Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
My heart sank to my stomach.
“But in the end, I didn’t need to. Tricks, threats, and broken promises, the tenets my life was built on, aren’t necessary with you, Mackenzie Blaine. All you needed to do the hard thing... was hear my daughter cry.”
I trembled in his hold. “Why are you telling me this? I agreed to help. I never had to know you intended to force me.”
“Because.”
His calloused thumb was a whisper caressing my lips. Traitorous, single-minded desire pooled in my middle.
“In exchange for help, you asked for honesty,” Liam said, “so that’s what I’ll give you, Mackenzie. The truth. All of it. More than you’ll bear.”
My voice was a rasp. “I’m not sure if I should say thank you.”
“You shouldn’t.” Liam pressed a kiss on my forehead. “That’s for me to say.
“Thank you, Mackenzie.”
Looking in each other’s eyes, something passed between us. The air charged with living lightning—standing my hairs on end, rippling beneath my skin, curling my hands on his legs, moving them apart, sliding my body between.
I rose to meet him, and Liam bent for me.
He stood up. The sudden movement knocked me back on my ass.
“You should go. Thatcher will be here in a moment. New measures will have to be put in place. More men hired. I believe Sole has a room, clothes, and everything you need arranged for you.” He was talking and moving so fast, I couldn’t get a word in. Liam held open the front door, expecting me to walk through it. “Good night, Miss Blaine.”
“I... uh... good night, Liam. I’ll come by in the morning to see how she’s doing.”
“There’s an intercom in the elevator. Buzz and I’ll let you in.”
That was something at least. He wanted me out right then, but not out completely.
“There’s somewhere I need to be tonight,” I admitted. “Despite what happened—actually, because of what happened, I have to go. Will security try to stop me leaving?”
“You’re free to come and go as you please. Just be cautious. Take different routes coming and going, and for tonight, take a cab.” Liam placed a fifty on my palm. “I believe I know where you’re going to go.”
The bill crumpled in my fist. I waited for him to tell me I was crazy, stupid, risking everything.
“Don’t get caught.”
He shut the door, leaving me with those parting words. What else did I expect from a gangster? He was the last one to tell me not to break the law.
THE CAB DROPPED ME off three houses down. I crossed the street, moving through the glow of porch lights. It pushed ten o’clock. She’d be in front of the television by now, volume turned up and drowning out the sound of windows opening and closing.
I stepped around her lawn’s sycamore and shot back.
Charlie stood clear and visible from the second-story window, as visible as I would’ve been if she looked down and spotted me.
Heart yammering, I peered around the bark. Charlie bounced the baby in her arms, cooing a string of soothing nonsense. Burning, acrid hatred swelled in my veins—eroding the rules and morals that guided my life. I went without aching to break another living being until her. A decade embodying and believing in forgiveness, until she came into my life.
I pulled out the knife I rescued during a quick stop in my new bedroom to change. My whole life I never imagined what it’d feel like to bury my blade in someone’s chest... until Charlie Montgomery.
My glare bore a hole in her head from where I stood. Considering the kind, peaceful person I used to be, my loathing hatred of Charlie should concern me—push me to seek help. But not this time. There was nothing that made more sense... than I should wish to see this woman rubbed off the face of the earth.
Charlie settled the baby in her crib. I waited for the light to go off. I stilled for the television to turn on. Creeping around the sycamore, she was right where she should be—a floating head over the couch, pinned on Grey’s Anatomy.
I moved fast. Taking a running leap, I scaled the tree, climbing out on the branch tapping against the nursery window. The baby blinked at the new sight above her mobile.
I wedged the knife between the wood and frame, easing the window up. Silent as a sleeping church mouse, I stepped on the dresser, then dropped to the floor.
Kicking and waving her chubby arms, she sounded the alarm, spreading babble through the baby monitor and into the next room. Charlie kept the monitor in her bedroom, where it couldn’t disturb her during her shows.
“You’re not going to give our secret away, Laurel.”
The babble shifted. Tiny face crumpling, she started crying. I didn’t hesitate.
Lifting her out of the crib, I cooed softly to her, kissing her sweet, plump cheeks as I eased onto the rocking chair. My boob was out and in her mouth with the quickness of our secret feedings. My daughter settled instantly, greedily sucking down the only breastmilk on tap.