Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 78227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Quick and dirty. That’s what morning sex is all about. And God, I love it.
I’m in heaven inside her. She truly has heaven between her legs.
I kiss her lips, her neck, the tops of her breasts, and before I know it—
“God, Rory!”
I’m releasing inside her, emptying myself—heart, soul, and body—into her.
I stay inside her for a few moments, and then I turn to my side.
“Mmm,” she says. “Such a nice way to wake up.”
“We can wake up that way every morning, sweetheart, as soon as you move in with me.”
“I’m going to. When we get back from this tour.”
“Good. That’s good.”
Except…
Should I let her move in with me?
Will she be safe there?
Brittany Sheraton got into the main house to leave that stuff for Donny.
Uncle Bryce is supposedly finding a new security company for us, but when will that actually happen?
Rory crawls into my arms.
“Your muscles were so tense last night, Brock.”
I don’t reply. No big surprise there given my last thirty-six hours.
“Do you want to talk?” she asks.
Do I? I don’t want any secrets from Rory, but I sure as hell don’t want to put her in danger either.
“It’s so much,” I say.
“It’s up to you. You can tell me or not. It’s okay either way.”
I rub at my hairline. “It’s just…”
“It’s okay,” she says again.
“I saw a side of my father yesterday. A side I didn’t like very much.”
She tenses against me. “Oh?”
“Yeah. My father is a strong man, and he can hold his emotions at bay, except when he gets really angry.”
“Oh my God. He doesn’t…”
“No, of course not. He’s never hurt me or my brother or my mother. But he’s put his fist through more than one wall.”
“I see.”
“Dale and Donny coined the term Red Joe. Sometimes he lets his rage get to him. I’m used to it. I know he’ll never hurt anyone he loves. I know he’ll never hurt anyone, period. At least…I thought I knew that.”
“What happened, Brock?”
“In Wyoming, we confronted Doc and Brittany. But there was only one way, in my father’s eyes, to get the information he felt we needed.”
“Okay…” Rory’s voice shakes slightly.
“No one was hurt, Rory. But…my father was different. He pulled a gun on Doc Sheraton.”
Rory tenses, moves away from me.
“Hey…”
“I’m okay,” she says. “I’m fine.”
“Are you? Because it’s okay if you’re not. I sure as hell wasn’t when I witnessed it.”
“Yeah. But… Did you get what you needed?”
“We did. Doc Sheraton is doing some nasty stuff on the property that he leases from us.”
“And Brittany?”
“Brittany…” I shake my head. “I never would’ve pegged her for being as smart as she actually is.”
“She was smart enough to figure out how to tranquilize Callie and me all those years ago.”
“True, but she had been watching her father tranquilize animals for years. It probably wasn’t that difficult to figure out the dosage for two teenaged girls.” I sigh. “She’s a good actress, Rory. But something didn’t feel right to me. I almost doubted my instinct, but in the end, I was right.”
Rory sits up in bed then. “You’re going to have to start at the beginning, Brock, because I’m not following any of this.”
“Right.”
“It’s okay if you can’t tell me.”
I cup her cheek, thumb her soft flesh. “I don’t want to keep secrets from you, Rory. You’re my future. I can’t have secrets from you. I swear to God I’ll never keep secrets from our children either. I mean, when they’re young, we’ll decide together what to tell them, but no way are they going to grow up like I did, having no idea of their family history.”
“I agree with you. And I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through all of this.”
“Sweetheart, we’re both going through stuff.”
“My father is going to be fine, and as for the rest, it’s high school crap. Just stupid high school drama that is rearing its ugly head ten years later.”
“And I’m thinking your high school drama is related to my family crap as well. But that’s something we’ll have to put together.”
“I agree. I think it’s related. I think Pat targeted Diana specifically, and it wasn’t because he knew you’d put up some reward that he could falsely claim. It was because he held a grudge against the Steel family.”
“I understand. He thinks he’s entitled to have been a Steel this whole time. And maybe he is…” I shake my head. “I just don’t fucking know, Rory. But let me tell you what went down in Wyoming.”
I steel myself as I explain to her everything that happened.
She listens. She tries not to react, and as a trained actress, she’s pretty good at it. She still drops her jaw more than once during my story.
“I would’ve thought the same thing,” she says. “I never would have pegged Brittany for having as big a part in all of it.”