Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“Brenna told me,” he replied with a huff. “And as soon as she said it, I realized how bad I’d fucked up.”
“I didn’t expect you to believe me.”
“What?” He leaned up and looked at me in disbelief. “Why would you say that?”
“Because if someone had told me that Pop would start losing his temper and blowing up, I wouldn’t have believed them.” I pulled him back down beside me. “I wouldn’t have believed if they’d said he’d start screaming at me—hitting me? That would be like telling me that someday I’d ride a bicycle into space. So why would I assume anyone would believe me?”
“You should’ve assumed that I would believe you,” Rumi said darkly. “Me more than anyone in the world.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say, you know,” I said, poking my thumb into his stomach. “I’m still not going to be angry with you.”
“That transparent, am I?”
“You’ve always done that,” I replied. If it wouldn’t have hurt, I would’ve rolled my eyes. “Any time you felt guilty about something, you’d pick a fight.”
“I do not.”
“You did it that day of the barbecue,” I countered. “You tried to make me mad at you.”
“Okay, yeah,” he muttered. “Maybe.”
“And when you broke the basket off my bike,” I said, remembering the day like it was yesterday. “You felt so bad and then you started making fun of my cool ass basket so I’d be mad at you and not sad that it was completely ripped to pieces.”
“Your memory seems to have also taken a beatin’,” he joked, gently rubbing my back.
“Or when you forgot my fifteenth birthday, so you—”
“Jesus,” he said with a chuckle. “Enough. What, are we going to go over every shitty thing I’ve ever done?”
“I’m just saying,” I murmured with a sigh. “It’s a thing you do. You pick a fight when you feel guilty.”
“I’m the worst,” he replied, kissing my head.
“You are,” I agreed jokingly.
I closed my eyes and drifted as my headache finally reached a level that didn’t make me want to slam my head against a wall. Rumi stayed with me, his hand still rubbing my back until the policeman showed up to take my statement. He had a partner with him and they seemed to take up all the air in the room as they filed in.
I’d had the three top members of the Aces MC in my room just an hour before, and I hadn’t felt the least bit claustrophobic, but once the detectives arrived, it felt like the walls were closing in.
Rumi sat up and helped me prop some pillows behind me so that I could sit up straight as the men introduced themselves.
“I’m Detective Lira and this is Detective Kent,” the taller one said. “We talked on the phone.”
“I’d say it was nice to meet you, but—” I shrugged. If we were honest, all of us knew I wished that I didn’t even know the two men existed.
“Understandable,” Kent replied with a smile. I instantly liked him.
“We have some questions for you,” Lira said, not unkindly, “But maybe you’d like to tell us what happened first and then we can ask you to clarify anything we’re confused about. How does that sound?”
“Like a root canal,” I answered honestly. “With no numbing shot.”
“We’ll try and make this as easy as possible,” he replied sympathetically.
“It started in the spring…” I tried to tell them everything I remembered, because I thought that maybe if they saw a pattern, they’d be more likely to believe me. The moment I started speaking about the morning Pop had thrown me against the wall, though, Rumi turned into stone beside me. My mouth snapped shut.
“Rum,” I said after a second of silence. “Could you go get me some coffee, baby?”
Rumi jerked in surprise at the endearment. “Coffee?”
“I could use a cup,” I said quietly, squeezing his thigh.
“You need one now?”
I smiled at the stubborn look in his eye and reached up to cup his cheek. “Give me a few minutes with the nice detectives, yeah?”
“I’m not leavin’ you alone in here—”
“Send Brenna in,” I replied, cutting him off before he could really start arguing. “Or your gram.”
“No fuckin’ way.” The words were sharp.
I was thankful that the detectives didn’t interrupt us, but beyond that, I kind of forgot they were there as I stared into Rumi’s eyes. I’d never seen him so devastated. He was holding it together really well, and I knew he was trying to be strong while I was such a mess, but my best friend was about a hairsbreadth away from losing his composure. If he heard all that had happened in vivid detail, I was afraid it would break him.
“You and me,” I whispered. “I bet we’ll go over all of this a hundred times in the next few years. You’ll hear it all.”