Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
I didn’t play dumb.
I knew exactly what he meant, so I answered, “A couple of weeks.”
“You two serious?”
“To be honest, I don’t know what we are. Hell, I never intended for any of this to happen.”
“Hmph. That’s Mia for ya,” he scoffed.
“I gotta say, you seem to be taking this better than I thought you might.”
“I’ve had time to make peace with it.”
“Come again?”
“I’d seen the way she looked at you, brother. Her mother looked at me the same way.” A faint grin crossed his face as he scoffed, “Figured it was only a matter of time before she got her hooks into you.”
I turned to him with confusion. “So, you knew?”
“She’s my daughter. Of course, I knew... Actually spoke with her about it.”
I couldn’t believe it.
I’d seen Stitch do unbelievably horrific things, and I figured he’d do the same to me for getting involved with his daughter. He had every right, but he was being cool about it—eerily cool. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
I ran my hand over my face and throat, hoping I could force the right words into my head. “I want you to know... I never intended to get involved with her, brother. It just kind of happened.”
“Nothing ever just happens.” Stitch looked over to me as he said, “We might like to tell ourselves that, but we don’t ever do anything we don’t really wanna do.”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know... I’m still trying to make sense of it. To be honest, I don’t even know why she’s interested in getting tied up with me. We both know she could do a hell of a lot better.”
“Don’t know any such thing.” He kept his eyes on the road as he told me, “The way I see it, she could do a hell of a lot worse.”
“Regardless, I’m sorry you had to find out like this. I should’ve said something to you sooner.”
“Yeah.”
Before he could finish his thought, he turned into my drive.
The blood drained from his face when he saw that there were two cop cars parked at the house, each with their blue lights flashing, and several officers were poking around the property. “Fuck.”
“What the hell happened?”
“Mia happened.” Stitch turned to me and shook his head. “Hope you know you’ve got a livewire on your hands, brother.”
Stitch parked, and we both jumped out of the truck and started up to the house. We didn’t get far before one of the cops came up, and his mouth fell open when he saw that it was us.
“Oh, hey Stitch. Wrath... I didn’t realize...” He glanced behind him, hoping for some help from his fellow officers, but none was to be found. “Is one of you Charles Turner?”
“That’d be me.”
“Oh, damn. Okay.” He was clearly unnerved as he told me, “I’ve gotta few questions I need to ask.”
“And I’ll be glad to answer them, but first, I’d like a word with Mia.”
He nodded, then let us continue up to the porch. Mia was sitting on the front step with her hands cuffed behind her, and other than a slight busted lip, she looked pretty much unscathed by the altercation. Rosa, on the other hand, had a black eye, busted mouth, and dirty clothes, and it looked like a pack of rats had been having a field day in her hair. I’m pretty sure she was missing a clump or two.
Poor thing looked like she’d been on the wrong side of a tractor pull.
Thankfully, she was busy talking to one of the officers, so I had a moment to ask Mia, “You okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. This whole thing is stupid, and I’m really...” Her words trailed off when she spotted her father. Her back stiffened as she turned to him and announced, “Before you say anything, she took the first swing.”
“So, you beat the hell out of her?” Stitch roared.
“She had it coming! She’s the one who came over here starting shit with me.”
“Um-hmm.” Stitch turned to the officer as he asked, “You mind uncuffing my daughter?”
“I would, Stitch, but I’m thinking she might need to stay put until we get this thing cleared up.”
“I’m telling you, Dad. This isn’t on me. I swear it.” Mia’s face turned red as she ranted, “I was minding my own business. Just trying to feed the cat when this nutcase came over here mouthing. I tried to walk away, but the crazy bitch punched me... Sooo, I punched her back.”
“Looks like you did a lot more than that.”
“Well, she should’ve stayed down.”
Stitch gave his daughter a stern look and growled, “Mia.”
“You would’ve done the same thing! I told her to stay down, Dad.” Mia shrugged. “Not my fault that she kept getting up.”
“She’s a fucking lunatic!” Rosa charged over to me and roared, “You need to keep your bitch on a fucking leash!”