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)
Was I still asleep? I had to be. He couldn’t be in my bedroom in the middle of the night.
“You still talk in your sleep.” That familiar voice soothed me, although I knew it shouldn’t.
I slowly removed my hand from my mouth as I stared at him. This felt real. Like I was awake. But how could I be?
“Kash.” I whispered his name.
“You know any other fucker who could sneak into your bedroom at night so successfully?”
No. Only him.
“Wh-what are you doing here?”
He smirked. “Hell if I know. I’m a stupid motherfucker. I’ll blame it on the whiskey.”
“How did you find me?”
A low chuckle filled the silence. “Come on now, Songbird. You know that answer. Did you think you could hide from me? Right under my nose at that.”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t—I mean—I …” I stammered, not sure what I was trying to say.
His words confused me. Had he meant my living in Madison again?
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Why don’t you start with telling me why you’re living at Aunt Glenda’s?”
Aunt? I frowned.
“What?”
“You heard my question.”
“Aunt … Glenda?” I repeated hesitantly.
He nodded his head. “Not my aunt exactly. She’s Bane and”—he paused for a moment—“Crosby’s great-aunt.”
Cash. Bane and Crosby Cash. Oh my God.
“Grissele …” I said her name slowly.
“Yeah. What about Grissele?” he asked.
He knew her.
That meant, “She’s Bane and Crosby’s mother,” I said, guessing the truth.
He nodded. “Yep. Now, why’re you living at her aunt’s house?”
I stared at him in shock. “I … I don’t know,” I whispered, trying to put everything together in my head.
Had Grissele known who I was that day in the diner? Was this a coincidence? Or not?
“Let me ask this another way,” he drawled. “How do you know Glenda?”
“I … I work for her. I’m her sitter. I take her places. When you saw me Tuesday, I was getting her dry cleaning.”
His scowl deepened. “Why are you in Madison, working as a sitter for an old lady? You were in college, getting your music degree. Why aren’t you doing something with it?”
Because my life had fallen apart, along with my family, when he killed Pirate. But he didn’t get to know all that.
“Things changed,” I said simply.
“Why are you working here?” His tone was demanding.
I wasn’t afraid of him, but I was afraid of the family.
“Grissele hired me. She had come to the diner I was working at and offered me the job. I didn’t know who she was.” Or I’d never have taken this job.
“When?”
“The Saturday after Thanksgiving.”
He let out a humorless laugh and shook his head. “Bastards,” he muttered. “The day before I got here. They didn’t trust me.”
He wasn’t talking to me—at least, it didn’t seem like it.
“So, she knew who I was when she came to the diner?”
He nodded. “Yeah, she knew. Grissele wouldn’t have offered this job to some stranger in a diner. This is her only living relative other than her immediate family. Her parents are dead, and Glenda is all she has left of that side of her family. You were placed here so that the family could watch you while I was in town.” He shook his head again and leaned back.
“Why are you back in Madison?” he asked me then.
I wasn’t telling him that.
“Because I needed a new start. I …” Pausing, I thought about what I was comfortable telling him because I had to give him some reason or he’d keep asking me. “It was time I moved out of my father’s house. My stepmother didn’t want me there, and I didn’t want to be there.”
“Your parents divorced?”
I stiffened. “My mother is dead.”
For a moment, there was a flicker of pain in his eyes. “I’m sorry. What happened? Was she sick?”
Yes, but not the way he meant.
“She drowned,” I told him, not wanting to give him the details.
We sat in silence for a few moments. The text from earlier today came back to me, and panic tightened my throat.
“You need to leave,” I told him. “I got a text earlier, warning me to stay away from you. I didn’t know how they had my number since it’s a phone that I only use for contact with Glenda when she needs me. But I guess that’s cleared up.”
He stood. “Where’s the phone?” he asked.
I pointed to the dresser across the room.
He immediately went over to it. “What’s the password?”
“I don’t lock it.”
He opened it up and began tapping at things and going through it. “Fuckers,” he muttered. “They’re tracking you.”
I didn’t ask who. I knew.
“It doesn’t matter. All I do is go places for Glenda.”
“Where’s your other cell phone?”
“I don’t have one.”
He lifted his gaze to look at me. “You don’t have a personal phone?”
I shook my head.
“What happened to your phone before you took this job?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and straightened my back. “I didn’t have one,” I replied tightly.