Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 109976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Giselle
I dare not tell him the whole truth; just thinking about it makes me feel ill. What good will it do anyway to share that ugliness with him? Nothing good can come of it. But knowing his penchant for pushing, I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out.
Either way, for now I felt much better the farther the ferry went out to sea. Just knowing that I was no longer in the same city as the senator helped ease the pressure I’d been under. A few days away should give me time to regroup and come up with another plan. All I have to do is keep Gavin from suspecting anything.
“I didn’t know you had a home in Connecticut.” I knew about his villa in Tuscany, his apartment in L.A. and many others but I never read anything about this place we were heading to.
“No one knows about it. I bought it under my mother’s maiden name about a year and a half ago.”
“Don’t worry, no one will find you there.” So he already knew what I was thinking. Funny how those same words would’ve driven fear into my heart if they came from anyone else, but with him they were like another layer of protection.
So much so that I found myself relaxing against him as I watched the waves in the water. Since he wasn’t talking I had a lot of time to think. My one attempt at escaping had been a total bust. Now that I think about it, it was a pretty stupid plan.
I’d been stowing away money for this day after Vance had ran through most of my savings that first year. But other than that I had no real idea what I was going to do next. My only thought had been to get as far away as possible, and go back to using my maiden name.
Then Vance had gotten wind of what I planned to do and his threats and my new knowledge of what he really was had kept me prisoner, and under his watchful eye I’d given up all hopes of fleeing.
Now that he was gone I’d renewed my plans to escape. But how hard would it have been for the senator to find me? Now that I think of it with all his resources I can’t imagine it would’ve been too much of a problem.
Why did I only think of that now? I’ve known for some time that the senator was an even greater threat than his son. And more so since he had more power than Vance ever had. But to be fair to myself, when you’re in survival mode you tend to overlook some things.
Plus I hadn’t expected Vance to die this soon, though I knew it was a possibility that it could happen at any time. Most importantly I didn’t expect Gavin to come to my rescue the way he had that night so I’d made no preparations.
Now instead of escaping I can only think of what it would do to him after he’d shown me his heart. Was it too late to carry out my plan to find another means of escape? Or was there greater danger in staying by his side knowing what the senator is capable of?
I looked at him out the side of my eye and found him staring straight ahead. From the way he clenched his jaw it was evident that he was pissed. So much control. “I’ll be right back.” He got up abruptly and headed over to where his men were standing in a huddle, exchanging a few words before coming back to my side.
“Is everything okay?” He looked so stern. I’d disrupted his life more than I intended to it seems, I’d even forgotten about his meeting. He took his time answering as he took his seat beside me and hugged me to his side again.
“You’re with me, what can go wrong?” His words were a little gruffer than usual, and he still wasn’t looking at me.
I was starting to get an antsy feeling in my gut from the way he and his men were acting. Had Kevin heard what the senator had said after all and drawn his own conclusions?
I’d foolishly wanted to believe that they’d see his actions as nothing more than a father in law towards his daughter in law who was grieving. But maybe I underestimated their intelligence there. Or maybe I was reading too much into things.
“Why did you come? I thought you had a meeting?” It was only now that the craziness was over that I had time to think. I’d heard Kevin’s call in the car, but how had he got there so soon?
“I told you before; you come before everything else.”
That wasn’t right. Kevin had called him from the car when we were still at the cemetery. There’s no way he could’ve made it there that fast. Or had he called him when he left the church? What could he have said that made Gavin leave the city? I couldn’t put it together but it’s the only thing that made sense.