Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67468 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“What happens next?” she rasped once I had her wrapped in my arms, both of us dressed again, and her fully checked over with a marginally good bill of health.
She was in a T-shirt, sweatpants, long socks that had once been my football socks that came up past her knees, and a sweatshirt. The sweatshirt was one I’d worn my eighth-grade year, and it still fit her big.
Honestly, I wondered why I still had it in the drawers in my room, but I imagined my mom kept almost everything that I ever owned after my family’s death. Unable to give up anything, just in case life hit her across the jaw with a proverbial fist again.
“We’re calling the cops,” I insisted.
I fully expected her to vehemently deny that, but she surprised me by acquiescing almost immediately.
She nodded against my chest when I noted her shoulders deflate and pulled her into me. “That might be good.”
Having her in my arms just felt right. Like that was exactly where she needed to be. The knowledge that life had dealt her a hard hand tonight wasn’t how I wanted her to get in my arms, though.
I looked down at her curiously.
Her being agreeable was really messing with my fucking head.
She was never agreeable.
As in, I knew that there was something really wrong if she was giving in to me without a fight.
Once she was fully and completely dressed, zero skin being exposed anywhere, the last thing I wanted to do was go out into the living room where I could hear the men of my club talking.
I did so anyway, surprised when I came out and found not just Dutch, but the rest of the women that belonged to club members as well. Matilda was on the couch, her arms wrapped tight around her body, looking at us as we walked into the living room with her heart in her eyes.
Diana was on the arm of the couch next to Bain, his arm resting in her lap, looking at us with a mixture of anger and shock.
The men didn’t look much better. All of them had signs of barely contained anger simmering deep in their veins, ready to be unleashed at the first sign of a target to annihilate.
Dutch’s eyes met mine, and I could see without her voicing it that she was here in case Alice needed to talk.
I nodded once, then said, “Y’all get the cops on the way?”
“Called Sunny,” Wake murmured, his eyes on Alice. “He’ll be here as soon as he can. That murder that they’re working down at the port was bad. A couple had been moving from the cruise ship to their car when someone ambushed them, knocked the guy out, and…”
Hurt the girl.
I growled as Alice’s body curled into mine, her face practically burrowing into the gap that my arm made with my back.
I lifted my arm, wrapped it around her shoulders, and pulled her into me so that her face was buried in my chest.
The shivering was damn near breaking my heart.
“Kobe,” I said carefully. “Will you call my contact, her name is Folsom, and ask her to look into the cameras at The Marina?”
Kobe nodded his head, then held his hand out for my phone. I handed it to him without thought, more worried about Alice in that moment than what Kobe would think about Folsom, or what Folsom would think about him.
I had a feeling they’d get along like oil and water, but my thoughts weren’t focusing on them at the moment.
“I ordered food,” Matilda said. “I’m not sure if you’re hungry or not, Alice, but food always makes me feel better.”
Alice sniffled into my shirt as she said, “If it’s something with carbs in it, I’m sure it will.”
“I don’t bother with anything that doesn’t have carbs in it,” Matilda admitted. “You only have one life to live. Why do it without the beauty of processed sugars?”
Sniffling hard, Alice turned her face so that her head was lying flat against my chest instead of buried in it. Her eyes met Matilda’s as she said, “Thanks.”
“I can call your brother,” I found myself saying.
She was instantly shaking her head and pushing her head back so that she could look directly into my face.
“Don’t tell Silvy until he’s done for the night,” she insisted.
I looked at her, ready to argue, but saw the insistence in her eyes and the set of her jaw. She wanted her brother to focus on the murder and the possible murderer that was running through town right now. I understood that.
But Silvy would be fuckin’ pissed when he heard that nobody told him.
“Folsom is a piece of work,” Kobe muttered as he handed me back my phone. “She thought that I’d murdered you and had to tap into the cameras here and watch us all arrive peacefully. Only after confirming you were not coerced or kidnapped would she even start to look into the cameras at The Marina.”