Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“Absolutely not.” I’d barely finished speaking before he was talking over me, his voice fierce. “They only knew things that were pertinent to your involvement with Marco. They didn’t even know about the spa or the pool or any of that. And I would never tell them about… about anything else that happened between us. That would never be their business.”
I let what he said sink in, working to filter it, organize it, and try to wrap my head around what I was thinking and feeling about everything.
“Oh, in the interest of full transparency, I might have been a little rude to your grandmother.”
“My grandma?” I asked, pulling back, eyes wide. Of all the things Kylo had been, he’d never shown a hint of rudeness.
“She blocked the driveway on the day I was trying to peel out of there after Velle confronted me about rotting in my bed for days. She wanted me to reach out and apologize. I told her you didn’t want to speak to me and just… pulled off without saying much else.”
She hadn’t mentioned that.
Though she had pleaded with me to give Kylo a chance to explain himself, even though she had no idea what was going on.
She wouldn’t have done that if she thought the way he spoke to her was out of line.
Not my grandma. Not after the life she spent with a man who never missed a chance to be awful to her. She would never beg me to give a man a second chance who she even suspected was anything like her husband had been.
If there was a part of me that didn’t trust my instincts, that same part did trust my grandmother’s.
“I’m sure you weren’t as rude as you think. She would have mentioned it if you were. Something about not giving that ‘no-good biker’ another chance.”
“She might still say that if or when she learns the truth.”
“Honestly, I don’t think so. She’s obsessed with soap operas and high-stakes romances. She would probably think it’s romantic.”
“It was,” Kylo said, eyes sad. “Until it wasn’t.”
“I’ve never hated anything in my life as much as I hated hurting you.”
I believed him.
Yes, I believed him. About everything.
And if he was being honest with me now, if he knew what he did was wrong, if he’d been torn up about it, and if he had apologized, what else could I expect from him?
The ball was in my court.
To forgive.
Or to hold onto my resentment.
Honestly, it was no choice at all.
“I see that,” I agreed.
Then I leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Kylo
I’d never known panic like that in my life.
Not even when men were in my apartment, when they were brutally attacking me, never.
Because nothing, not even my own damn life, mattered as much as Rue being safe.
And when she hadn’t responded to my texts that I was on the way, I feared the worst.
The house was eerily silent as I made my way up to it, my gun in my hand, not trusting it not to be an ambush.
But it was empty.
Save for all the destruction left in their wake.
They’d gutted couch cushions, knocked art and family collages off the wall. They’d pulled out and broken all of her dishes, had tossed food from the fridge all over the floor. They’d sliced her mattress and two of Ernest’s beds.
It was just pure wreckage for no good reason.
And while there was no blood anywhere, I couldn’t help but fear the worst.
That I was too late.
That they’d taken her.
That they were doing to her all the awful shit they’d told her they wanted to.
A sick feeling rose in my throat as I called her name.
Then, the text.
The relief.
Finding her in a tiny hole in the wall, dirty, terrified, but unharmed.
I didn’t plan on trying to apologize, let alone get her to forgive me.
I was going to save her, get her safe, then give her the space from me I was sure she wanted.
But then she was clinging to me, talking to me, listening to me.
And when all that was done, she leaned up and pressed her soft lips to mine.
All the days of despair, of a deep, dark hole that threatened to swallow me up forever, fell away.
My hand slid to the back of her neck, gently massaging as I kissed her back, careful at first, then harder, more urgent.
Until I heard the footsteps coming down the hallway.
I pulled away first, watching the dazed look in her eyes as her lids fluttered open.
“We should get her out of here,” Huck said. “If they know she’s working with us now, they will be back sooner or later.”
Rue stiffened, but was quick to get up to her feet.
“Babe,” Huck called, nodding toward her feet.
“Oh, right,” she said, turning back to her closet and finding a pair of slides. “Should I get anything else?” I asked.