Total pages in book: 178
Estimated words: 170884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 170884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
The air burned in my lungs. “You’re fucking crazy.”
He grinned then. “Guilty, baby.”
If chaos and fury were ever joined, Twitch would be the child born of the coupling. And what a crazy, beautiful hurricane he was.
My resolve was wavering at an alarming pace. I couldn’t deny I wanted him. The question was, was I senseless enough to let him back in?
Later that night, it took some convincing, but Twitch finally left, and as he did, he shook his head and sighed. It was after eleven when I got up to get a glass of water, and when I put the glass to my lips, my heart stuttered at the shadow sitting on the back porch.
My brows narrowed, as I muttered under my breath, “What the hell is he doing?”
Why is he hiding out there?
As quickly as the thought came, I recognized the error in my assumption.
He wasn’t hiding at all. He was waiting on me to find him.
Taking my glass of water, I unlocked the sliding door, stepping outside. Without a word, I came to sit on the top step, wrapping my kimono around my legs as I did. Twitch sat on the bottom step, and when he put something to his lips and a soft orange glow shone bright in the darkness, I glowered in the dark. “Are you serious?”
He took in a deep inhale of the joint, and when he blew it out, he said, “It’s for my glaucoma.”
My brows arched, and as he took another hit, I leaned forward and softened my tone. “You have glaucoma?”
He choked on his laugh, smoke billowing out of his mouth with every cough, and mortification turned me hot.
Oh my God. I was an idiot.
Twitch’s rough laughter went on and on, and the longer it went, a smile formed on my lips, and soon after, I was chuckling at my own stupidity. “Oh, shut up. I’m tired.”
As his laughter subsided, he muttered, “Fuck, I missed you.”
“You didn’t have to miss me.” I couldn’t help myself. I was hurting. “You could’ve just stayed.”
“You think if that was an option, I wouldn’t have been here?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
When I gazed over at him, he caught my eye a moment, before he uttered roughly, “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
The intensity of his gaze pierced me. “Like you hate me.”
Didn’t I?
Why didn’t I?
I lowered my hurt stare and sighed. It was time. “Let’s talk.”
Twitch took another hit of the joint before offering it to me. I hesitated, and he uttered, “It helps me sleep.”
I shook my head, but I wanted it so badly, somehow needing it to cope with the conversation ahead. I balled my hands into fists and refused politely. “I don’t do that anymore.” Memories of Twitch putting his lips to mine and lightly blowing the pungent smoke into my mouth as I inhaled the mix of drugs and the man himself had me heady.
My chest ached with the need to relive that. But I stood firm, denying that need.
“Why did you do it?” I spoke into the silent night.
He didn’t speak for a long while, and I wondered if he actually would. But then he started, and although it may not have been the explanation I wanted, it was an explanation nonetheless. “I never planned on things going the way they did. Never planned on wanting you the way I do, needing you the way I do. And once you were a drug coursing through my veins, I knew I’d do anything for you. Even disappear, if that’s what it took.”
My silence was an invitation to keep going, and he did. “I made some poor decisions in my time as king. Made enemies and didn’t care because I never planned to live past forty.” He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But that changed, and I knew if I claimed you openly, I’d be putting a target on your head.” He looked at me. “I need you to know I never intended to die on you, but when you sprung it on me that you were pregnant and that asshole shot me, it was an opportunity I couldn’t waste.”
I was so confused. “I don’t understand. What opportunity?”
“Spent a lot of time looking for people, clearing my streets of threats.” He shot me a look. “Purging the badness and getting myself to a position where coming back would mean nothing touched my boy.”
Oh my God. That sounded like he was telling me that he’d spent the last five years tracking people down and... murdering them. “Why are you telling me this?”
“You and I are now an open book.” His eyes held me firmly. “I hope you can handle that, baby, because some of the shit I’m going to tell you is fucked, even for me.”
My heart jolted. Was I ready for that? I didn’t know.