Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“My head was fucked up back then. I was dealing with shit you didn’t know about, and, yeah, I made a mistake. I made several goddamn mistakes. But in eighteen years, there hasn’t been one time I’ve fucked a female and not closed my eyes and seen your face.”
I let go of her chin and watched as an array of emotions reflected in her eyes. That was something I shouldn’t have said.
I didn’t think I could handle hearing her response right now. I started for the door, getting away from her before she had me spewing more shit that should be left unsaid.
“When did you get the tattoo over your heart?” Her words were hesitant.
I stopped and gripped the door handle tightly, but didn’t look at her. “Who told you about that?” I demanded.
“I’m not telling you.”
My molars began to ache; I was clenching my teeth so fucking hard. Some fucker needed to stay out of my shit.
“Then I’m not answering you,” I replied before firmly closing the door behind me.
22
Salem
I’d faked being asleep when Pepper came back to the room last night. I hadn’t wanted to talk. Not with the things Rome had said to me running on hyperdrive over and over in my head.
When I opened my eyes this morning, she was in the bathroom with the door closed. I could hear the shower running and knew I had some time before having to interact with her or anyone.
This entire situation was insane. My boss was dead. I had no idea about Marlana or what she was doing with the gallery. Was she even safe? Being brought here and facing Rome again had taken center stage in my thoughts. I kept waiting for someone to tell me what was happening next so that I could plan what it was I would do when I was free of this place. I wasn’t staying in Miami. That much I knew.
I’d try a small Southern town in Georgia or Tennessee maybe. The kind of place where things like this did not happen. Where you sat on the front porch and drank sweet tea in the afternoons. It hadn’t been appealing before, but after everything that had happened, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.
“In eighteen years, there hasn’t been one time I’ve fucked a female and not closed my eyes and seen your face.”
UGH! I dropped my head into my hands.
I had been trying not to think about those words. Yet they replayed on a loop in my head. Taunting me. My heart speeding up and my stomach fluttering like I was seventeen again and he was my world. But I wasn’t seventeen, and he wasn’t my world. I was thirty-seven, and he was the guy who had once shattered my world.
He’d said those words to mess with my head, and he’d succeeded.
The bathroom door swung open, and Pepper stood there with a towel wrapped around her body while she used another to dry her hair. I’d not even realized the water had shut off.
“Good,” she said. “You’re awake. I need to give you the lowdown on today.”
I turned and swung my legs around, letting my feet fall to the floor to face her.
“I have to give my statement to the police, and since you were impossible to clear from the security footage because the bastard had grabbed you, then you will need to do the same. You don’t know much, so just tell them the truth on everything up until Lick shot Hatter. The camera doesn’t clearly show him or what he was doing with the hand he didn’t have wrapped around your neck. You will tell them that he had his gun pressed to your back and that he moved it to point it at Lick. That Lick shot him in self-defense. That’s it. Easy.”
She wanted me to lie to the police? I was a terrible liar. What if I messed up or stuttered the words—or worse, forgot what to say? What if they could see his other hand in the camera and she didn’t realize it? I’d go to jail for false testimony, wouldn’t I? And if I did get away with it, then that would only make the Lord guy even angrier and put me on his shit list. I’d never be safe.
“I…” What did I say? Telling her all this would make me sound ungrateful that Lick had saved me. But didn’t she see that this was a bad idea?
“You look pale,” she said, dropping her hands to her sides with the towel dangling from one of them and her wet locks falling around her face. “This is easy, I swear. The investigator just needs you to say that it was self-defense so he can clear Lick from killing that guy. That’s it. He already knows what happened. Blaise has handled everything. You just go tell the little white lie, and I will tell it, and all will be fine. Regina and I are telling the same story since we clearly had a view of where Hatter’s hand and gun were.”