Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 121728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“Then add in rehab, which isn’t cheap. Worse, every time she leaves and goes on a bender, when I find her and take her back, those thirty days start all over again. The last of my savings was spent on her latest inpatient program. That one cost me six grand. And the second she walked out that door, that money was gone. I can’t afford to do it any longer, but I also can’t afford not to. I refuse to give up on her.”
“You don’t have any help or support?”
“Our parents disowned her. I’ll give them credit, they did try in the beginning. But when they saw it was a losing battle, they threw up their hands and threw her out on the street to fend for herself. They marked their own daughter as a lost cause. They’ve tried to convince me to do the same.”
“But you can’t.”
“But I can’t,” she confirmed, her voice thick.
“Did it make her worse when your parents gave up on her?”
“It didn’t help. My fear is, if I give up, she’ll have no one left standing in her corner, fighting for her life. I care more about her than she cares about herself. Honestly—and this might be foolish of me—I had hoped once she hit rock bottom, she’d look up and see the light, then claw her way back to the surface where I’d be waiting to give her a hand. But no.”
“Of course not, because she can’t see the surface, she only focuses on drowning her troubles with the next hit. She’s chasing that next high.”
Sloane flinched at his brutal honesty, but he wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t know.
“I’m scared that the only thing left for me to do is bury her. I’d rather live in my car so I can pay for another stint in a rehab. I can accept being in debt. That loss is temporary. What I can’t accept is paying for a funeral. That loss will be permanent.”
It was time for him to get to the whole reason he’d searched her out. “I’m willing to stand with you in that corner so you’re not fighting alone.”
Confusion—and maybe a little distrust—filled her blue eyes. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I need help, too.”
Chapter Seven
I need help, too.
“What can you do that I’m not already doing?” Sloane asked the big man sitting on her bed. “Besides arrest her. And I don’t think being incarcerated will help her addiction. If anything, it might make it worse.” Plenty of drugs got into the prison system, so it wasn’t like getting locked up would force Sadie to get clean.
“You have to be smart about dealing with this MC, Sloane. Barging in and making demands or creating a scene will get you nowhere. If anything, it puts you at risk. And if something happens to you, who’s going to help Sadie? You already said you’re the only one fighting for her.”
“Then, what do you suggest?” She was willing to hear any ideas he had.
He shrugged. “Don’t break down the front door, sneak in the back.”
She blinked at his suggestion. “How?” And what did her sister have to do with him?
“That’s where I come in.”
“You want me to help you? By what? Pretending I’m your girlfriend or wife or something?”
“No.”
“Then, what? What can I offer?”
“Look, I have a deal for you. It would be temporary, of course, until you can get your sister straightened out.”
“What kind of deal?”
“I have a room.”
Why was he suddenly being so evasive? He was acting reluctant to offer this so-called deal to her, whatever it was.
“A room? Like a place for me to stay?” If so, the offer was not what she expected. At all. She figured it had something to do with him being undercover and not about supplying a roof over her head. “What’s the catch? Me sleeping with you?”
“No.” That question not only offended him, he also appeared annoyed.
Well, she did question his character by asking. “Let me get this straight. You’re going to offer me a place to stay without getting anything in return?” Something didn’t add up.
He needed to get to the point. Playing this game of twenty questions was not her idea of fun.
“No. I’ll work on breaking your sister free of the Demons—if that’s where she’s getting her drugs, which we both suspect she is—but I’ll need something from you in return so I can do that.”
“Will you get to it, please? I realize you’re trying to ease me into whatever this is, but the more you try, the more suspicious I’m getting.”
“I need someone to watch my niece.”
She blinked. What? Did she hear him correctly? “You mean like… a babysitter?”
He scratched at his beard and grimaced. Oh yes, he wasn’t a hundred percent certain about what he was offering. But then, she might not be the only desperate person in the room.