Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 102708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
My finger lingered for a second before I cleared my throat. “We need to go.”
She shrugged, pointing at Justin. “We’re just supposed to leave him here?”
“Hey, Justin,” I loudly announced, glancing over at him. “You want to go another round?”
He groaned, “Fuck you,” rolling on the ground.
Locking gazes with Isla again, I coaxed, “See, he’s fine.”
She shook her head in disbelief, and I placed my hands in the pockets of my jeans. There was nothing else I could do at that point but wait for her to see reason. We didn’t have the time, yet I was still giving it to her.
She backed away, ordering, “Don’t you ever do that for me again, understood?”
Tears swelled in her eyes, and I watched as she blinked them away, making me think I imagined them. My chest rose and fell as I stared into her mesmerizing yet painful gaze. Burning with so much raw emotion that it was almost hard to breathe.
Hard to move.
Captivating every last part of me.
I gazed profoundly into her eyes and exposed a huge part of me as she whispered, “But regardless, thank you. No one’s ever done that for me.”
I knew she meant it. She was willingly showing me what she had been trying to hide for so damn long. I wanted to see this side of her, and now that I finally was…
All I could feel was her agony, blocking out all of my other senses.
I couldn’t form words.
I couldn’t think.
Not when she was looking at me like that, scaring the fucking shit out of me.
She searched for something in my regard. She might have physically been there with me, but emotionally, mentally, she was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere deep inside herself. A place she visited often. And without words, she was confessing all her broken parts to me.
All her deepest wounds.
All her oldest scars.
Sharing her sadness and despair, and above all else, the damage it left behind.
Down to the bottomless depths of her soul, there was pain.
“Isla…” I muttered, my voice laced thick with uncertainty and concern.
My mind battled my heart, raging a war I never had a chance to survive. It was her loneliness that ate me alive, swallowing me whole, and that was when it clicked, that was when I understood…
We were one and the same.
It was why we pushed people away.
It wasn’t about her not wanting to speak to anyone. It was her trying to hide from everyone.
She was the first to break our trancelike state.
She turned, finally ready to leave without hearing my response. The Uber drove us back to the house.
Home.
Neither of us spoke. I jumped in the shower and then lay there in my room, staring at the ceiling. I knew she was in my brother’s bed. I could hear and feel her through the wall that separated us. Needing to make something right between us, I was suddenly sitting at my piano, playing the first song she ever heard us play at the subway station that evening, where we first met.
Knowing deep in my heart…
This song meant everything to her.
And I could give her that.
Even if it was only for tonight.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
JULIUS
The drive from the Bronx hotel to the club was quick. People went there to party, and it was the only reason I was there. I was already in a shit mood when I hopped off my bike and made my way up to the entrance.
I lived under the same roof with two of the closest people to me, and I had to keep secrets to protect them. Playing this double life was taking a toll on me. I was losing my mind, and they had no clue.
As I approached the entry, the air crackled with cosmic energy, and the bouncer eyed me up and down. From my boots to my collared shirt to my leather jacket, his stare stayed intently focused on me.
I cocked my head to the side, informing, “I was invited. I’m Julius Knightly.”
“By who?”
“Your boss.”
Talking into his earpiece, he announced, “I got a Julius Knightly here.” Seconds later, he narrowed his gaze at me, nodding for me to go in.
The massive club was packed, making it difficult for me to enter without waiting for the crowds to disperse. The farther I stepped into the building, the worse it became.
The music pounded through the speakers around me, vibrating deep in my bones as I tried to move quickly. I’d been there before. The owner’s office was located in the back, and this was the only way to reach him. This club was just one of his hot spots where he could push his own drugs without having to worry about the repercussions.
I tried not to pay attention to all the bodies grinding up against me, dragging me into the mass of people dancing to the house music that was blaring above the crowds.