Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“Where is she?”
Cree didn’t say anything for a very long moment, and I knew without him saying that he didn’t know.
“We haven’t been able to locate her,” he admitted. I also didn’t admit that my family hadn’t, either. “We’ve gone through her apartment, got the super to let us into her place. Found her clothes gone, and that’s it. She’s hiding.”
Rafe had said much the same. Him, Travis, and Baylor, as well as Baylor’s friend Parker who was recently hired, had done a lot of investigating on their own. Caria was nowhere to be found.
“She knows that I’ll fuck her up if I ever see her again,” I mumbled under my breath.
Krisney punched me gently on the arm. “Now that’s not any way for a doctor to talk.”
I chuckled, the hard rasp of it tickling the back of my throat.
I honestly didn’t give one flying fuck how a doctor was supposed to ‘talk.’ What I gave a fuck about was the fact that she’d tried to take everything away from me just because I wasn’t paying her any attention.
“What now?” I asked.
Detective Cree replaced his notebook before saying, “We wait for her to come out of hiding. There’s nothing we can do until she makes another appearance.”
I saw red.
“You want to give her another chance to do what she couldn’t last time?”
Detective Cree looked me dead in the eye and said, “She can try...”
He didn’t have to finish that sentence.
He wouldn’t let her get that far.
“You’re watching us?”
He nodded. “As is half the town, to be honest.” He looked between the two of us. “And don’t think I don’t notice those repo-boys of yours. Two of them aren’t as obvious as the other two, but I know they’re doing it. Not to mention y’all are the town’s ‘golden’ couple.” He tilted his head slightly. “I’ve heard from quite a few people that y’all were the couple that everyone was rooting for. Once y’all finally got back together, they were none too happy to find out that the relationship had been threatened.” He stood up to leave. “Plus, your brothers have been working with me, as well as Raphael, after a little persuasion.”
“Who’s Raphael?” Krisney asked.
“Rafe,” I said at the same time that Detective Cree said, “Raphael Luis, he works with Dante.”
My eyebrows rose at the way he said ‘works.’
He didn’t sound like he believed that Rafe was actually working.
“You know Rafe?” I questioned him.
Detective Cree nodded once. “Yep. He and I used to be in the military together.”
The way he said it, though, made it sound like he was unwilling to say anything more than what he’d said. Which meant I shut the hell up about it, because although Cree had been helpful and somewhat careful with Krisney today, being mindful of her delicate nature, I didn’t for one second forget that the man wasn’t anybody that I knew.
I didn’t know him from a random Joe I met at the grocery store.
But if he knew Rafe, then that meant that he had to be vouched for, at least partially.
If Rafe didn’t like him, I would’ve already heard.
Rafe was weird like that, though.
A couple of months ago, I’d found out that although he was working for Travis, he was also down here on his own agenda, helping set up safe houses for a corporation out of Kilgore that helped rescue abused women.
Rafe also knew shit that nobody else knew.
However, I never knew when he was going to pop up.
I trusted him with my life, though.
And now, those of my children.
I offered Cree my hand, and he took it.
“Congratulations on the children.”
I shook it and let it go before answering. “Thank you.”
With that parting comment, he left, leaving Krisney and I staring at each other.
“I won’t let her hurt you or the children again,” I promised.
She smiled sadly. “I never said you would.”
Chapter 20
Not only did I fall off the diet wagon, it rolled over on top of me and forced me to eat its contents.
-Krisney’s secret thoughts
Krisney
After leaving the hospital, we headed to eat at my favorite place in the world—Roadhouse.
I had an irrational love for it.
It was always there when I needed it, and when I was away on deployment, or during those god-awful years where I lived with my parents in Alabama, I’d missed the place.
Now, every time I was near it—which admittedly wasn’t often since it was thirty minutes away from Hostel where I lived—I ate there.
“I called your boss,” Reed said out of the blue as we pulled into the parking spot right in front of the door.
My brows rose. “Why?”
“I wanted him to know what was going on.” He bit his lip. “I also should’ve mentioned it before, but he’d technically already fired you when you hadn’t shown up for two weeks of work. He never put two and two together since he’s the new dentist in town. He didn’t realize that you were the one who had to have emergency surgery, until I’d called him. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner, but it slipped my mind.”