Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
All while I’d toiled with the chaos that had crashed into my life. The promise that had been made and the role I was taking on.
Mind bent with what I had done.
How the fuck was I supposed to deal with this?
Daisy was the last person I deserved to have in my life.
She was the last trace of what I’d caused. What I’d done.
The only thing I could do was remember this was temporary.
This arrangement was fake.
It wasn’t real.
I owed her this, no matter how painful it was going to be.
Blowing out a heavy sigh, I sucked it up and tapped out a message.
Me
I’ll be there.
It took all of a second for messages to start blazing in.
Kane
Holy shit, the recluse is coming out of his hidey hole? What the hell is up with you, man?
Otto
Is this some kind of joke? You can’t go teasing my Moonflower like that. You know how many years Raven has been trying to get you to join the family.
River
You serious, brother?
Even in River’s bare words, I could tell he was worried. This was so out of character.
Me
It’s not like I don’t ever show up for anything.
Otto
Once in a blue moon, and I’m pretty sure we aren’t due one of those until Christmas.
Kane
Dude only shows when we’ve finally had enough and threaten to chop off his balls. Only motivation is when someone brings out the knife.
Otto
Probably Raven. She wants to make sure Uncle Cash is a part of Little Luna’s life. You know she’s the one who’ll actually be getting out the rope.
I almost chuckled. The number of times Raven had threatened to kidnap me, but then she’d look at me with those eyes the color of midnight that were as warm as could be.
Pure understanding.
Like she got my grief even though she didn’t know its source.
Like she knew I couldn’t bear the thought of getting too close to someone and then losing them.
Pain clawed around in my chest, but I forced myself to spit out what I was trying to say.
Me
I won’t be coming alone.
If I thought the responses flew in fast before, this was a flash flood.
Kane
What in the what did you say?
Otto
Excuse me, is this Cash? Have you fallen and hit your head? Where is my grumpy-ass bestie?
River
Who is coming with you?
Theo
Why don’t you all give him a minute to explain, yeah?
No question, Theo knew exactly what this was about after I confessed it to him yesterday.
Me
I’ll explain later tonight when I see you all face to face. Just wanted to let Kane and Emery know there will be five of us.
Us.
What bullshit.
There could never truly be an us.
Otto
What’s going on, man? You okay?
Concern oozed from the text.
That was the thing. No matter how much I tried to keep my distance, these guys always cared about me.
Truly.
Our connection forged on the streets of LA when we were all nothing more than kids. Running scared and homeless. We’d realized our only hope of survival was teaming up.
A power in numbers sort of thing.
Never would have thought it would stick. Develop into the one true thing that I had.
Me
I’m fine. I’ll explain later.
River
This a Sanctum issue?
Anger boiled in my guts when he brought attention to what was going on with Daisy.
Me
Yeah. Gonna need everyone on deck.
Knew they were dying to bombard me with a thousand questions, so I tapped out one more message before I tossed my phone onto my desk.
Me
Midnight.
I scrubbed a palm over my face, blew out a sigh, then turned back to my desk that had four different monitors. Surveillance equipment constantly running as I watched over the families we were trying to get to safety.
I normally could dig out anything, but I was having a hard time pinning Ethan. Everything led to a dead end. Made me certain he was as dirty as they came. Worse than Daisy likely knew.
I roughed the back of my hand over my mouth and moved to the window, pushed back the curtain, and peered out into the falling night.
A stir of foulness wafted back. Like he was right there. Under my nose.
It only made it ten thousand times worse knowing any number of monsters could be lurking besides him. The business we were in with Silas likely dragging fiends to my door.
I would be ready for any of them.
Inhaling a steadying breath, I forced myself to focus on what needed to be done here. With Daisy.
I punched in the code to the lock on the door and peered out. Voices carried from the children’s room, and I stepped out, making sure the door was locked tight before I moved down the hall.
Daisy was in the room on her knees drying Addy’s hair.
“Going to grab a few things from my room while you’re not in there.”
Daisy glanced at me. Cornflower eyes filled with the overwhelming emotion of the day. “It’s your room, Cash. You don’t need my permission.”