Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 231(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“Well, ain’t she a pretty thing you got there?”
I wanted to go back inside now.
Kash moved in front of me, and I started to reach out and grab his hand to tug him away. I didn’t want that man hurting him. But before I could even touch him, he took two long strides toward the man and pulled a gun from beneath his leather jacket.
What the heck?!
“Whoa!” the man said, staggering back as Kash pressed the gun to the man’s forehead. “I just needed some money, man.”
“You looked at what’s mine.”
Kash’s tone made me shiver, and I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched the scene, no longer recognizing the boy I loved.
“Kash”—Forge’s voice came from behind me—“what’s the problem?”
“This fucker looked at her,” he snarled, keeping the gun to the man’s head.
The man held up both his arms. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
I swung my gaze from Kash to Forge. He appeared relaxed and not at all shocked by Kash having a gun and pointing it at someone’s head.
Forge sighed heavily, as if annoyed. “Let the man go,” he told Kash. “We don’t want a cleanup job over some shit like that.”
Kash tilted his head slightly, as if he was studying the man in front of him. “You’re gonna turn around and get the fuck out of here. Don’t come back. I don’t want to see your face again.”
The man nodded. “I will. I mean, I’ll go, and I won’t come back.”
For a moment, no one moved, and I was beginning to think Kash had changed his mind.
But then he lowered the gun and used it to point at the darkness. “Go.”
The man stumbled backward, not taking his eyes off Kash before spinning around and running. He tripped almost immediately but kept from face-planting by catching himself with his hands. Clumsily, he stood back up and started running again.
Kash slid his gun back beneath his jacket, where he had pulled it from, and waited until the man was out of sight before turning around.
“Did he touch her?” Forge asked.
“No,” Kash clipped out while glaring at his brother.
“What the fuck, man? You can’t put a gun to a man’s head over looking at her.”
Kash’s jaw ticced, and his eyes narrowed. “I didn’t ask you, did I?”
Forge shook his head, as if exasperated. Still, he didn’t seem at all concerned that his younger brother had a gun.
“Jesus,” he muttered, then started off into the parking lot.
Kash’s gaze cut to me and immediately softened. “You okay?” he asked.
“No, you scared the shit out of her,” Forge called out as he continued walking away.
The concern in his gaze was nothing like the coldness that had been there when he turned around. “Fuck,” he muttered and quickly closed the space between us. “I’m sorry,” he told me as he cupped my face with his hand. “I didn’t think about how that would upset you. I should have.”
I blinked up into his beautiful face. I’d always known there was a darkness in his eyes at times. But I hadn’t thought … well, I hadn’t thought that it meant he was dangerous. Was he? Pirate had warned me that I should keep my distance from Kash, but I’d ignored him. Did he know something that I didn’t?
He brushed my lower lip with the pad of his thumb. “I don’t like anyone looking at you. I know what they see and what they’re thinking. I don’t like it. You’re mine.”
When I shivered this time, it wasn’t from fear but the deep timber in his voice when he said I was his. I had never wanted anything more.
“You … you have a gun,” I said before he made me forget everything I’d just witnessed.
He sighed. “Yeah, little Songbird, I do. There’re some things about me you don’t know. It’s probably time I tell you. But I need you to promise me that it won’t change the way you feel about me.”
Nothing could change that, I realized. Even after what I witnessed, I wasn’t scared of him. I wanted to get in his truck and go down to the lake he always took me to so we could be alone. It was where he’d first touched me. Taken off my clothes. It was where he’d taken my virginity. Where he’d told me he loved me.
“I love you,” I said honestly. “That will never change.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “That’s good, baby.”
Present Day
My eyes flew open, as if someone had said my name. The room was dark still. It wasn’t morning yet. I glanced at the clock on the bedside table to see it said three fifteen. I felt it then. The presence in the room.
Turning over, I sat up quickly, and my eyes began to scan the darkness. When they landed on the figure sitting in the chair to the right of the bed, I covered my mouth to muffle my scream. Because I knew that face. I’d been dreaming about him.