Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“Dante...”
“GET OUT!”
Yeah, I’d lost him. I haven’t even really had him, and I lost him. Perfect. That was my life in a nutshell, though. A series of events that always ended up with me disappointed.
“Okay,” I said quietly.
I dressed quietly. He watched me the whole time, anger in his eyes.
By the time I was leaving, I didn’t think it could get much worse, but yet again, I was wrong.
“You were an obligation.”
I froze, my hand on the knob.
That shatter I just heard? Yeah, that was my heart breaking into a million, tiny pieces.
I backed up, pulled open the door, and left without another word. Or at least, I tried to. But Dante, always so thorough, made sure to deliver the killing blow as I opened the door to my car.
“Never would’ve had anything to do with you had she not forced me. Extracted that promise from me on her deathbed.”
And that, folks, is how to finish the destruction of a woman’s heart. He completed the process by stomping on all of those shards that lay there from his first comments.
I turned, my foot half in my car, and let him see the devastation in my eyes.
“I should’ve just gone ahead and died like I wanted to. At least then I wouldn’t have known how it felt to have someone you thought you cared about and could count on, say things meant to break you. Congratulations. You’ve officially made me wish I had cancer again. Hope that makes you feel good.”
His eyes changed. But before I could listen to his nasty reply, I dropped all the way down into my car and slammed the door. Seconds later, I pulled out of his driveway… and his life.
***
Dante
The moment she left I knew I’d made a mistake. Hell, the moment I’d said the words I knew they were a mistake.
Yet, I’d still said them.
My heart, what remained of it, felt like it was suddenly gone. Not broken... gone.
I was glad to know that Mary, who’d been picked up while Cobie was napping earlier, was with my mother, safe and sound. Because the minute I saw Cobie drive away, tears coursing down her cheeks, I lost it.
I felt raw. Broken. Torn apart and shredded.
If it could get any worse, I’d probably accomplish it.
My knees hit the wood floor. The stupid, goddamned wood floor that had seen a thousand steps.
A thousand crawls. A hundred spills. Countless tears, and a few tantrums.
And I let one loose, too.
Why?
Because I knew I’d just made the stupidest mistake of my life. Nothing would ever be worse.
***
After composing myself, I went to her home, forgoing my usual route for expedience as I stopped in front of her place.
Only, she wasn’t there like I’d expected.
Somebody else was, though.
Somebody who was just as pissed off as I was, only he was better prepared.
I felt the blow to my face and had one thought.
It was good Drake had caught me off guard. That would be the only way he’d accomplish what he set out to do next.
Chapter 21
Bite me.
-Things not to say to your captor
Dante
30 days in captivity
“You think you can take everything I have away from me?”
He hit me again.
Drake was a sick motherfucker.
We’d been doing this same old song and dance for thirty fucking days now.
I knew it was thirty days due to the fact that he’d conveniently left me a fucking calendar.
Each day he’d walk in, put a big red X through the previous day, and then walk into my cell.
My cell where I could just barely stretch arm to arm if I held them out wide. The cell itself was about six feet wide by six feet long.
He was even considerate enough to give me a pot to piss (and yes, shit) in.
I was chained at my feet and wrists, and if I wanted to do anything other than sit on my ass, it either hurt one or the other. They were long enough for me to stand hunched over, but not long enough for me to do much else.
Everything was raw, and every muscle in my body was sore from sitting here, scrunched up, for the last month. I was still in the same damn clothes I’d driven to Cobie’s house in, but they were so dusty and dirty that they’d be thrown away if I ever got the fuck out of here.
At least it was cool and dry.
That’s all I could say about this godforsaken mess that I found myself in.
The next blow came to my sternum, and it took me thirty seconds at least to find my breath after he delivered it.
I coughed and then smiled. “You ever going to let me go?”
“No,” Drake snarled. “Because you’ve cost me a fuck load of money, and I’m not letting you go until you figure out a way to replace it.”