Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Nothing could have brought us down faster. Instantly, we broke apart. The sprint to his room took only a few seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. Each cry of dismay coming from Tai was heartbreaking.
“No, no, no. He’s still in there. Fuck!” Tai said as he thrashed on the bed.
I flipped the light on as Jack went to his brother and put a hand on his chest. His skin was slick with sweat. His face ashen. The black t-shirt and black sweats he was wearing were sopping. His breathing was rapid. Almost too rapid.
Going to his other side, I felt his skin. He was most definitely running a fever, which isn’t surprising since you run a high risk of infection with burns. Seeing as he should have still been in the hospital was another thing. He wasn’t healthy enough to be out, but Jack and I knew he needed us more.
I went to the living room, grabbed my purse, and searched around for the Tylenol. Finding it, I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and went back to the room to see Jack holding his brother in his arms, telling him something too soft for me to hear.
Tai’s eyes found mine as I approached his other side. Confusion clouded his eyes for a few moments before recognition dawned. Shaking himself once, he held out his hand when he saw me offering the Tylenol, crunched on them once, and then swallowed them dry.
Shaking the water at him I said, “I brought this for a reason.”
“How about some Jack instead?” He rasped.
His voice was hoarse from his yelling.
Jack leaned him back against the pillows gently, and then studied his face for a few moments before coming to a conclusion. “You’re coming home with me.”
“Fuck that. I’m staying.” Tai ground out.
They’d been like oil and water since the first time I’d met them. Jack was his father’s son, while Tai was most definitely not. Jack said that Tai changed when his sister died, and ever since then he’d been hard and unapproachable.
They loved each other, it was blatantly obvious. However, they fought as if they hated each other. Jack was hard and unrelenting when it came to his brother. Tai didn’t help matters. He was a partier when I’d first met him. Fucking away his college years with drinking and sex, while his dad paid for college that he couldn’t afford.
Jack had taken pity on his father and joined the army right out of high school. He knew he couldn’t add anything on his father’s plate. He had hospital bills out the wazoo from those three months that his daughter, Jack and Tai’s sister, was fighting for her life.
Although Catori had insurance, it wasn’t enough to cover the cost it took to keep her alive. Therefore, Mr. Stoker had taken it upon himself to help, but in the end it hadn’t been enough. She’d died despite the care she was getting and, according to Jack, her death is what started Tai into the downward spiral he’d taken.
However, that must have changed in the seven years I’d been gone, because now he was a firefighter. He had his own place. His own car. He also seemed to have a somewhat better relationship with his brother as well.
“I have to get back to work.” Tai gritted out through clenched teeth.
“You can’t work for another month. Something fucked up happened with that fire. You and I both know it. Adam knew it. The Chief knows it. Hell, even the damn media knows it. I want you safe while you heal.” Jack explained roughly.
My eyes went from Tai’s troubled ones to Jack’s stubborn ones. My brows wrinkled in confusion. This was the first time in four days that I had even thought about the fire that took Adam’s life. I hadn’t even been aware that it was suspicious in any way, which made me even more confused. Why was this the first time I was hearing about this?
Opening my mouth to say something, Jack’s sudden harsh frown stopped me in my tracks. Snapping my mouth shut, I gritted my teeth and waited to question him like the Spanish Inquisition.
“A week.” Tai said reluctantly.
Knowing that was about all he would get out of Tai, Jack stood and walked to the bedroom door. He held his hand out for me and waited, knowing I would come to him. Which I did. Placing my hand in his, he pulled me along, shutting the door behind him gently.
“Thank you for waiting.” He said quietly, as I followed in his wake.
I didn’t say you’re welcome, because honestly, I was still rather pissed that I was just now learning that something was wrong. “Whatever.”
“Uh, oh. That’s a deadly word in woman speak.” He said lightly as he closed the door behind us.
Walking to the lamp, I snapped it on and turned back to him. “Tell me.”
Letting out a slow breath, he sat down on the side of the bed and pulled me down beside him. “It was arson. Explosives were found in the underground parking garage. It was blatantly obvious, which I think was the point. Something Adam was doing was setting off alarm bells to whomever he had his sights set on. I’d called him and asked him to look into your sister and her ex-boyfriend; as well as your disappearance. I’d only had one call from him since then saying he wasn’t getting anything. Then I had the call that he was killed. It was most definitely not an accident, either. It was a call about a hurt child. There was never a child found. The child’s name was said to be Winter.”
The last of that explanation was dropped like a bomb, and my body went tight as a bow string. “What?”
He nodded in confirmation. “Yeah. We’re leaving tomorrow. I don’t feel comfortable having you here anymore.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to.” He said simply.
Okay.
“I guess you think that’s alright?” I asked with a forced serious tone.