Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
I got in line, stepped forward when it was my turn, and tossed a casual hello at Sara whose smile lit up like seeing me was the highlight of her day. “Hey, there, stranger. Where have you been?” Her eyes narrowed in speculation as she took me in. “You look…different.”
That smile filled my face. I guessed it was joy. “I feel different.”
“Yeah?” Then she let go of a self-deprecating laugh as she punched in the same order I’d given her almost every day for the last three years. “Damn. Looks like I should have worked up the courage to ask you out sooner.”
She peeked at me when she said it.
I pressed my card to the reader, a low chuckle riding out. “It probably was best you didn’t.”
“That bad, huh?”
“It was just that good with her.”
She smiled this sweet, shy smile and nodded, like she completely got it. Which was exactly why I never would have touched her in the first place.
“There you go.” She slid the cup my way.
“Thanks, Sara.” I moved over to the counter so I could add some cream and sugar and a dose of that cocoa powder that Gage used to think was pixie dust.
I smiled some more as I sat at a small round table by the window and sipped at my coffee as I watched people meander by in the frosty day, loved that right now Aster was with some of the people who meant the most to me.
Eden, Salem, and Tessa were like sisters. A real kind of family that we’d been lucky to find. How desperately I wanted Aster to be a part of that, too.
I finished off my coffee and stood, tossed the cup into the recycle bin, and stepped out into the flurries that had started to fall. I headed back in the direction of my office, feeling so damned right that I didn’t believe a thing could go wrong.
I slid my key into the lock at the front door of my office. My office manager was off today since her son had a half day at school, so I let myself into the empty waiting area.
I walked through it to my office at the back, and I pushed open the door to the darkened room.
The second I did, I felt it. A foul presence that hovered like a sickness. My pulse spiked, and I was wishing I hadn’t left my gun in its locked case underneath the seat in my car.
I pushed my back up against the wall next to the door and inhaled a steeling breath, my brain calculating the best way to handle this. My hands twisted into fists as I prepared for a fight.
I reached in and flicked on the light, peeked into my office, then stumbled into the doorway as I took in the sight.
Rage crashed against the confines of my chest.
The place was trashed.
My desk was upturned, tossed on its side with all the drawers ripped open and dumped on the floor. Every chair in the room had been thrown in a heap on top of it.
The file cabinets had been ransacked. Papers strewn across the floor.
Three framed pictures had been torn from the walls and smashed on the ground.
My laptop was gone.
But none of that even mattered.
Only one thing did.
Aster.
Blood pounded through my veins. Sloshed and chugged and screamed for vengeance.
I swallowed down the bile that threatened to rise, and I dug my phone from my pocket and dialed Aster’s number, flying back through the front door and out to where I’d parked my car in my reserved spot at the curb.
The whole time, I made that same promise all over again.
I took good care of what was mine.
My precious, perfect star.
And I would never let someone hurt her.
Not ever again.
TWENTY-SEVEN
ASTER
“Oh my god, tell me.” Tessa waved wildly at herself as she tipped her head back and drained the rest of the mimosa from her champagne flute.
They were bottomless.
She’d obviously taken it as a challenge.
Or maybe she thought she was training for an Olympic sport.
God knew it was going to take some acrobatics to get her out of here.
We’d been at this pub for two hours, the group laughing and chatting, catching up. The children were spending the day with Mimi and Gretchen who were taking them to the park.
I took a small sip of my mimosa, this ridiculous redness flushing my cheeks while three pairs of eyes stared back at me in anxious anticipation.
I liked these women.
Too much.
Which was why it was really hard to sit there in their midst and pretend I was normal.
“There’s not much to tell.” There, that would appease them.
Tessa smacked her palm onto the table then pointed at me. “You are the worst liar in all the liars. Do you think I don’t see this right here?”
Tessa leaned over the table and drew a big circle around my face.