Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“What do I want?” he asked, like it was a dumb question.
I took him off speaker before I spoke, knowing he would notice the change in my voice and grow suspicious if I didn’t. I didn’t say anything back, so caught off guard that I could barely think.
“What kind of fucking question is that?”
My phone vibrated next to my ear, and I glanced at the screen. Theo had already written back. On my way. I stopped myself from breathing a sigh of relief at the message. He hadn’t been there when I’d needed him before, but it barely took him five seconds to respond now. I had no idea if he was at home sleeping in or if he was at work. But whatever he was doing, it didn’t stop him from dropping it to rush to me.
“I’m still your husband, Astrid.”
The word husband triggered me. Because a husband should never do any of the things he’d done to me—his fucking wife. “You’re nothing to me, Bolton.”
He was quiet.
“Tell me what you want so I can get off the phone and forget this conversation ever happened.”
“I thought I’d given you enough time to cool off.”
“Enough time to cool off…” I said it with such incredulity. Because there was not enough time in the fucking world to cool off from the shit he did. “You know when I’ll cool off? When you’re fucking dead.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, but I could feel his rage through the phone. “We were happy—”
“You were happy. I was at home while you were off screwing Carson and whoever else. You were going to use me as an incubator to have your children and raise them like a fucking maid while you continued to live a bachelor life that I didn’t know about.”
“Astrid, I ended that relationship because I loved you—”
“Why are we doing this?” I snapped. “Why are we having this conversation again? When I said I would rather die in that burning building than be with you, I meant it. I want nothing to do with you. I begged Theo to kill you, and he promised me he would. So, fuck off.”
“You think he’s going to kill me?” Obnoxious arrogance was in his voice. “Let’s not forget I kill people for a living, while he sits on his ass and orders people around. He’s been wasting his time picking off my guys one by one like I’m stupid enough to tell any of them where I am. The guy is a fucking moron.”
“The only moron here is me—for ever believing a word out of your goddamn mouth.”
“When I said I loved you, I meant it.”
“Did you mean it when you said it to Carson?”
He turned quiet.
“If you think you can love two people at once, then you’re the moron…”
“Astrid, listen to me. I’m going to kill your fuckboy, and when I do, it’s going to be so much worse for you. So I suggest you make the right choice and save yourself the unnecessary suffering—”
“Abuse,” I said. “That’s the word I would use…”
“Believe it or not, I don’t want to hurt you. But he’s going to be dead soon. Very soon—”
“Then you better kill me too because I’d rather die with him than be with you.”
“Don’t make me—”
“I love him, Bolton.” I didn’t plan on saying it, but my heart had decided on it. It was an unwise decision that would probably lead to unwanted consequences, but in the heat of the moment, I didn’t give a damn. “I love him.” I said it again, saying it to myself this time because I hadn’t allowed myself to even acknowledge it. “And if you ever loved me, you’ll let me be happy.”
He was quiet.
I waited, my breathing elevated in the tension, waiting for the results of my decision. If I’d just pulled the pin out of the grenade or if I’d defused the bomb.
Click.
I looked at the screen before I set down the phone, even more tense because I didn’t get my answer.
The door flew open, and Theo walked inside wearing a bulletproof vest strapped across his black t-shirt with an automatic rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other—in broad daylight. He did a quick sweep of the room before he approached the desk.
I saw the two Hummers outside in the parking lot. Guys climbed out, similarly armed.
“Are you alright?”
“Bolton called.” I looked at the guys outside again. “I’m sorry…I should have specified. But in the moment, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what he wanted or what would happen—”
“Sweetheart.” He silenced me with the command in his gaze. “You did exactly what I wanted you to do.” He moved back to the window and looked at the guys outside. Then he pressed his finger into his ear as he listened to one of his guys over the comms. “I can take it from here.” He locked the front door, flipped the sign from open to closed, and then pulled the strap of the gun off his neck so he could lean the rifle against the wall. The handgun was returned to the back of his jeans.