Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Twelve hours ago, had he said this, my curiosity would’ve been piqued. Now, with Verity lying so still in the hospital bed, I realized that I didn’t care about anyone but her. And that likely made me an ass, but I literally couldn’t deal with anyone else’s shit. I could barely deal with my own.
“She could die,” I said bluntly. “What do I do if she does die?”
“She won’t,” he said. “There are eighteen Dixie Wardens in this hospital ward, and four about half a day from being patched in. They all, along with me, have your woman’s safety at heart. They won’t—I won’t—let anything happen to her. I swear to Christ.”
His sincerity made my heart relax minutely, and I closed my eyes and leaned my head down, letting my forehead fall down to come to a rest next to Verity’s hand. The same hand that was now broken.
Fucking Beckett.
“Don’t make the same mistake as me, man,” Ghost said to my lowered head. “Take it from me. I’ve regretted it every day for eighteen hundred and fifty-two days. And I’ve watched her find a man last week. My heart’s in fucking shreds right now, but I made my bed. Make sure you don’t make yours, too.”
With that he left, and the door closed softly behind him with a whispered click.
My eyes squeezed tightly closed before I got up, placed a single kiss on her face, and walked out of the room.
Ghost was right.
I wasn’t going to give her up. Not now, not ever.
And as I sat down in a chair in a hospital waiting room with The Dixie Wardens at my sides, I realized three things.
One, I had a great group of men at my back.
Two, Elais Beckett was a dead man.
Three, I should’ve never doubted the severity of Ronan’s anger.
***
Four hours later
“You’re sure this is it?” I asked. “How do you have this information so fast?”
I was standing about a hundred yards from a hotel room that Silas had found two towns over. There was a man that fit the last known description of Elais Beckett who was seen going into this hotel room with another male in his late sixties.
“Silas has so many fucking secrets that he could fill a goddamned water tower full of them. Just be happy he found the information, and whatever you do, don’t ask questions about how or what he had to do to get that information.”
That was Big Papa, reprimanding me like I was some misbehaving child.
I ignored him and turned my attention back to the hotel room.
“A man called me. He said he was a friend of yours,” Silas said. “Said his name was ‘Ro.’”
He’d told me that before, and I didn’t really know a ‘Ro.’ I did, however, know a Ronan.
“If that’s Ronan, my grandfather’s man, in there, we can’t go in there with guns blazing because he might retaliate before he realizes that it’s us,” I said. “I’ve tried calling him four times now. Either he has his phone off, or he’s ignoring my call.”
It was more likely that he was ignoring my call. He never had his phone off due to the fact that he had a daughter who he loved with all his heart, and if she called, he would drop everything—even Elais Beckett—and go to her.
Though, she hadn’t called him in over two years. They’d had a falling out about his behavior and his way of life, and she’d written him off.
That didn’t mean that he didn’t wait for her call.
“Tried the hotel room phone yet?” Aaron asked.
“What the hell are y’all even doing here?” I asked. “Y’all could lose your jobs.”
Aaron and Big Papa looked at me like I was crazy.
“Right now, we’re Dixie Wardens, not police officers,” Big Papa finally explained. “And you’re not getting rid of us. Stop your bitching and moaning and get in there. I have to be at work in four hours.”
Alrighty, then.
That was exactly what I did.
I walked up to the door, knocked and was unsurprised when Ronan answered the door.
“About time you got here,” he grumbled. “I had to practically draw you a fuckin’ map.”
I turned to find Silas, Kettle, Sean, Aaron, Big Papa, Ghost, and Sebastian at my back, staring at the man that’d help raise me with about as much worry as I had on my face.
“Well, I’m here now,” I said. “What do you have for me?”
Ronan stepped back, opened the door wide, and we all froze, our eyes uncomprehending at what, exactly, we were seeing.
Then Big Papa groaned.
“There’s a time and place for things like that, and that’s on Halloween, or a fucking big screen,” someone else added.
Sean, I thought.
“You’re a paramedic, right?”
Sean grunted and pushed past us into the room, stopping beside the bed where Elais Beckett was tied down on.
“How did you do this all without attracting the attention of the cops?” I asked, horror lacing my words.