Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“What was that?”
“The music. It’s the shape of jazz to come.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it is.”
He smiled and laughed. I slipped out and shut the door behind me as I walked back to the room where I’d left Amber.
Vincent was losing his shit. No doubt in my mind about that. He was half-crazed already, and I didn’t know how much longer before he lost the rest of himself. Or maybe it was just the stress of his disease, coupled with this new war that wasn’t going well for him, but either way, the cracks were showing, and if I could see it, then other people could see it too.
Things were much more dangerous than I’d realized.
Maybe he was right though. It was totally possible that there were bugs in this place. The whole house was ostentatious as hell, and although security was decent, all it would take was one well-placed guy in the kitchen staff, or one of the cleaning people, and it’d be pretty easy to leave bugs lying around all over the place.
Hell, if I wanted to rob it, I had a pretty good feeling that I’d be able to get away.
I slipped back into the small living room and found Amber right where I’d left her. The glass of whiskey was half finished, at least. I walked over and sat down, putting a hand on her knee.
She flinched and stared at me.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded. “I think so. My ears are ringing.”
“From the gunshots. Guns are really fucking loud.”
“On TV, they don’t talk about that, you know? They just shoot the things like it’s no big deal.”
“TV’s not real, princess.”
A little spark of anger. That was good. She was still in there. “What do you want from me, Ren?”
“Nothing.”
“You almost got killed today. Why the hell are you still here?”
I frowned at her, head cocked. “Almost getting killed is my job.”
“No, it’s not.” She looked away. “Babysitting me is your job.”
“Guess we disagree on that one then.” I wanted to reach out and touch her, try and rekindle some of the spark I’d felt, but right now it felt like she was buried under thousands of pounds of snow and ice, and it would take a long time before it all thawed.
“You don’t have to stay. You did your duty. I absolve you of more.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Ren—”
“I took a job,” I said, leaning close. “I know what happened today was fucked up and we’ll be dealing with that for a while. But I’m not going to walk away and leave you here alone.”
She looked at me again, and this time I saw the tears. I wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and she buried her face in my shoulder. I let her cry and held her there, worried that this would be the last straw for her, that whatever she wasn’t able to get over from her past would come back with a vengeance, and then I didn’t know where I’d be if that happened.
I didn’t want to leave her down there, buried under the avalanche of her past.
She calmed down after a few minutes. I got her some tissues and she laughed bitterly. “Sorry. I hate crying. It’s pretty ugly.”
“I disagree. You’re sexy when you cry.”
She laughed once. “That’s gross, but funny.”
“Not trying to be funny.”
She wiped herself with the tissues then stared at them, crumbling them between her fingers. “What do we do now?”
“I’m going to find you a room to stay in,” I said. “We’ll stay here in the mansion from now on.”
“Where will you be?”
“I’ll be as close as you want.”
She blinked a few times then nodded. “All right. We can do that.”
“Mona’s here too. I haven’t seen her yet, but Vincent mentioned her, so I assume she’s fine.”
“Good. That’s a relief. I’m happy she wasn’t home when it happened.”
I reached out a hand. “Come on. Let’s go find a good spot for you.”
She hesitated, then took it, and let me pull her to her feet. We walked out into the hall together, and although I had no clue what the hell I was doing, I was determined to figure it all out.
Because right now, she needed someone to take charge. I could tell she was in shock, and that sort of thing didn’t go away without a struggle. She was fragile before this shit happened, even if she put on a brave face, but goddamn, I couldn’t imagine how she’d be now.
I was pissed. Livid, really, but I wouldn’t back down and let her crumble to dust.
8
Amber
I found myself in a huge room, and I should’ve been comfortable. It was more lavish, more expensive than anything I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and my father was a pretty wealthy man.
Instead, each day felt like a new nightmare.
I kept reliving the moment when I got shot. Over and over again, I kept seeing the guns, hearing their explosive noise, feeling the bullets rip into my body. Every morning I’d open my eyes drenched in sweat from the nightmares, and all day I’d be unable to get out of bed.