Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
I’d tried to argue and tell him they would want to know—that they deserved to know—because they loved him.
Loved him fiercely.
But he’d asked this one thing of me so I had to respect it.
We kept our footsteps quieted as we stepped inside, and I deadbolted the lock behind us.
Anguish fisted my spirit.
The truth of what this had come to. That reshaping. The reforming.
A conflict of what I wanted and what I had to do.
This was exactly what Pruitt wanted, though, wasn’t it?
He wanted me terrified. He wanted me bent to his will. And he didn’t care what it cost to force me into that position.
Cody’s boots scudded on the floor as we trudged across the great room, my thoughts so heavy that I could barely see.
I realized my breaths were heaving from my lungs in short gasps by the time we made it into my room, agony claiming my existence.
I dropped my attention to the floor in an attempt to gather myself.
To hold it back.
To rein in the spiraling.
The door clicked shut behind us, and I turned to Cody who stood facing me.
The bathroom light was on, and it shed enough light on him that I could plainly see he was battered.
His hair black from the smoke and the fire, his jaw red from the burn.
His shirt was tattered and torn and filthy with soot.
A bandage covered his left forearm and ran down to the back of his hand, and there were little bandages covering the spots where he had gotten stitches.
Agony swept through me. Wave after wave.
How could I have let this happen? How could I have been so selfish that I’d invited him into my life? Knowing the danger?
“Shortcake.” He murmured it through the ghosts that played through the room.
I curled my arms over my chest like it could hold together the pieces that were fracturing apart.
“Don’t call me that.”
It was a plea.
A plea for him to turn and leave.
For him to see that he should run.
He had his whole life out ahead of him, and I’d nearly been the one responsible for cutting it short.
“Now why would I go and do that?” he rumbled in that low voice.
Moisture blurred my eyes, an excruciating burn running up my throat. “Because you need to leave. Let go. I can’t ask you to keep putting yourself on the line like this. You could have—”
It croaked off.
I couldn’t say it aloud.
Cody took a step forward, and the floor shook beneath my feet. “But I didn’t.”
I blinked against the pain. Against the riot that thrashed at my chest.
“Maybe this is payback, Cody. Punishment for the sin I’m committing. You need to get away from me. Before it’s too late.”
A scowl compressed every line on his handsome face. “What are you talking about?”
I couldn’t contain the tears, and they slipped hot and fast down my face, the guilt I’d been trying to suppress finally breaking free.
“Brooke.” Her name dropped from my tongue like a boulder of regret.
Surprise sent him blinking. “Brooke?”
I squeezed my arms tighter across my chest. “She loved you, Cody. She loved you, and she wanted to be with you. She saw us that day…the day we almost…” I cut off, the words jagged and barbed, sticking to my lips. My breaths cleaved, so harsh they ripped and slayed.
“She saw us.” I whispered it that time. “I promised her I would never do that to her. That you and I were only friends and that was the only thing we were ever going to be. But she was so upset…so upset…”
I gasped it, my arms squeezing so tight like I could keep the mangled mess that was my heart confined within the gaping of my ribs. “She never would have gone into that corral. Never. She was terrified of those horses. I know she…”
I couldn’t fully give it voice. Her death had been ruled an accident. But I knew. I’d always known.
“Fuck, Hailey.” Sorrow rippled from Cody, and he took another step closer. “I can’t believe what you’re saying, but if she did, you’ve got to know that wasn’t your fault. None of this is your fault.”
“It is, Cody. She went running out that night. I…I didn’t stop her. I thought she needed time to cool off, and once she did, she’d understand and forgive me. Forgive me for wanting you because God knows how much I did, and Brooke knew it, too.”
A sob tore out of me. It was the first time I’d ever admitted it aloud. The first time I gave voice to the horrors of what I’d believed.
I’d held it for years. A dirty secret that had haunted. What had driven me to a place I never should have gone.
Massive arms wrapped around me, and Cody pulled me tight against him, his breath a whisper across my hair, as quiet as the words he confessed. “If that was anyone’s fault, then it was mine, darlin’. Mine and mine alone.”