Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 167819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 839(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 839(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
“She’s fine.” Lincoln scoffs.
“She’s in shock.” My mother cries, “She hasn’t spoken since … since Linc found the body.”
I didn’t even know Lincoln was attending tonight. I wouldn’t have stayed home if I had. But that doesn’t mean anything. It was packed full of guests. And I stayed to myself. Always do.
“Let us call EMS to check her out.” The officer doesn’t wait for anyone to answer. He speaks into the radio on his shoulder and orders an ambulance.
“Why?” my mother screams, making me flinch. “Why did this happen? Again?” She’s now sobbing on her knees by the couch.
Lincoln walks up behind her and places his hands on her shoulders. “Laura …”
“He was so good to us. He loved us.” I whimper at her words, and the officer notices.
“Are you going to get sick, miss?” he asks me.
“She’s fine,” Lincoln snaps at him, but the officer doesn’t look away from me.
Am I? No. I wish I could expel every touch, every kiss, every motherfucking memory of him, but I can’t. Only death will offer me such mercy.
A new officer comes walking down the stairs and hands a pill bottle to the one who hovers over me. “Found this in the bathroom by his body.”
“What are they?”
The man lowers his voice. “Viagra.”
My body shudders. I’ve been lucky enough the past year that he’s needed help getting it up. It wasn’t as fun for him to fuck me when it had to be scheduled. A part of me—the sick part—was ashamed of myself that I no longer did it for him. The other part told her to shut the fuck up.
“Someone removed his finger,” another man states, coming down the stairs.
My mother’s shrill scream that follows the officer’s statement makes my ears ring. I had watched the mystery man cut it off. He didn’t know I was there, but I was. Stunned to silence at first. He thought I was going to talk. He has no idea how well I can keep a secret. One of those secrets is sitting across from me, holding my sobbing mother.
The front double doors fly open, and three men enter the family room in solid black three-piece suits. “That’s enough, gentlemen. We’ll take it from here.”
They’re Lords. Powerful men at the top of their food chain.
“With all due respect …”
“Get the fuck out of Mr. Roland’s house,” one commands. His voice booming over my mother’s cries
I want to correct him. This isn’t James’s house. It was my father’s, who left it to my mother in his death. But I can’t make my lips move.
“We’ve got medics on the way,” the officer who called me an ambulance argues.
Another man enters the house and the Lords gesture to him.
“We brought our own.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Last time I’m going to say it.”
Understanding the officers are outnumbered and outpowered, they exit the house as the Lords follow Lincoln upstairs to where the body remains.
The doctor walks over to me while my mother falls onto the couch, the sobs that come out of her mouth irritating me. Did she really not know what kind of man he was? I thought she put on a show. Pretended to love him because she had to. I guess I was wrong.
That was two years ago, the last time I had to see Lincoln. But that’s not why my hand tightens on the piece of glass I’m holding. My breath quickens at the pain as the jagged edges cut into my skin.
“Why is he here?” I demand.
“Elli,” my mother scolds me. “Don’t speak that way. I’m sorry, Linc.”
“It’s quite all right. This will be an adjustment for all of us.”
“Adjustment?” I repeat the word, and my eyes drop to the diamond on her left hand. A sharpness in my chest takes away my breath. “Mom—”
“Laura, we’ve got a problem in the kitchen,” her head chef says, interrupting me.
“I’ll be right back.” She pats Lincoln’s chest and follows the man out.
He places his hands on the table across from me, wasting no time. “Hello, Elli. It’s been too long.”
“Not long enough.” I swallow, my tongue all of a sudden heavy. “Get out of this house,” I add, ignoring the way my body trembles in the chair. James may have fucked me, but he took his time getting under my skin. Making me believe that I needed him. Lincoln is not that kind of man.
He smirks. “Didn’t you see the ring, baby?” I jerk at the nickname. “Daddy’s home. And by the way you’ve been acting, I see you’ve forgotten your lessons.”
A cry escapes my lips, my body sinking further into the chair, trying to escape him.
His eyes drop to my hand, and his smirk grows. “Already bleeding for me, I see.”
Tears blur my vision, and my throat is closing, making it hard to breathe.