Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Someone would be there within a few minutes to help her if she needed it.
Joss wouldn’t get the chance to try to take her back again.
There were other extreme measures available, too. Ones I’d seen King use for clients who were facing a real threat like a stalker or exes who wouldn’t accept that their wives or kids were off-limits to them.
Trackers attached to cars. Apps on their phones. Other types of trackers that the wife and kids wore in carefully disguised necklaces or bracelets that the police would follow in an emergency to recover them before anything bad happened.
And as much as a part of me wanted to mention the latter to AJ, I didn’t want to push it too far. Or make her even more paranoid than she clearly already was.
Besides, I was here now.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
I didn’t keep weapons in the house, since it seemed unconscionable to do so in a home that would be empty most of the time. But I was starting to wonder if I should head on over to the biker compound and get myself one or two to keep around. Then maybe teach AJ how to use them.
I mean, it was one thing to have an abusive ex.
It was another to have one who was actively stalking you, tracking you down no matter how many times you moved.
It wasn’t really a question of if Joss would find her again. It was when. And I wanted us to be prepared for that eventuality.
But I didn’t want to overwhelm her all at once. She agreed to the security system. I would get that in the works. After that was done, I could start to mention other things that I personally thought might be good ideas.
Trackers.
Weapons.
Maybe even some basic self-defense classes. Or advanced ones, if she ended up liking them. We had a world-class self-defense gym in town run by two badass women. Going there, spending time with those women, it might help her gain more confidence. If nothing else, it would teach her how to ensure that she would never be at a man’s mercy ever again.
Across the table, AJ’s free hand rose, covering her mouth as she let out the third yawn in a row.
“You need to get some sleep,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze. “You’re not going in today, are you?” I asked, looking at the clock. She would normally be heading into work in just a couple of hours.
“I’m going to go in this afternoon for a few hours, so Tucker can go catch a few hours of sleep in his van to do the overnight tonight.”
That place was understaffed. There were a couple of part-time employees who were around, but the main staff seemed to just be AJ, the single mom Ella, and the genius/van-life dude Tucker. It wasn’t enough to cover the nights when they had boarders.
And some selfish part of me wanted her home at night.
I wanted to tell myself that I wanted her home for safety. But that place locked down at night with her inside of it.
It wasn’t about that.
It was pure selfishness. I just wanted her home with me at night.
Especially once the cast was off, and I was able to be more mobile.
And, yeah, my mind went to other things at night. Because there were plenty of positions I could swing that wouldn’t hurt my leg too much. Or, at least, I could tolerate the pain.
I was getting ahead of myself.
I now understood how delicate the topic of sex could be to someone who’d been abused. She hadn’t exactly shared a lot of details with me about their sex life, but she’d told me enough to know that it never seemed to be an enjoyable thing for her.
And it sounded like Joss was the only man she’d ever been with.
There was so much I had to show her, to share with her.
But it was something I knew we’d probably have to ease into. Maybe have some less-than-comfortable conversations about.
The interest was there, on both our parts. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be something she needed to think about and work toward.
“Alright. Go crash. Do you want me to wake you up at any particular time?” I asked, watching as she turned to the clock, hemming and hawing it.
“One-thirty, if I’m not up yet. That should give me enough time to function. I can crash when I get home later again.”
“Got it,” I said.
Then both of us stood there for a beat, seeming to each want to say something, do something, but unable to figure out what. Until, eventually, she turned and walked down the hall, closing her bedroom door with a quiet click.
Alone, I pulled myself up to stand, resting a small amount of weight on my cast as I did the dishes, then used the chair to tidy up the rest of the space before making her something to bring to work later. Then finally, getting back on the couch and calling Kingston’s office.