Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
“You did not!”
“I sure did,” I reply, taunting her with the jar. “What you gonna do about it, girlie?”
I see a fire rise in her eyes as she licks sauce from her lips. Like a wolf, she stalks forward, eyeing me as she begins to make her move.
“Oh, nothing…” she says slowly. “Just this!”
Becca lunges forward and snatches at the jar in my hand. I pull away, but at the same time, she throws herself onto me like a spider monkey, wrapping her legs around my waist and using both arms to grapple at my arm with all her strength.
“Oh, shit,” I laugh. “That’s not fair!”
“Give me that sauce!” she cries out.
“Never!”
I hold the jar out as far as I can, but Becca is wiry and scrappy and manages to bend my arm back and dunk one hand into the sauce. I duck, but it’s too late. With a triumphant cry, she smears my mother’s secret recipe straight into my hair.
“No!” I laugh as I go for broke and sink my other hand into the sauce. Cackling, Becca leaps off me and races across the room. But just as I’m about to chase after her, my cell phone rings. Frowning, I set the jar down on the table and use my clean hand to pull it from my pocket.
“Come on, big guy,” Becca teases. “Not going to let a little phone call get in the way of our battle, are you!?”
“It could be a business call,” I reply. But as I check the caller ID, I see it’s something much more important. “Shit. It’s the prison, which could mean only one thing. It’s your dad.”
9
Dax
Normally, I’d be psyched to be coming to visit my friend, but as the reinforced steel door buzzers, the guard nods to let me pass, and I step into the visitor’s room and see Jerry sitting behind bright-eyed behind glass waiting for me, all I can think is: traitor.
This man put me in charge of his daughter, the most important thing in his life, and gave me clear instructions not to put my hands on her. I agreed, and he trusted me, and then like any of the scumbags in this place, I went back on my word and stabbed him in the back.
As I step up to the glass and take my seat, I can barely look him in the eye.
There’s an old-fashioned phone receiver on my side that I pick up. Jerry lifts his and barks a cheerful greeting. “Aye there, pal! How the hell are ya?”
Pal, I think feeling my stomach drop. I don’t deserve that title any longer.
“How am I?” I ask, forcing a smile. “How are you? You’re the one doing the hard time.”
“Eh, easy time,” Jerry replies. He’s playing tough, but what else is he gonna say? “But that doesn’t mean I don’t wanna get outta here.”
“Ain’t the Four Seasons, right?”
“The room service could use a little work,” he chuckles. “So how’s my little girl doing?”
“She’s all right,” I reply, trying not to cringe at the question or let anything read on my face. Jerry and I go way back; he knows all my tells. This isn’t going to be easy.
“You tell her I was sorry I missed her birthday?” he asks.
“She knows,” I reply. “Come on, she knows that.”
“Yeah, I just,” Jerry makes a fist, pounds it on his knee. “Fuck. I just feel like I’m letting her down, you know?”
“You’re not, Jerry. She understands. She’s not mad at you.”
Just shoot me right now. Judas had nothing on me.
I should just come out with it and tell him. Let him know that things have happened between Becca and me, that I’ve fallen in love with her and there’s nothing I could ever have done to stop it from happening.
He’s locked up. It will give him time to think it over without coming to kill me, and by the time he gets out, she’ll be well along in her pregnancy, and he won’t want to kill the father of his daughter’s child.
Right?...
“Hey, Jerry—”
“You remember our little chat, right?” he interrupts. “About keeping your hands to yourself?”
Shit.
“How could I forget?”
“Good.” He grins. “Because you know…I’ve learned new ways of killing a man while I’ve been in here. Creative ways.”
He laughs, but I’ve known Jerry long enough to recognize the laugh he gives when he’s only half kidding. It’s one of those laughs he uses to ease the tension but not negate the thing he just said.
Honestly, I’m slightly offended that he’s even bringing it up. Does he not trust me? We’ve been friends for how long now?
But then I remind myself that I actually did betray his trust, and he has every right to be suspicious.
Tell him. Just tell him and get it over with.
I feel like a man on a tight rope wire between two buildings as a strong breeze has just begun to blow. I could turn around and go back to safety, or I could push quickly forward and risk falling.