Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
“You know they gotta go, yeah?” Alarick growls.
“I know. I’ll take care of it.”
“Work out a way to get hold of them; we got so much shit we’re tryin’ to deal with, we don’t need this too. You owe it to her to finish this for her, so make her safe and put this shit to bed.”
I nod. “On it, boss.”
“She know about all of this now?”
“Yeah, she knows.”
“How’d she take it?”
“Not the greatest, she’s pretty fuckin’ confused, but she’ll come around. I told her we’d have her back, that we’d trust her if she let us in. I’m hopin’ she’s done that now and will stop tryin’ to run. I want to keep her safe, regardless of the past.”
“You tell her that?” Alarick questions.
I glare at him. “Of course I fuckin’ told her that.”
“No, Cohen, I mean have you looked her in the fuckin’ eye and told her you want to keep her safe, and then tell her why ...”
“What do you mean why?”
“You know exactly what I mean. You never told her how you felt back then, and you haven’t fuckin’ told her now. Don’t make the same mistakes over and over again. Tell her all of the truth, not just your part of it.”
I grit my teeth and turn, walking out of his room.
I’m done with this fucking conversation.
I get back to the motel room where I left Aviana with Briella and Merleigh. The three of them are sitting on the bed when I walk in, watching something on the television and talking amongst themselves. All their eyes move to me when I enter the room, and I glance at Bohdi in the corner, sitting on the same chair I had pushed over to the door to stop Aviana escaping. He’s off in a silent world, not saying anything, just staring at the wall.
That man scares me sometimes, the depths of his soul are terrifying.
He goes off into this world where you can’t get him back until he’s ready.
I wonder where the fuck he goes?
He jerks when I slam the door and his eyes move to mine. He stands quickly and walks over. “All good?”
“Yeah, brother, thanks for filling in.”
“You can stay, if you want,” Merleigh says to him when he walks to the door.
“I don’t want,” he murmurs. “But if you want to take a walk with me, I wouldn’t say no.”
She smiles and stands, pulling on her shoes and then disappearing out the door with him. The two of them have formed a friendship, maybe more, it’s hard to tell because neither of them say a great deal. I wonder if he’s told her about his past and why he’s so fucking vacant all the time.
Maybe she’ll do him some good.
“Avi told me everything,” Briella says, turning the television down. “Those men aren’t going to get her, are they, Cohen?”
I shake my head. “Not if I have any say in the matter.”
“They seem pretty determined,” she goes on.
“Yeah, well, I’m more fuckin’ determined.”
Aviana looks to me and her eyes soften, just a touch. I hope with time, they’ll get as soft as they were when we were friends. Back when she was a fun-loving, high-spirited girl I couldn’t get enough of.
I want her back, so fucking bad.
“Do you know their names?” I ask her, hoping maybe she’s had time to jog her memory a little.
She shakes her head. “No, I don’t recall. I do remember my father talking to my brothers about a man he was having issues with. I don’t know if it’s one of those men or not, but his name was Xander. I heard that name come up a few times, so maybe it’s worth looking into.”
I heard that name, too.
Heard it on the tapes when they were talking. Heard it mentioned more than once after that. Guarantee whoever Xander is, he knows about Aviana and he’s trying to get his hands on her. Only one way to finish this problem, and that’s to get rid of him once and for all, so she can move on with her life.
“I want to take a walk,” Avi says, standing. “Can someone come with me? I need fresh air.”
“I’ll come,” I say, meeting her eyes. “Can’t go out there alone.”
She nods and gives Briella a weak smile before we both leave the room.
We walk in silence for a few minutes, and even though I’m standing way too close to her, she doesn’t say anything. I’m not risking anything happening to her. While I don’t think they’d kill her, because that won’t get them what they want, I do think they’d do some serious damage to get her. I point down a quieter street and tell her we should go down there to be safe.
She nods, and we walk until we find a small park with an old, rusty slide and a rickety swing. As suspected, Aviana walks right over to that swing and sits on it, closing her eyes and launching off, making the entire swing set creak. It doesn’t bother her at all, though. She swings her worries away, a small smile on her face. I sit on the other swing and watch her for a moment, so carefree.