided to respond.
Me: I’m at work.
I hit Send, and dots immediately appeared. Had he been sitting there, staring at his phone?
Kash: I need to talk to you.
Shit! Why did he have so much power over me? My heart was already racing in my chest, and the first smallest hint of anything close to happiness was starting up.
Me: I can’t talk while I am at work.
I let my finger hover over the Send key and debated saying more, like I will call you this evening. But I didn’t need to say that. I shouldn’t call him. Hearing his voice would only hurt more.
Kash: What time do you get off?
Dammit.
Me: Five.
Kash: I’ll call you then. Are you okay? Safe?
I was safe, but I hadn’t been okay in years. What did that mean? Okay. If it meant breathing, then sure. I was okay.
Me: I’m safe. I have a good job. I like it. I’ve made a friend.
I hit Send and left out the fact that my friend was a canine.
Kash: At five, answer your phone.
Bossy. I set the phone down, not bothering to respond to his command. But I’d answer. Just like I hadn’t made it thirty minutes before reading his text. I had no control over my actions when it came to Kash.
Dr. Carmichael had received a call on his cell phone just after three and had to leave immediately for a personal house visit. He had a few clients, I’d learned, that he went to them. They didn’t come here. He never took any files with him when he went either. I didn’t ask since it wasn’t my business, but I admit the way he responded so promptly was intriguing.
I’d had to call and reschedule the last two appointments he had coming in after three. With the office closed, I had been able to do all the evening straightening-up without interruption. When five o’clock hit, I was already back at my apartment, standing in the living room, staring at my phone.
It rang immediately.
I took a deep breath, blew it out, then hit Accept.
“Hello?” I said without any trace of emotion, which I felt rather proud of since I was experiencing a swarm of them at the moment.
“Songbird.” Kash’s sigh of relief as he said my name sure sounded as if he hadn’t known where I was. I wanted to believe that. “Where are you?”
“I’m struggling to believe that you didn’t know about my relocation,” I told him.
“I swear to God I didn’t know. I left town for twenty-four hours to handle something, and when I came back, you were gone. Bane wouldn’t tell me. No one would!”
I knew if I let myself believe him, I would once again be vulnerable. But he sounded so pained. Desperate.
“Okay,” I relented. “Sure.”
“Tell me where you are,” he urged.
But if I did. He’d come here. And Bane would find out. They’d either take me off somewhere and dump me or relocate me again. I liked my job. I might not be given a job, a car, and a place to live the next time. Kash didn’t have the power to protect me. Not from the Mafia family he had been born into.
“I can’t,” I finally said.
“Ignore whatever Bane said to you,” Kash told me.
But I couldn’t. I had no one in this world. It was just me, and I was never going to move on and make a life for myself if Kash kept walking into it and shattering the small bits of security that I’d found.
“It’s not about Bane or anything he said. It’s about me. I need to do what is best for me,” I said as a lump formed in my throat.
“And that’s not me.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. His words sounded as if I’d just landed a crushing blow to his chest.
My throat and eyes burned.
“We aren’t good for each other.” I forced the words out. Words I didn’t want to accept.
“That’s not true.”
“Your family won’t allow it. They don’t want you with me, and your family isn’t an ordinary one. You can’t defy them. Neither of us can. You know that. And my heart can’t take having you, only to lose you again.” My voice cracked as I stifled a sob.
“I won’t let them.” His words were fierce.
“You don’t have a choice,” I whispered. “If you love or loved me, then please let me go.”
I ended the call before he could say more. He could convince me there was a chance for us again even though I knew there wasn’t. He wanted his life in Madison back, and if he came here, he’d lose that. Unlike me, he had a home, and I wouldn’t let him make the mistake of losing it because of me again.