Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
“Fuckin pricks just picked up and then hung up on me!”
He muttered under his breath, dialing again and listening before he swore even louder.
“They just did it again!”
“Maybe you ain’t dialing it right!”
“They’re picking up, Steph!”
The two of them bickered back and forth, yelling so loud that they didn’t even hear the sound of the engine approaching.
But I did.
“Well maybe they’re just fucking with you! Keep calling!”
“Goddamnit, bitch, let me handle it!”
“Well maybe they’re trying to get the money together first.”
Or maybe they’re just stalling and keeping you preoccupied.
“Fuck you! Give me the phone, I’ll call—”
With a thundering roar, the big wooden barn door on the side of mill building exploded. I screamed, turning my head as wood splinters showered the room, and as the roaring Bentley came to a screeching stop. The doors slammed open, and the two huge men came roaring out, hurdling the smashed wreckage of the door and charging at Stephanie and my dad.
The two drug addicts went white, their jaws dropped in shock and horror. Stephanie just sank to her knees right there, and while my dad tried to make a run for it, Lincoln’s hand caught him by the back of the neck and yanked him to the ground.
“Watch them,” Wilder growled, shoving his sister into Lincoln’s other hand before he ran across the room to me. He slashed the ropes from me, scooping me up and kicking the chair away before he kissed me fiercely. I threw my arms around him, hugging him so close like I never wanted him to stop.
He sat me down, and I gasped as Lincoln came barreling into me, scooping me up and kissing me too.
“Fuckin knew it.”
We all stopped, turning to look at my dad, there on his knees next to Stephanie.
“I knew you were slutting it up with these two fuckin—”
He choked on his words, his face going white as the hand slammed into his neck, knocking him to the floor and clenching tight around his windpipe.
My hands.
“You listen to me,” I hissed, my blood roaring in my veins and my eyes narrowing on the man I’d never call father again. “Listen to me and don’t you fucking forget what I’m about to say to you.”
He swallowed, his eyes wide.
“You abandoned me. Over and over and over again, you let me down, you left me to raise myself and fend for myself, and you did all of this without even a second’s hesitation. You don’t get to speak to me that way.”
My eyes burned into his empty, vacant ones, and I shook my head.
“You’re not my father. Not anymore.”
I stood, backing away and into Lincoln and Wilder. He and Stephanie started to stand, but my two guys growled as they moved forward, between me and them.
“Sit,” Wilder snarled, his shoulders heaving. He pulled his phone out.
“Wilder, c’mon,” Stephanie whined. “What are you doing?”
“Calling the fucking cops. Because I’m willing to bet money there are jails that are currently looking for you.”
She and my dad looked at each other with white faces.
“Hang on, hang on, Wilder. C’mon, we’re family! You can’t just—”
“Family would never do this, Steph.”
He shook his head, stepping away with the phone. Lincoln pulled me tight, holding me in his arms as Wilder made the call.
“Mackenzie, honey—”
“Don’t ever talk to her again,” Lincoln growled, pointing a finger at my dad. “Not ever.”
His hand tightened on my waist, and I felt Wilder move in behind me.
“Sheriff Watkins and his boys are on the way.” He nuzzled my neck. “You okay?”
“I am now,” I said quietly, feeling the two of them wrapped around me so warm and tight.
We could hear sirens, and when the Sheriff and his officers pulled up, Wilder and Lincoln took me away. Lincoln helped me into the car as Wilder shook hands with the Sheriff and promised to make some statements later. And then we drove home.
Home. Because that’s what it was. A house is just a house, but it’s love and family that make it a home.
And that’s exactly what we had. Love, a home, and two daddies as the only family I needed.
Epilogue
Mackenzie
Six months later
“Ugh, that class. I swear, Professor Jameson gets off on punishment.”
I grinned, looking away to hide the blush from my face.
Well he wouldn’t be the only one…
Cora sighed, thankfully missing the heat on my face as she shook her head. “For real though, if he wasn’t so fucking gorgeous, I’d have dropped that class like a brick by now.”
I snickered. “Well, that and it’s part of your major and you have to take it.”
She groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
We both laughed as we headed across the quad, backpacks slung over shoulders and hot to-go cups of coffee in our hands. Cora and I had become fast friends after being paired for a first week assignment in the aforementioned Professor Jameson’s class. She, like me, didn’t live on campus, but where she lived in the apartment above her grandmother’s garage, I lived with my two boyfriends in an insanely expensive castle-like mansion on an estate’s worth of land.