Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
"I've already told Irene Templeton, so I'm sure he'll already know by the time he gets here. Still, I'd like to tell him myself. Don't worry about it, baby girl. There's nothing or no one that can stop us from being together. You belong to me, and I'm never letting you go."
His sincerity settles over me, calming my nerves and letting me know that no matter what happens, Hunter's mine forever.
We hop in his truck to head back to the church when we see a familiar car in the parking lot. There's an off feeling brewing in my gut. No one else is supposed to be here after Hunter just locked the place up. When we go inside, only a few lights remain on.
The altar dimly lights the pulpit with a few flickering yellow lights that bounce off the gold. There's a soft glow coming from Hunter's office a few feet off to the side of the stage.
Hunter's strides are powerful as he makes a beeline directly to the office. I'm certain he left the lights off when we left. It doesn't take long for the sound of voices to find us. Hunter holds his hand back to keep me behind him.
We approach his office, and the voices get louder.
"He's going to ruin everything," the first voice hisses.
A second voice replies, "We'll get him out of here just like Father Kosloff."
The second voice is familiar and feminine.
Hunter pulls out his phone and hands it to me. He turns around and whispers, "Call the police. Tell them there's been a break-in at the church."
I do as he says while he stalks closer to the office with determination in his gait. The people inside of his office can't be up to anything good. After speaking with the police, they promise to send a car as soon as one's available. The police force in Conklin is rather thin, but the county is so small that there's rarely been a need to expand it.
Curiosity gets the better of me, and I inch closer to the office where Hunter is standing beside the door, listening to the two people rummage through our files. The sounds of pages tearing make us both rush into the room where a good amount of our work is in shards of paper on the floor.
"Stop what you're doing right now," Hunter commands the two. Out of the two people inside the office, only one of the culprits is predictable.
Dennis growls and lunges himself at Hunter. His accomplice, Mrs. Templeton, looks at me with a scowl on her face.
"Jezebel," she scoffs.
"Thief," I counter and approach her, glaring at the bunch of files in her hand. "Put those down, Mrs. Templeton."
She pulls out a lighter and puts it to the corner of the page.
"Are you crazy?" I charge toward her. "This entire room will go up if you light that."
Mrs. Templeton doesn't care at all. She sets the paper on fire and tosses it into the trash can. It gives her enough time to get away while I fight to put the fire out before it has a chance to catch. Luckily for everyone here, I'm able to do that with only a small burnhole in the carpet.
Hunter and Dennis are still fighting. The way Hunter can throw a punch does something to me. He's not a priest as he grips Dennis by the collar and slams him against the wall. He's a man.
Dennis has a bloody lip and puffy eye that will certainly be black by tomorrow. Hunter lands one more blow before Dennis slumps onto the floor. Dennis groans from the pain but is too battered and bruised to do anything about it.
"The police should be here soon," I tell Hunter.
He walks over to me and looks around. "Where did Irene go?"
"After she torched documents from the March pile? I don't know. I tried to save what I could."
"It's fine, Harper." He sighs, kissing me on the top of my head. "I have pictures in my phone of everything we had here. The security cameras will show them at least breaking into my office. We'll have to prove that they were the ones who destroyed everything. "
"What about him?" I ask, nudging my chin toward Dennis.
Hunter doesn't have the chance to answer when we hear the sound of a gun cocking by the office door. Mrs. Templeton is standing there with anger etching itself into every frown line of her pasty expression. Her hands are shaking as she tries to hold up the revolver.
We put our hands up, and Hunter stands in front of me as if his broad back can stop a bullet. His energy forces me to take several steps back until we hit the couch where we have no choice but to sit down.
"You two, don't move." She shuffles over toward Dennis, gently poking him with the tip of her foot. "Dennis? Get up. We have to get these files out of here."