Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
I hated it, too, but I wasn’t so selfish that I’d beg him to stay even though I kind of felt like getting onto my knees. Maybe find some handcuffs so I could shackle him to my wrist.
“We’ll be fine and waiting for you when you return.”
His nod was jerky, and he took my hand and pressed a bunch of kisses to the knuckles. “I love you, Brinley. You are my redemption that I never saw coming.”
His eyes flicked all over my face, his hands so tender as they kept weaving through the ringlets of my hair. “I swear I will spend my life cherishing you. Adoring you. Protecting you and uplifting you. Both feeding your desires and satisfying them.”
Intensity blazed from him. “I have every intention of putting a property patch on you the second I get back, but what that really means is that I’m yours. Always and fucking forever.”
My chest expanded. This love thrashing and pressing within its confines. “I think I’m going to like being your old lady.”
I attempted to say it light, but it was lumpy and unpolished.
Silas’s grin was soft. “Yeah, baby, I’m going to make sure you do.”
I showered and dressed with shaky hands. Wandered downstairs, held Kai and peppered a million kisses over his face.
Uncertain looks were shared with Meems and Elena. Both of them were so much more somber in their morning greetings than normal.
There was no missing the dread and worry that filled each second that passed.
Or maybe we were just feeding it into each other. The way it’d amped and increased in me the second Silas had grabbed his cut from the back of the bedroom sofa and strode out the door.
On a mission I didn’t completely understand but supported one hundred percent.
Elena had thought it was strange that I was going into the office, but the truth was, there was no chance I could sit idle in that house for the entire day and night and not completely go out of my mind.
Wondering.
Worrying.
Waiting.
Wanting to know all the answers to the questions swirling in a vortex in my brain.
But I had to trust that Silas would give me all of that once everything was said and done.
Trust that it was better that I remained in the dark until it was over.
So I headed to the shop office, opened the laptop, and set to work.
Trying to organize this aspect of Silas’s life while a charged yet bated chaos took to the property. The air thick and heavy as motorcycles came and went.
I focused the best that I could on the receivables that had come in. Depositing checks on the app, marking the accounts as paid, sending out reminder invoices to the few that still hadn’t been received.
Anxiety burned through every beat. My skin prickling and my heart pounding.
I tried to focus, but my attention kept snagging on the row of icons at the bottom of the laptop where every few minutes a little folder symbol would pop up before it would recede.
It was clearly a shared folder.
I didn’t know what it was, but every time that icon shot into my vision, it felt like a coming implosion.
Awareness came on fast. Pins and needles skittered across my flesh.
There were all those old folders I’d checked out before, and never once had I noticed one of those icons flash before.
I tried to ignore it, clicking into a new program so I could pay some of the shop’s bills, only it flashed again.
Disquiet gripped my throat, and I glanced around the empty office. All covert and sneaky.
I hated that it was the same sensation I’d gotten the first night I was here and sneaked out of the room where I’d been placed.
Knowing I was traversing dangerous ground that was about to open from below and swallow me.
Following the path anyway since I was reckless like that.
I wavered, hesitated, before I finally clicked on the icon.
It was easy to tell myself that Silas had given me the laptop and he hadn’t given me any instructions about staying out of certain things.
As far as I was concerned, it was free range.
Except this folder?
It came with a passcode.
My stomach twined in a torturous twist, and my heart rattled in my chest.
Why I was so unsettled, I wasn’t sure. But some things in life triggered a sixth sense, and this was one of them.
I swept my tongue over my bottom lip. Why couldn’t I just freaking trust the way that Silas had asked me to?
I loved the man.
Desperately.
Wholly.
Didn’t I?
So why was I looking over my shoulder again to make sure no one was around before I turned back, fingers poised over the keys?
Contemplating.
Adding.
Solving.
My nails clacked over the keys.
Silas’s birthdate.
Nope.
Elena’s.
Nu-uh.
Kai’s.
Frustration spun through me when I found it wasn’t his, either.
Crap, I didn’t even know Meems’s or Brody’s birthdays.
I tried a few different variations of Crimson Crows, though I was pretty sure that would be way too generic and obvious.