Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
That hope dies when I open the door and three men are standing outside—Bull, Breaker and my dad. This doesn’t bode well. I expected one or even two of them, but all three together is like winning a lottery that I never wanted to enter.
“We doing this outside or inside?” I ask, not even pretending I don’t know why the assholes are here.
“Let us in, Dom,” Dad grumbles.
“Inside it is,” I mutter as I stand back.
Once they’re inside, I close the door and face them. I walk over to the new table I bought Thea to replace the old one that was damaged in mine and Dad’s fight. I grab the glass vase off the top of it. It’s an exact copy of the one Thea bought that shattered in the fight. I drove to the home store after work yesterday and picked it up.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Bull asks.
“I get you assholes want to beat the hell out of me. Fuck, I deserve it. I’d do it myself if it were possible, so I get it. My woman loved this vase when she bought it. Dad and I already destroyed one. I’m going to protect the one I bought yesterday to surprise her with. You can try to kill me once I make sure it’s safe.”
“You don’t have a woman,” Bull grumbles. “You broke her heart.”
“She’s mine. I won’t give up until she forgives me.”
“That will be hard for her to do when you’re busy with Gabby,” he taunts.
“I’m not going to be busy with Gabby,” I growl.
“I ought to just kill you and be done with it. I told you not to fuck over my sister.”
“I haven’t.”
“You knocked up that bitch who’s not even worth licking Thea’s shoes,” Breaker responds in disgust.
“I’ve convinced these two not to kill you without hearing your side of it,” Dad says. “So, you should probably do that while they’re still calm.”
I could almost laugh. The vibes coming off Bull and Breaker are so violent it makes the air around us all heavy. Instead of concentrating on that, I look at my father and try to figure him out.
“Does this mean you don’t think I deserve all of this shit for hurting Thea?”
“Let’s just say I’ve realized that I’ve jumped to conclusions that my son was fucking up and following in his old man’s footsteps. I believe you love Thea. So, I need to know what the hell is going on.”
“Thea hasn’t told you guys?” I ask, shocked.
“All she will do is tell her momma that Gabby is pregnant, and she only told her that after we promised not to kill you.”
“So, you plan on leaving me alive?” I laugh bitterly.
“Barely,” Bull shrugs and I nod in acceptance. It’s no less than I deserve.
I all but collapse in a recliner, so fucking tired of all this shit. I’m almost disappointed they’re not going to kill me. If my life is going to go on without Thea in it, I’m not sure I want to survive. Hell, standing on the outside of her life may kill me on its own. I drop my head down in my hands and visions of all my dreams sifting through my fingers like sand begin haunting me. Thea is my forever. How in the fuck am I supposed to go on without her?
“Son?”
“The day little D was born, Thea agreed to go out to dinner with me. It was just a simple dinner, but it was the first time that I could remember feeling happy in fuckin’ years. I wanted more with her. I knew I had hurt her in the past and I needed to fix it, but I wanted more. It was a dream. I knew it. Fuck,” I groan, as I look up at the three men who have been the most important people in my life outside of T.
“Keep going,” Dad says.
“Going back to the club, I saw how my brothers looked at me. I saw the disappointment on all your faces and realized I didn’t deserve Thea.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you try to earn her, asshole?” Breaker barks.
I force myself to look up at him, keeping eye contact. “She told me she was happy with Deke. He’s going to be a fucking doctor. I thought he could give her the kind of life she deserved.”
“You should have come to me about her, brother.”
I shake my head at him. “Breaker man, I couldn’t even be honest with myself about how much I wanted her. I just lived off the fantasies of her. I started drinking because I knew I had wasted years of my life trying to keep a promise I made as a kid. Fuck, Breaker, I was attracted to Thea, wanted her, and forced myself to shut her down—when it was the last thing I wanted—because of that promise. I blame what happened with T on Gabby, and part of it was. I didn’t know she was playing him. I swear I had no idea. I let her get by with not telling him and I didn’t talk to him about it, because honestly, a big part of me didn’t want things to advance with Gabby. I had no fucking clue she was playing me and T together. If I had, I would have come clean myself.