Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Clara looked confused but did as he said. Cowboy gunned out of the competitors’ parking lot. He pulled out onto the road and started heading for the ranch. My leg slammed up and down. My blood was rushing through my veins at the speed of fucking light. I couldn’t calm down. I just kept seeing those cunts in my head. All the shit they’d done . . . their fucking tattoos.
Their motherfucking white power tattoos.
“What the hell happened?” Sia asked, clearly shaken up if her voice was anything to go by. Her hand was trembling as she put it to my face. I snapped my head back and watched her eyes fill with tears. “Hush . . . the things they said to you . . .” She tried to take my hand, but I pulled away. She couldn’t right now. I was losing my shit. I needed to calm down. But the minute I thought of that asshole calling me a fucking mongrel, a fucking half-breed, everything I had fought so hard to try to put behind me came rushing to the surface.
It was like I was sixteen again. The fucking target they messed and toyed with for fucking fun until it had ruined my motherfucking life.
“Calm down, Val,” Cowboy ordered from the driver’s seat. My eyes shot to him, and all I could think of were the times when he would be with them. Laughing at me, watching them punch me to the ground.
Turning to Sia, I hissed, “Ask Cowboy who they were.”
The cab was silent. Only broken when Cowboy warned, “Don’t. Don’t fucking do this, Val.”
But I couldn’t stop. I knew what he had done for me. I knew he walked away from all that shit back there and chose me. Fuck, he left his parents after it all happened . . . when I lost them . . . when I fucking fell apart . . . but I couldn’t calm down. All I could see were their white-power tattoos; all I could hear were the fucking racist slurs that fell out of their mouths as easily as breathing. Them, living in their rich-ass mansions, riding their horses, strutting around town like they were motherfucking gods. While we struggled and scrimped, until . . . until—
Cowboy stopped the truck out front of Sia’s house. I slammed out of the door, ignoring the dizziness I was beginning to feel. I moved right then left, unsure how to get these fucking feelings of rage from my head. “Hush.” I saw Sia, hands over her mouth, watching me from the side of the truck.
Cowboy approached me. “Val. I’m fucking serious. Calm down. You’re losing it. It’s fucking dangerous!” Cowboy lurched for me and began dragging me into the house. I heard Sia running behind us.
“Cowboy! Stop! You’ll hurt him!”
But Cowboy didn’t stop until he put my ass down on the couch. It was the only time I ever saw him this serious. When I got like this. His hands pressed down on my shoulders. “Calm, brother. Please . . . just calm the fuck down.” I saw him flick a worried glance to Sia, who was watching, face pale and bewildered, from the door. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t fucking sit still. I threw his hands away and got to my feet.
Cowboy tried to come for me, but I pushed my hand out. Dizziness this time made me reach out for something to stop me from falling. I tasted that familiar metallic taste in my mouth. I turned to see Cowboy moving for me, Sia crying . . . but my eyes rolled back, then it all went black.
*****
“Cowboy! Please, let me get a doctor!” A thick fog clouded my head, a storm raging in my mind as the sound of voices drifted into my ears.
“No, cher,” Cowboy’s voice replied. “He don’t need one.”
I slipped away again. The next time I returned, the sounds in the room were stronger. My eyes felt heavy as I tried to open them. My arms and legs felt like ten-ton weights.
“Val?” Hands moved to my face. “Val, I’m here.” I recognized Cowboy’s voice. I breathed and breathed until the weights in my eyes lessened enough for me to open my eyelids. My vision was blurred at first, but then everything started to clear.
“Val?” Cowboy’s face came into view. I blinked in the room, my head spaced and my body exhausted. I was lying on my side, a pillow under my head. Cowboy was his on knees. His hand was on my head. “Hey, mon frère,” he said, and I took a deep breath. I squinted my eyes, trying to remember what the hell had happened.
I couldn’t remember. Everything was lost to the thick fog I couldn’t clear from my head. I tried to move, but my arms were too weak. My mouth was dry. I licked my tongue out along my lips, and then I heard her.