Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“Try again, little one, and you’ll see just what I am capable of when I’m pissed.”
I swing around and find Beast behind me, his big arms folded as he’s watching me.
“You can’t blame a girl for being curious.” I cross my arms to match his intimidating stance. “What’s inside?”
He walks toward me, bringing with him a swirling heat of testosterone and power. His long hair hangs in waves around his strong face. “Why do you disobey me?”
I lift my chin. “Like I said, curiosity.”
He looks down on me and I’m forced to crane my neck to look up at him. And dear God, when he’s right there standing in front of me looking all mad and muscular, all I can think about is the taste of his lips on mine and the warmth of his tongue inside my mouth.
“You know what they say about curiosity,” he rumbles in that deep, growly voice of his.
He comes even closer and my cheeks turn pink because goddammit, I’m more turned on than terrified.
“This room stays locked.” He holds up a key. It’s big. Like the dungeon keys you see in the movies. No wonder my little hairpins were so ineffective. “And I’m the only one who has the key.”
I frown at him. “Why, what are you hiding?”
“Well, I could show you.” He lifts an eyebrow. “But then I’d have to kill you.”
Later, while Beast is in Church, I borrow one of the clubhouse trucks so I can visit my uncle. It’s a stick shift and I’ve never driven a stick shift, but I don’t want to tell the prospect when he hands me the keys because I’m desperate to see my uncle.
Besides, I’ll figure it out. I mean, how hard can it be?
Apparently, hard enough.
I usually pride myself in being a quick learner. But today is not one of those days.
After stalling it twice along the way and almost flooding the engine, when I finally reach the old mansion where my uncle is recuperating, the truck bunny hops a couple of times before coming to a stop.
“How’s our favorite patient doing today?” I ask Annie when she opens the front door.
She gives me a reassuring smile. “He’s doing better today.”
But he doesn’t look better. He still looks pale and gaunt, and when I sit beside the hospital bed and take his hand in mine, it is cold and limp and feels lifeless. Despite the doctors easing his sedation medication, he is still out of it. While I’m there, he wakes up once, and it takes him some time to recognize me before he falls into a deep sleep again.
“Don’t be disheartened, Belle,” Annie says when she brings me a peppermint tea and a biscuit. She can see the tears in my eyes and the hopelessness on my face. “Brain injuries heal in their own time, not our time. Just because it’s taking a while, doesn’t mean he isn’t getting better. The doctor is sure he will come around. But he needs to rest and heal before that.”
“Thanks, Annie.”
She gives me a grandmotherly pat on my shoulder and I want to stop her from walking away and pull her in for a cuddle. Because right now, it’s what I need.
But I don’t, I simply smile and watch her leave the room to continue with her rounds.
Annie has put a copy of The Old Man and the Sea on the nightstand. It’s one of my uncle’s favorite books so I pick it up and start to read it to him.
But I only get a few pages in when his voice startles me.
“I’m sorry, Bluebelle.”
My eyes dart from the book to him. He’s awake and looking up at me.
“Uncle Maurice.” I take his hand in mine. “It’s all right, you’re safe. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping it from you.”
He sounds jumbled. But I figure he’s talking about the debt he owes to the Knights.
“Forget about the debt, it’s all been taken care of. You need to rest and heal.”
“Not the debt. The accident. I should have told you. Let you remember. I’ve made such a mess of things. I was just trying to protect you. Oh, Blue.”
“What is blue, Uncle Maurice? You’re confused. You’ve had a head injury.”
“It was a miracle… we should never have come back here. Now you might get hurt too.”
Alarm tingles in the pit of my stomach. “What are you talking about?”
He grabs my hand and his eyes widen, and for a moment he seems more lucid than he has in years. “They killed them. Don’t let them kill you too.”
“What do you mean? Who are you talking about?” Fear spreads through me like flames. “Uncle Maurice…”
But just like that he is gone again. Swept away by his drug haze and back to sleep again.