Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I shove him one more time and leave the hotel room. I seethe in the hallway, body a trembling mass of rage. Blair catches up with me as I stride to the elevators but decide to take the stairs, too impatient and with too much pent-up anger to wait around.
“Baptist, stop.”
“Stay here, Webb. I don’t want you getting in my way.”
“Baptist.”
I look back over my shoulder, gripping the cold metal railing. “This is going to be dangerous. Rodrick’s likely dopesick and desperate, and who knows what sort of trouble he’s in. I need you to be somewhere safe.”
“I’m not sitting around while you go storming off to get yourself hurt.”
“Webb—”
“I mean it. I’m coming. You wanted to do this together, right? Then you’re stuck with me.”
I snarl at her and move up the steps. She backs off until she runs into the wall behind her. We’re along on a landing in the concrete stairwell, and my mind slips back to the wedding when I kissed her as she descended toward the supply closet.
This is different. There’s no giddy excitement, only burning, fire-fueled rage.
I pin her against the wall and pull her hair.
“You’re a distraction. You’ve been in too much danger lately already, and I won’t let you get hurt. Stay. Here.”
“Stay here with Cowan? You really think I’m safe with that psycho?”
I grunt and shake my head. “Then go home. I don’t care. You’re not coming.”
“I’m coming.” She stares into my eyes, fierce and defiant, and my body blazes for her. This is the Blair I want—the Blair I need. The strong, willful, independent woman with not a single ounce of fear in her heart.
She’s so beautiful it nearly breaks me.
But I kiss her. I bury her lips with mine and she moans into that kiss, half a yelp of surprise, half a groan of excitement. It stokes the fire in me into an inferno and I need her right now so badly I could rip her to shreds and fuck her into submission right here in this stairwell. Instead, I bite her lip and linger close, breathing her scent deep and seething with need.
“I’m coming with you,” she whispers, staring into my eyes. “You know how badly I want this.”
I don’t know what she means: the movie or my lips against hers.
But it doesn’t matter. I know the look in her eyes. I know what it means.
She’s not turning back and neither am I.
I tear myself away and start down the steps, her taste still lingering on my lips. “Then you’d better stay close.”
Chapter 16
Blair
The homeless encampment is bigger than I expected it to be and better organized. Tents stretch in all directions beneath the overpass, their brightly colored shells a contrast to the grubby brown concrete, mud, and trash strewn in the lanes that wind their way through the makeshift alleys.
Baptist stands on the edge of the maze and frowns at a cardboard sign. Abandon All Hope. Please give whatever you can. “He’s in here,” he says quietly.
“How are you sure?”
“Just got a feeling.” His fingers flex into fists. “You should wait in the car.”
“Baptist.”
“I know. You’re not going to.” He shakes his head and glances back at me. His gaze is half fire, half worry, and it sends a shiver down my spine. “Don’t move more than a few inches from my side. Come on.”
He steps onto the path and heads into the jumble.
There’s stuff strewn all over: boxes, shopping carts, empty water jugs, fast food wrappers and garbage, chip bags, needles, spoons and forks, tarps and plastic bags. It’s dizzying all the objects thrown all over, and how the whole place still retains a sense of central planning like one person’s been maintaining order this whole time. Baptist moves slowly, looking around at the tents for any visible people, but the place is quiet.
I should be angry with him. I should be furious that he’d kiss me without any provocation back in the hotel, but instead it’s like his touch left an imprint on my lips and they’re buzzing with his taste. My head is dizzy and I should be scared, but I’m not.
Instead, I’m elated. I feel more alive now than I ever have before. It’s like Baptist kissing me woke something up and now I’m too intensely aware and in the present moment to dwell on all my problems. I’m still pregnant, I still haven’t told anyone but Marie, and I still don’t know how we’re ever going to make sure this movie happens.
And I don’t care, because I’m here with him and I feel good.
Up ahead, a few people are sitting outside of a large blue tent covered in a green tarp. They’re lounging on chairs, sharing a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor, and talking quietly. They stare as we approach, not looking hostile, only curious. Two are men and one is a woman, probably in their thirties or forties, and all three have that skinny, pale, mottled look a long-time street user gets after too much time between decent meals and too many hard drugs.