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"Yes It’s incredible"

"It’s a memorial to my mother"

"I’m so sorry that she passed, too--I had wondered--"

"Oh, she’s still alive Living in a rich gentle her keep on her back like any other prostitute" His brows sank so low, his eyes all but disappeared "So yeah,before he was killed"

"He loved her that much," she said sadly "Oh, Axe …"

"I hate that kitchen I hate every one of those fucking leaves and the dumb-ass roses he carved for a female who didn’t want him--and Christ, you should see what’s in the base on all these figurines after ht played over features that were harsh with anger "Thatpathetic, the way he mourned her She leaves hiusted with their life as a family that she didn’t even bother to take any of her clothes or her things And what does he do? Collapses inI one about his life"

Elise shook her head "How old were you?"

"It was before raded us like ere stereo equipht-track tape player when she wanted to be with an iPod She never looked back--and ot stuck, always convinced she was going to walk through that door at any ht back into place by his side and h Come on We lived in this shitty little house, with a beater for a car and his rough workman’s hands on her Her son? I was this scrawny little shit" He shook his head "But I grew up fast after she pissed us away I wasn’t going to lad she stayed away I don’t knohere she is and I don’t fucking care--shit, I wish they’d killed her in the raids"

Elise took a deep breath "I can i and your father for deserting you as well"

Axe shrugged "He didn’t leave, though He fed me Kept a roof over my head But he was too wrapped up in his fantasy of her and her divine return--" He frowned and focused on her properly "I can’t believe I’ a risk, she reached out and stroked his arot to believeand I’ll prove it"

One by one, Axe cracked his knuckles, the hugeas he did "I took a lot of drugs Afterhere with h none of it was his fault He was a good male, a little on the soft side, ot for a shellan More than what he got for a son"

"You were a child As children, we have to survive, so we contort ourselves into whatever farow up in We are forced to cope and sometimes it’s in ways that harm us"