Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69785 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69785 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I frowned. “He’s visiting with Sadler, whom we detained in the parking lot. I caught him red-handed. He’s not going to be making any more surprise appearances, so you can rest easy on that.”
She sighed in relief. “I knew you’d protect me. I also knew you’d figure it out without me having to tell you.” She winced. “Zach was like, super-duper mad that I wasn’t telling you that I remembered you,” she informed me. “I’m sorry that I had to lie, but that man scares the holy hell out of me. And I didn’t want him to pull a gun out on you and surprise you.”
My eyes softened.
“Zach used to date a woman that was hit by a car,” I explained softly, moving until my right ass cheek was resting on the edge of her bed, my hand now resting on her good leg. Which was comical since it was the one that was broken the last time that she’d been beat up. She now had two bad legs, no matter how you looked at it. “When the woman recovered, she no longer had memory of her time spent with Zach. It’s a hard subject for him.”
I saw the moment it registered on her face. Then I felt bad for telling her because I knew that she felt badly in return.
“I still stand by what I did,” she sighed. “But I would’ve been a little more nice about it when he asked me after you left the room. But the thought of Sadler shooting either of y’all was abhorrent to me.”
“We’re okay, baby,” I said softly, twirling a piece of her hair around my big calloused finger.
“He won’t get out of your reach?” She yawned, and her lip started to bleed again.
I dabbed it with a paper towel.
At her last comment, her eyes grew heavy, and for the first time since she woke up, I could tell that things weren’t hurting as badly on her since she’d gotten the dose of pain meds from the nurse.
What little I could see of her eyes looked glazed.
“I’m tired,” she admitted.
I brushed a piece of matted hair out of her face.
“Then go to sleep,” I suggested.
She widened her eyes.
“I’ve already missed a whole half a day of seeing you,” she said softly. “I don’t want to miss anymore.”
I pulled up the closest chair and planted my ass in it.
“Will you hold my hand?” she asked, indicating the one that I’d held twenty-four hours ago while broken.
“Yeah,” I confirmed as I picked her hand up in mine and then closed my fingers around her delicate ones. “I can do that.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “I love you, Trick.”
She didn’t hear my reply because she was already asleep.
“I love you, too,” I vowed.
CHAPTER 24
I Googled my symptoms. Turns out, I just need my hair done.
-Swayze’s secret thoughts
SWAYZE
2 months later
I was bound and determined to go into work today.
In fact, I already had my route planned out.
I just needed to make sure to wait for the man in my life to leave first before I did it. Otherwise, he’d stop me before I even got started.
“Whatcha doin’ today?” I asked carefully. “Where are you off to so early?”
Trick looked at me in bed, practically naked but for Trick’s shirt and my cast, and said, “Why are you asking?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Because normally you don’t get out of this bed until nine. Now I’m suspicious since you got up early, and you won’t tell me where you’re going.”
Trick grinned at me.
“I’m going to the courthouse to watch when Sadler’s brought in on charges,” he answered. “Then, I’m going to find Ignacia. I heard that she was back in town. And I want to impart a few things, hopefully help her relieve her conscience about what she’s done wrong in her life. Let her know that it would be prudent for her to turn herself in.”
“Ignacia is back in town? Since when?” I found myself asking.
He shrugged. “I don’t actually know. Hunt called me this morning during my run to tell me that she was sighted back at her rental house. He’s got eyes on it, though. He’ll make sure not to lose her.”
After everything had gone down in that alley a few months ago, followed shortly by me receiving the ass kicking of a lifetime, Ignacia had gone missing. Now she was back, and I hoped that they knew what they were doing. Ignacia had a lot to pay for.
I sighed.
“But what if I wanted to go get something to eat?” I asked. “How am I supposed to eat, Trick?”
The whiny question had my boob, which was covered by his shirt—which happened to be my only covering whatsoever—going haywire.
I hadn’t worn a bra in three weeks.
Granted, they’d cut off my favorite one and I hadn’t had a chance to replace it.