Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
He left her alone, more confused than ever before.
Chapter Four
“This is bullshit,” Dwayne said.
Caleb stared at him. He watched his young nephew bend over and take several deep breaths. It was still dark out, and of course it was cold. Caleb didn’t give a fuck though. Dwayne asked for his help, and he was merely providing it.
“What do you think is bullshit?”
“This. This is not what you and Beast do. I want to know the good stuff. Not freezing my balls off just for a fucking jog,” Dwayne said.
There were a million different things he’d love to be doing right now. Babysitting this pansy ass wasn’t one of them.
“Go home.” Caleb turned his back, ready to go home himself. He wondered if Faith was already up, or if she’d still be asleep. There were a few times he’d gone to check on her, and watched her sleeping, in a totally non-creepy kind of way.
“Caleb,” Dwayne said, sounding like a whiny little girl.
The sound of his nephew’s voice was really starting to grate on his last nerve. “What, Dwayne? What the fuck is your problem?”
“Is it wrong that I just want you to teach me the guns, the weapons, the business?”
Caleb rounded on him. “You can’t even hack it running laps at five in the morning. You’re nowhere near ready to handle the kind of shit we deal with. I doubt you ever will be. You’re too much of a lazy ass.”
“I can run the fucking laps.”
“Then prove it,” Caleb said, yelling now. They were alone in the park and had been for the past hour. “I haven’t got time for you to tell me what you can do. I want to see it.”
“I’ve been running with you for months, and you’ve not changed what we do.”
Caleb stared at Dwayne. There had been several times over the years that he told Beast he needed to be harder with him.
He understood wanting to give the kid a childhood, but he was eighteen now. There was no way that he’d trust this little shit with his back, or the business. All it would take was someone who had a little drive to take Dwayne out, and that didn’t sit well with him. He hadn’t liked being born into a criminal family that owned brothels, fight clubs, drugs, and many other illegal businesses, but this was what he did. It was in his blood. Lives depended on him being tough and not taking shit from anyone.
Grabbing Dwayne around the neck, he pinned him against the nearest tree. “You may be used to getting your own way with Beast, but that’s not going to cut it here. As far as I’m concerned, you’re so far away from a person I need by my side, you’ve not got a chance of being part of this world. You can’t take a simple run every single day without moaning about it. I can’t have you at risk of ruining other lives. It’s not just about the run. It’s about being able to withstand the kind of torture that can be thrown your way, while you wait for Beast or someone else to help you out, and people want to get information out of you. So you can take the pain, the beating, a couple of stabs, hell, even a few bullet holes, waiting. You don’t talk. No matter what kind of pain they deliver to you, the people you hurt, the Carson name remains strong. You don’t fall against your enemies. You don’t beg them to stop.” He stared Dwayne up and down. “You’d crumble within the first few minutes. You don’t know how to take the pain. You don’t know how to keep your fucking mouth shut. You’re a disgrace to the Carson name, so no, I won’t have you anywhere near our line of work. The best you’d get is dishing out donuts at the mall.” He released Dwayne’s neck.
Without another word, he spun on his heel and left, jogging back toward his home. Beast would be pissed at him, but this was the way it had to be.
He entered the code that opened the gates to his home, being sure to lock them behind him. Nodding at his security detail, he went toward the back. Anne wasn’t up yet, but he paused, catching sight of Faith as she leaned against the counter in a nightshirt. In her hands, she held the e-reader, and she looked so engrossed that for a few moments, he watched her. She’d pulled her hair back, exposing the scar for him to see.
It wasn’t an ugly scar, not to him anyway. The harsh redness had long since faded, and most of the time she hid it behind her hair. To Caleb, the scar was a sign of strength. She’d been through a lot in her years, and because of that, it made her the woman she was today.