Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Ruthie,” Sawyer wailed. “I’m so glad you’re here! How’d you get out? I thought you had two more months!”
Ruthie clung tighter to Sawyer. “Your man is what happened. He worked some magic with the Warden. They were able to move up my release to today. And you should see how crazy that place is right now after he got rid of four guards. They had to go into lockdown for an hour because they were questioning every single guard there about their involvement. It made the five o’clock news!”
Sawyer’s eyes widened, then she turned her face up to my accusingly.
“What’d you do?” She hissed.
When I didn’t answer in enough time, she stood up and crowded in close to me.
“Tell me,” she growled.
I had to contain my smile.
She was like a little housecat with her ferociousness that bordered on suicidal.
It was refreshing to have someone stand up to me.
Normally, they backed off before they could get too close.
“It took some doing, but I started doing some research after hearing you cry about this in your sleep a few weeks ago. Then the night before last, when you were asleep in my arms, you spoke. I got two names out of that, and from there I was able to talk to your friend and get the rest,” I explained.
“Had you asked,” Sawyer hissed at me, poking me in the chest with one long finger. “I would’ve told you that I was never raped.”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
“So you weren’t raped…were you ever touched inappropriately? Was something done to you that you didn’t want to happen?” I asked carefully.
She snapped her mouth shut, moving her face from me to Ruthie.
“I handled it…we handled it,” she finally decided on.
My brows rose.
“And what about all those other women? So y’all protected yourselves…good. But what about the other women who don’t have what y’all had with each other? Where did that leave them?” I countered.
Her head dropped, and her shoulders dropped instantly in defeat.
“I don’t like this,” she whispered. “I’m going to have to go to a court hearing now and tell them what happened.”
I moved so my hand could cup her face.
“Because it’s the right thing to do. And it’ll make you feel better when they’re gone. And because you don’t want me to kill them and go to jail if you don’t,” I whispered to her.
Her eyes widened.
“You wouldn’t,” she challenged skeptically.
I smiled.
I would, and she knew it.
Not that I’d go to jail.
I had too many connections and knew too much for the charges to stick if I were caught, which wouldn’t ever happen.
I was too good to get caught.
“I think you know the answer to that,” I said, placing my lips against hers softly. “I’m going to leave you here to catch up with your friend. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She pressed her lips against mine and wrapped her hands around my shoulders.
“Thank you, Silas,” she said urgently. “Thank you so much.”
“What are you doing with my sister?” Dallas bellowed from behind us.
Fuck!
Chapter 14
Real women ride men who ride Harley’s.
- Fact of Life
Sawyer
“I asked you a fucking question, you cradle robbing son of a bitch!” Dallas continued.
“Jesus, Dallas, chill the fuck out!” I yelled a little too loudly.
Dallas and Bristol were at the back steps of their house, watching the five of us, taking us in and sizing us up.
Well, Bristol was.
Dallas was upset over something that was quite ridiculous.
“That’s your brother?” Ruthie whispered from behind me.
I looked at her over my shoulder.
“Yeah, that’s one of them, anyway. The oldest of the four of them,” I told her.
I’d yet to see the other three. They were all in the Army and each one was currently deployed.
Cole, Brody and Johnson were all the most badass badasses that I knew, and I was so damn proud of them that I could barely see straight.
I just wished I could have seen them in the past eight years.
Hand written mail just didn’t cut it sometimes.
Dallas, though, was making up for their lack of being there.
In spades.
“I asked you a fuckin’ question, old fuckin’ man!” Dallas continued to scream.
My eyes rolled over to Silas to see his eyes smiling, but his mouth set in a thin line.
“I guess we’re not a secret anymore,” I whispered. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell him that we’ve used his car as a ‘fuck stand.’”
He snorted and aimed his eyes down at me.
“You’re not helping,” he growled.
I shrugged. “I was always good at really fucking shit up,”
“Obviously,” Ruthie said.
Bristol finally broke from her husband, an official looking document in her hand.
“Um, this just came for you. I had to sign for it. It’s from the state,” she said, handing it to me.
I frowned, brows furrowing, and took it from her.
“What is it?” I asked worriedly.
The last time something official had been delivered, it was at the hands of two police officers saying I was being arrested for the death of those four people.
Scared as hell to open it, I clutched it to my chest and looked at Silas worriedly.
“It’s okay. Open it,” he urged.
My brows rose. “What is it?”
He smiled. “Just open it.”
So I opened it, with my brother fuming at my front, and Silas and Ruthie at my back, giving me silent encouragement.
And what I saw the minute my eyes met the paper astounded me.
“What…how…why…” my brain wasn’t working.
I couldn’t get my thoughts together.
“The charges against you have been dropped, and restitution has been delivered to you from the state,” Ruthie said in awe as she read over my shoulder. “$25,000 is all they’re going to give you for them being wrong? What the fuck is that supposed to be?”
“I don’t understand what’s going on. Why would I be proved innocent? I killed four people!” I burst out, surprising everybody.
“I don’t understand,” Dallas said, reluctantly adding his two cents into the conversation.
“How about we all take this inside, and I can explain. It wasn’t supposed to happen until next week,” Silas said. “I was going to ease everybody into this before it blew up in y’all’s faces.”