Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
“No. I don’t. Like I have no idea how to make clothes look beautiful like you do. I don’t know how to write a book like Bri does. The list of things I’m expert at is small, but I know how to protect someone, and I definitely know when a person is being stubborn and putting themselves in danger they know nothing about. You think Huisman won’t hurt you because you’re a woman? You think the worst that could happen is he locks you up somewhere and you get to be the damsel in distress?”
“Kala.” Her sister managed to make her name a warning.
“I think Zach doesn’t give a shit about me, so I’m not in danger at all,” Devi admitted. “I think this is all BS to make my mom and dad and brother feel better.”
Kenzie sighed and sat back, gesturing Kala’s way, permission to do her worst given.
“Even if Zach doesn’t give a shit about you, there’s the big old chance Huisman thinks he does,” Kala explained. “If he does and he decides you’re a way to get to Zach, then let me offer you some of my thoughts on him as a kidnapper. I’m a connoisseur, you see. I could write a Zagat rating system for kidnapping. Huisman is chef’s kiss. I’m not joking. The man knows what he’s doing. He hates women and doesn’t rely merely on words to hurt us. I still feel it. I don’t know which hurt more—not being able to move and being forced to watch the fucker haul Carys out or the liquid fire he poured through my veins. I like to consider myself fairly stoic when it comes to pain. I’ve been stabbed, shot, beaten. Stepped on Seth’s freaking Legos. Don’t discount those. But nothing, nothing, was ever as bad as the drug he gave me. I would have killed my own sister to make it stop. I would have done anything. I screamed. I begged. I pleaded with God to kill me. And when my heart stopped, my prayers were heard.”
“Kala.” Her sister could also make her name sound like the revelation of a long-held secret.
“I asked Dad not to talk about that part,” she explained. “I didn’t want to freak you and Mom out, but I think our cousin here needs all the bad parts or else I’m just trying to scare her. I am. The truth is terrifying. I went into cardiac arrest but only after the paralytic wore off and I tried to break my own bones to make the pain stop. My chest still hurts from where the Canadian got my heart started again and…” She winced. “I know that CPR requires mouth things, but, eww. I think that might be the worst of it. I had to wake up to my twin’s dream boyfriend’s mouth on me. But the point is, if you think you’re safe, you’re wrong. Huisman wanted Tasha. Not me. He took me because my last name is Taggart, and he blames my father for an event he wasn’t even there for. Let me see, last time I checked, your last name was…”
Devi put a hand up, her expression softening. “I get your point. I’m sorry. I’m not handling this well. I really…I really liked him. I thought we were getting somewhere.”
“You thought for once it was going to be you,” Kala replied. She understood what it meant to pine for someone. She’d been doing it for years and years, and it was time for both of them to get this shit out of their systems and move on. “You thought for once I’m going to get the epic love story. I blame Aunt Serena. I often wonder how much better off we would be if she’d, like, written murder mysteries and we all grew up wanting to hang out in British country houses waiting to solve some rich person’s untimely death. Anyway, maybe listen to Landon. About the bodyguard stuff. Not anything else. Maybe don’t put the people you love through having to worry about you because you’re pissed a guy turned out to be less than you thought.”
“I will.” Devi sniffled because she was capable of feeling. “I’m sorry, Kala. I didn’t know.”
It wasn’t that Kala was incapable of feeling. She felt shit all the time. But she couldn’t cry about it, couldn’t let it out in healthy ways.
So she found unhealthy ones. Well, she was sure the shrinks would tell her dominance was a coping mechanism. “You weren’t supposed to. And if anyone asks…”
Devi nodded. “I know nothing. Everything is classified.”
“But if I maybe left this folder here when I went to the bar to grab a Coke,” Kenzie offered, touching the file that held the secrets of Zach’s life.
Her sister was way too romantic. It would get her hurt one day. Or fired. Kala grabbed the folder. “No. This is classified, and I wouldn’t want Zach handing mine around even if he did think it might help me get laid. It opens Devi to things she doesn’t need in her life, so I’ll lock this up.”