Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 62197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Yep. That was where I was. Ready to murder a guy for getting too close to what was mine.
“What’s got you so enthralled? Porn?”
I glanced up at the sound of Bane’s voice, expecting to see him with Hawkins in his arms. Instead, he was alone with a glass of water.
“Why are you up?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Got thirsty. And although Hawks has started sleeping again all night, I’m now on some fucked-up schedule where I wake up anyway.”
I grunted, not really interested and wanting him to leave me to my live video feed of Noa sleeping and my whiskey. He continued into the room, and I clicked off the screen, not wanting him to see what I had been watching. Let him think it was porn. That was better than him knowing the truth.
“It’s not porn then,” he drawled with a smirk and sank down on the leather chair across from me. With a tilt of his head in the direction of my phone, he added, “You wouldn’t have shut that down because I walked in.”
Shut up, Bane. Go away. Let me drink and stalk my girl in private.
My girl.
Was she? Yeah, she fucking was. She had been for years. I’d just not realized it.
“Your girl?” he asked, his brows drawing together.
Shit. I’d said that out loud. Maybe I was more than buzzed.
“Go to bed,” I mumbled, then took another drink from the bottle.
“Oh, hell no. Not after that comment. Who are you calling your girl? And please, for Christ’s sake, tell me it’s not the writer. I’m not up for trying to keep your ass alive if Blaise finds out you’re still in contact with her.”
I stared at him as I took a long pull. Blaise could suck my dick, along with Linc. Both of them had their women. They’d not been ordered to stay away from them. Assholes.
“I’m here. I’ve not talked to her in twenty days, and she went on a motherfucking date this morning. Had brunch with some asswipe,” I snarled.
Bane winced. “I’d ask how you know she went on a date, but I’m guessing you’ve still got trackers on her,” he said, and then his eyes went to my phone, which I still clutched tightly in my hand. “Ah fuck. Are you watching her? You’ve got video cameras on her? Tell me you’re not pulling Oz’s fucked-up shit.”
I said nothing. Fact was, my stalking might be worse than Oz’s had been. He’d never put a camera in Winslet’s bedroom. And he’d not paid a man to set a fire in the kitchen of his restaurant so that it had to be evacuated to end a date that she was on. I bit back a grin. That had been rather brilliant of me.
“What?” Bane asked, his eyes widening. “Did you fucking say what I think you did?”
Dammit, I was still talking out loud.
I shrugged. Whatever. It wasn’t like he was a saint. He’d sliced Halo’s throat before he fell in love with her. He was the damn psycho. Not me. I was just taking care of what was mine.
“Best way to clear a place out is a little fire,” I replied, then chuckled before taking another drink.
Bane shook his head. “Jesus, you’re nuts, and I thought you were the sane one.”
“Desperate times and all,” I replied as if that excused my actions.
“How much did you pay him?”
I set the bottle between my legs and sighed. “Six months’ rent. Immediate wire into his account the second I had live footage from his phone of the restaurant being evacuated and Noa rushing out the door. He was already behind two months on his lease of the place, so he was desperate. That was just fucking luck.”
Bane leaned back in his chair and blew out a breath. “Damn.”
“It was better than killing her date,” I mused. Which I still might do. If he didn’t stay the fuck away from her.
“Or selling him to the cartel,” Bane added with a shake of his head, then took another drink of water. “You’ve got some twisted shit in your head. We need to be using it for more than your obsession with this woman.”
“Not an obsession,” I bit out through clenched teeth, annoyed.
“Then label it,” he shot back at me.
Label it? Was there a label for it? I sat there, staring straight ahead, as I dissected the way I felt. How I reacted to her.
Finally, I looked back at Bane. “A necessity.”
Bane blew out a breath and stood back up. “Ah. So, you’re in love.”
No, the fuck I was not. This wasn’t about love. I required Noa in my life. She was indispensable. There was no one else that centered me or made me feel … whole. Balanced things for me. Cleared the shit from my head. She gave me peace.
“And that, my friend, is what love is,” Bane drawled with amusement. “Welcome to the club.”