Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 142764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
I hear his footsteps a heartbeat before he enters the room, and as I whirl around, I see the ghost of a smile on his lips. It slips off his face the moment he sees the syringe in my hand.
“What are you doing?”
I gulp around the ball of anxiety that’s now formed in my throat and gently place the syringe back on the shelf. He stalks toward me, and I take an involuntary step back right as he reaches me. I don’t know why I do it. He doesn’t appear angry. If anything, he looks sorry, which makes no sense to me.
Snatching the syringe off the book, he repeats the question he asked a moment ago. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. I was… I was waiting for you. You seem to enjoy going through my things, so I thought I'd return the favor.” I force myself to smile, but he doesn’t return it. My gaze shifts back to the syringe, and I can’t stop myself from asking. I trust him. I love him, so why am I so afraid to know what this is all about?
“What’s in the syringe?”
His mouth folds into a thin line. “It’s something that I didn’t want to have to use, but that I no longer have an option not to use.”
It’s neither an answer, nor a question.
I chuckle and shake my head. “Is it some kind of steroid, a football thing?” I try to make my tone teasing, but instead, it comes out shaky with what...fear?
“Bel.” He sucks a deep breath into his lungs, then exhales with a slight rumble through his chest. When his arm snakes around my waist and he drags me against his chest, I’m unable to resist. “I hate that I have to do this to you, and I promise I’ll be able to explain everything when it’s over, but right now...I can’t. I know I don’t deserve it, but I need your complete trust.”
I pull away enough so I can see his face. “I told you I trust you, and I do. I’m just confused and worried. You’re speaking in riddles.”
“You’re looking at me a lot like you did that first night in the woods, so I don’t really feel like you trust me.”
I blink and swallow. “I don’t know. I trust you, obviously. I just…why would you have a syringe? And what’s in it? Why are you talking like you’re going to use it on me?” I force myself to look away from the syringe that he’s just uncapped. Like if I don’t look at it, then it means he won’t do what I’m suspecting he will.
“Bel...Wallflower, look at me.”
I do, only from habit, the sharp bite of command in his tone. “You either trust me or you don’t. Say you trust me.”
“I do.” The words slip from my lips with ease. The sharp jab of a needle hits the side of my neck, and I hiss out a breath. “What the hell?”
“Trust me, Bel. That’s all you need to do right now, okay?” A slow tingly warmth moves through my veins, and my knees wobble.
What did he inject into my body?
There’s an undercurrent of sheer panic, but beneath that is the reminder of trust. Peering into my eyes, he tightens his hold on me and moves me to hold my complete weight. There isn’t anything malicious in his eyes. In fact, he’s looking at me with more yearning than I’ve ever seen before.
“Drew,” I murmur as a heavy fog clouds my mind. “I might trust you, but that doesn’t mean I’m not super mad at you right now.”
He chuckles softly, gently brushing strands of hair from my face, and I feel the heat of his breath against the side of my neck. “Fair enough, Flower. We’ll settle up when you’re back on your feet. Just remember, I love you, and I’m doing this for us.”
With those last words and his beautiful green eyes swimming in my mind, my eyes flutter closed, and I slip deep into darkness, losing myself completely.
31
DREW
Choosing to bring her into the lion's den wasn’t an easy choice but the only option. I hate that I’ll be putting her in the same room as my father all over again, but I remind myself that this will be the last time. It has to be.
My stomach roils, and bile rises up my throat. I’m sick with grief and anger. I really don’t want to fucking do this, but now that I’ve administered the drug, I need to go through with it. I have no idea how long it will stay in her system. I have to take her to my father's house while she’s still knocked out to sell the plan.
I need him to be arrogant and secure in the fact that he's won before I rip his head off his body and burn it in the woods behind The Mill house.