Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I opened my mouth to say something else, but before I could, something changed in Drake’s panicked eyes.
He reached for me.
“We’ll just do it this way.”
Then he slammed my head so hard against the steering wheel, so fast and hard, that it was the last thing I remembered.
In the darkness, the terror was gone and things weren't as they seemed.
***
Dante
If I never relived the last moments of my wife and childrens’ deaths in my dreams, my life would be perfect.
I scrubbed my hands down my face, trying to clear my mind of the last of the nightmare that I had while I tried to catch an hour of sleep on my office couch.
Even now, twenty minutes later, I was still feeling the effects of that chilling dream.
I was driving to make a pick-up before heading home to pick up my girls, and my heart was still pounding.
I relived my worst nightmares in my dreams, over and over again.
Or I should say, I used to before Cobie came into the picture.
Now, though, I had a woman who woke me when the shadows crept in.
Then again, that woman did a lot of things for me I was just now realizing.
For instance, washing my clothes. Once she learned that Lily used to do it the same way as she did, Cobie changed up her habits. She started folding them differently than she had been doing for years just so I didn’t have a reminder of that loss whenever I looked at my folded clothes. She didn’t do this because I had asked her to or because she didn't want me to remember Lily, but because she was trying to slow the barrage of memories in an attempt to make sure I didn't have fucking panic attacks.
Then there was the way she completely rearranged her life to revolve around mine. She kept Mary while I worked days and nights and whenever in between. I didn't ask her to take over Mary's care—she naturally stepped into the role of her mother because she wanted to and because she loved Mary as much as I did.
I was so focused on how Cobie cured me of some of my demons that I didn't see the car that was stalled on the side of the road until I'd nearly missed it.
“Shit.” I slowed down.
Then I backed up and stopped until the truck's hitch was inches away from the car's bumper.
I'd done this so many times over the years that it was ingrained in me where I needed to stop to make it easiest to hitch up the car.
Getting out, I hooked it up in a matter of moments, secured the vehicle, and then was back in my truck a few minutes after I'd parked.
My phone was ringing when I got back inside, momentarily confusing me.
It was so late at night that nobody should be calling me. Dispatch would call, sure, but they'd do that on my radio, not on my personal phone.
Hitting the answer button without looking at who it was, I placed it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Finally!”
I frowned and pulled the phone away from my head, looking at the display.
Cobie?
“Who is this?”
“It was so fuckin easy.”
A cold chill slithered down my spine.
“Who is this?” I repeated.
“Your worst nightmare.”
Something inside me snapped, and I snarled out, “You have no fucking clue what my worst nightmares are!”
“Oh, but I kinda do.”
I started to say something, but the sound of flesh hitting flesh stopped me.
“Don't.”
I didn't recognize my own voice.
“Sorry, too late. You ruined me, so I'm gonna ruin you.”
Then he started to laugh. “Bet you didn't know that it was me with your wife, too.”
Everything inside me stilled. “I’d had a few problems. I was thinking about the kid, and whether I was making the wrong decision leaving him in the back of my car all day. Not like I could do anything. But still.”
Bile started to work its way up my throat, and I sat there, frozen, as I tried to decide what to do.
I couldn’t hang up and call the cops…that would make it to where I no longer had him on the line. And I knew I needed to keep him on the line.
“Where are you?”
I didn’t want to hear anything about what he was talking about, but Drake acted like he didn’t hear my question. He continued with his story.
“I ran that kid off the road toward your sister’s car. It was an accident, of course. They blamed it on the kid texting and driving, but I was the one who’d caused her to lose control.”
And then I heard what sounded like a door opening. Followed by Mary’s screams.
“You hear that?”
I put the truck in gear, momentarily forgetting that I had a car semi-attached to the back of my truck, and started to roll forward.
The jerk of the chains on the car had me glancing in the rearview mirror, but I still didn’t stop.