Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Though I had discovered that Piper liked to joke, she was serious about this. About planting a garden.
“What?” she asked, tilting her head as if to regard the surprise I knew was painted nowhere on my expression. “You think I should rot away inside, trying to carve knives into shanks and plot my escape?”
My lips thinned in an effort not to smile. “You don’t need to carve knives into anything, they’re already a weapon.”
Her face went blank then she nodded quickly. “Thanks for the pointer—pun intended. I’ll stow that away for when I do intend to stab you. For now, it’ll just be that.” She gestured to the list. “And don’t worry, I won’t try to run while you’re gone. I’m not that stupid.”
Again, she was being serious. Though it was human nature to try to break out when you were in captivity, she had seemed to accept her cage without question. Because she was smart enough to understand just how imprisoned she really was.
Though it was rough terrain and a long way to any civilization, I didn’t doubt Piper had the capability to escape if she really set her mind to it. She could get away from me, for a time anyway. And she likely wasn’t stupid enough to alert authorities, knowing Stone had connections to everything. Which meant she’d try to run. With no funds, and no ID. Maybe she had contacts I didn’t know about who could procure her fake identification, money, but I doubted it.
Even if she did have those connections, she was aware of the noose we’d placed figuratively around her sister’s head.
I’d be expected to kill her sister if she did run.
The thought made my throat constrict.
Piper’s sister was all she had. Everything to her. That was plain. And killing her would be inflicting a mortal wound upon Piper.
The thought of causing any harm to Piper’s sister made my insides clench. A foreign reaction for me. I battled against it, denied the power she was quickly wielding over me.
She wouldn’t do it. Wouldn’t run. Wouldn’t force my hand like that. She was going to plant a garden.
It was her way of keeping herself alive, intact. And the quickest way to nip that in the bud was to refuse her. The entire goal of this assignment was to pull her apart, not to give her ways to bring things to life.
Yet I took the list.
Piper
After leaving Knox sitting outside with my list, I stomped inside, first removing my muddy boots then going to the bathroom. I was in dire need of a shower. The thin layer of dirt and grime covering my body felt good, though. Reminded me of the long, sticky summer days with my grandmother. Our hands in the soil, her raspy, patient voice telling me which plants were weeds and which weren’t.
Leaning against the door to the bathroom, I squeezed my eyes shut at the onslaught of the memory, once so sweet, warm and pure, now painful and bitter upon reflection.
I missed her terribly. Like a dull ache. Aside from Daisy, she was the only true kind of unconditional love I’d experienced. Her love was not dependent on outward factors: access to mood-altering substances, how I’d acted that day, whether or not a sports team had won or lost. No, it was as constant as the sun, the moon, the stars. A guiding light.
Without it, parts of me felt cold, dead.
I unfurled my fists, opening my palm to contemplate the crushed-up butt I was still holding.
I lifted it closer to my face, inhaling the acrid smell of chemicals and tobacco. My nose should’ve turned up at the scent. It reminded me of dive bars and rock bottoms.
But it didn’t.
That scent was mixed with the dirt on my hands, the fragrance of wildflowers and sunshine and … Knox.
I must’ve been imagining that last part. The sheer force of the scent from the cigarette would drown out any other fragrance.
Yet I smelled him. Earthy. Salty. Wrong.
My feet directed me to the toilet. Flushing it down was my original plan. But as I hovered over the bowl, butt in hand, I hesitated.
This thing was nothing but trash.
But it was an indicator of Knox having a flaw. Being human.
Instead of flushing it, my hand clasped around it, keeping it for reasons unknown.
Eleven
Piper
He got me everything on the list.
Not much of it was obscure, but I figured he’d simply refuse to get the candy. There was no way I could see a man like him touching bags of candy. In fact, I couldn’t see a man like him being a child eating candy.
I’d put an obscene amount of thought into Knox—what his life looked like as a child, what his life looked like before all of this.
About whether he had someone who loved him, cared about him, someone he softened for.