Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“No, don’t,” Newt pleaded, his hands steepled together in front of him as if he was praying. “Rafael. Stay out of this.”
“Why are you holding him like that?” the man asked with a heavy Latin accent, still coming forward. “Let him go. Who are you?”
The crowd was growing louder inside, and Newt was becoming frantic, clearly not wanting his secret exposed. Bull almost felt sorry for them. He could see the urge in Newt to rip his arm away from Fox and run to his lover, but they couldn’t. For more reasons than either of them had control of.
The door to the bar exploded open, and Lumberjack stood in front of the few people he’d assembled to join him with a metal baseball bat clutched in his hands.
“Raf, go, baby, just go,” Newt stressed. “I promise you, I’ll call, okay?”
“I will not sleep until you do. Somos tú y yo contra ellos,” Rafael whispered as he backed away as slowly as possible, he and Newt never taking their eyes off each other until he was around the corner.
“Fuck,” Newt pleaded, his face a mask of agony and torture. “I’ll do anything, just don’t bring him into this.”
“I already told you, I don’t—”
“Hey, tough guy! You’re in my neck of the woods now.”
“Sledge. Enough!” Newt hollered, his frustration rolling off him and crashing over his so-called friends like an angry tidal wave. “Leave me alone!”
“I don’t give a damn about you, you goddamn coward.” The large man spat at Newt, looking as if he was disgusted with him. “I don’t care about a damn badge from some big-city cop…” The man held his beefy arms out at their deserted surroundings. “And where’s his backup, huh?”
The crowd seemed to grow a little more excited at the prospect of beating the shit out of a smart-mouthed police officer and possibly getting away with it. The same way Newt had gotten away with all of his crimes. They made it to Bull’s truck, but from the way Lumberjack was closing in, they wouldn’t be able to get inside before he slammed that bat across the windshield.
“He’s not a fair fighter,” Newt said, scrambling around the front of the truck while Bull went for his tire iron. “You better be good.”
Fox huffed in annoyance. “Nope. I wasn’t exactly built for scrapping.”
“Oh shit,” Newt’s voice warned as Fox flung open the backseat of Bull’s truck. “Well, what the fuck can you do?”
Fox turned around and hefted that badass ARWEN37 in both hands, and aimed it at the man that was less than twenty feet away from them. “I can set a damn good trap.”
Bull had just enough time to get out of the way before Fox let off two rounds almost simultaneously, hitting the man in the center of his chest. The force of the powerful beanbags to his chest sent him stumbling backwards until the momentum made his massive body crash to the ground and skid along the jagged rocks.
“Timberrr.” Fox chuckled as the man went down harder than an oak tree struck by lightning.
“Holy shit,” Newt gasped.
Fox propped the large rotary drum of his shotgun against his shoulder and pointed at the writhing man on the ground, clutching his chest as if it had an actual hole in it. “Anyone else as stupid as this fuck?”
Bull tossed his tire iron back into the truck bed, shaking his head in astonishment. Of course Fox didn’t need his damn help.
“Anyone else wanna get shot in the dick with this thing before I arrest you for attempting to assault an officer?”
“No, I think we’d rather not,” one of the other followers said before turning and leaving Lumberjack on the ground gasping for air.
Bull wondered how long it would take to recover from being hit with one of those things, not to mention two. From the man’s groans that were loud enough to be heard over the thunder, probably a while. Fox returned his weapon to the truck, presenting his back to the man on his knees. Dismissing him.
“All right, Newt. You better get going.” Fox walked around the hood to where Newt was standing, staring longingly at the back of the bar where Rafael had disappeared.
“Hey, look, um. Bull. I know this don’t mean a damn thing now with everything I’ve done. Trying to get you run outta town and all.” Newt sighed. “But… I did it for him. I thought if I got that land, made enough money to support him and his family… then maybe the government would approve Rafael’s naturalization application. We’d be set. I was gonna give him a good life.” Newt’s eyes watered, but he quickly scrubbed the moisture away. “Doesn’t look like it’s gonna work out that way.”
“Mervin Rune is the acting sheriff… he’s a fair man. He’ll let you have your phone call when you get there,” Bull said. He shouldn’t have been feeling sorry for the man who’d been vandalizing his property and smearing his name around town, but he wasn’t built with that kinda heart. Bull could recognize love when he saw it. Especially now. And he understood that heavy emotion could make a man do things he never thought he would.