Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
The last one in the bottom corner had me staring at the television, with a remote in my hand.
“You…what…how…why?” I stuttered.
“I have to work, Kitt,” he explained. “But I can’t work and know that you’re here, possibly dying. So I installed the camera, and I have someone monitoring it almost 24/7.”
I closed my eyes.
“What about today?” I asked. “Do they turn it off when someone comes to help me, or do they keep watching?”
My face was a flaming ball of misery.
I knew the answer even before he said it.
“Keep watching,” he said. “That’s what they’re paid to do.”
I blew out a shaky breath and brought my hand up to angrily swipe at the tears that formed to roll down my cheek.
“I wish you would’ve told me,” I whispered. “Now I just have one more person privy to the fact that I have to have medicine shoved up my ass to get my seizures to stop.”
He sighed.
“You have a medical problem, darlin’,” he told me gently. “No one, not even me, has a problem doing what I have to do to make sure you and my niece stay okay. Okay?”
I laughed humorlessly. “How did Apple even figure out what and how to do that, anyway?”
It’d happened four times now in the last couple of months; me waking up with Apple’s arms around me, and each time I’d known he’d had to do that for me.
It was kind of hard to miss.
I didn’t lose hours of time without it having to happen.
My brother. Apple.
Who was next? The rest of the club members?
I’d literally die if that ever happened to me. Literally die.
“It’s either that, or you have to have a caregiver. Which way do you want it to be?” He asked.
I glared at him.
“You know which way I’d prefer it,” I said selfishly. “Get over yourself.”
He sighed.
“You want me to show you how it works?” He changed the subject.
I looked at the TV, then back to him, before shaking my head.
“No,” I tossed myself back against the couch. “I’d rather know that someone’s not watching me masturbate. Learning how it works doesn’t let me have that disillusion anymore.”
Ridley winced.
“That’s never been my intention,” he promised.
I shrugged.
“Is this like the Life Alert?” I asked. “If I fall, will a hot fireman come and save me?”
I might, or might not have, sounded a tad bit hopeful.
But I knew before he answered what he’d say.
We didn’t have a fire department. We had a volunteer fire department, and most of the volunteers in the department had jobs. My brother could get here just as fast as one of them could.
Or, apparently, so could Apple.
Meaning I was well and truly screwed, and someone on the end of the Life Alert line, someone was privy to my every coming and going, literally.
Yes, my life sucked.
I knew it.
Ridley knew it.
Apple knew it.
Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy at the corner gas station knew it at this point.
Chapter 12
I’m not sure if the doctor called me a beast, or told me I was obese. I’m going with a beast.
-Text message from Kitt to Apple
Apple
Four weeks later
32 weeks pregnant
I watched her cry for the fourth time that day through her bedroom window, and I came to a decision.
I would do whatever I had to do to make sure she didn’t suffer anymore.
Anything.
This was pure torture, watching her cry her heart out.
Coming to a decision, I got off my bike that was directly in front of her house and made my way to her window.
I didn’t bother with the door.
That’d take too long to get to her, and I couldn’t stand one more single second of her crying.
I made a mental note to have a talk with her about not locking her window as I climbed through and walked directly to her.
She was crying so hard that she didn’t even hear me come up until I spoke.
“Why are you crying?” I asked her.
She hiccupped and rolled over as much as her belly would allow.
“There…there…there’s a bug,” she whispered.
I blinked.
“What?” I was confused.
She nodded, hiccupping.
“Somewhere. It’s on the floor. It crawled across my pillow and woke me up from my nap. It touched my face,” she whispered brokenly.
I tried very hard not to laugh.
I really did.
But the way she was looking, absolutely terrified, had a smile breaking out over my face.
“It’s not funny,” she whispered. “And I have to pee!”
I tried to wipe the smile off my face as I walked in the direction she’d indicated.
“What kind of bug?” I asked, looking around the room.
“A big one,” she sniffled, a little more clearly this time.
“Where’d you see it?” I continued.
“On the wall,” she hiccupped. “Above the TV.”
I walked to the wall and started to move things out of the way to look under them, all the while I felt Kitt’s gaze on my back, burning a whole with the intensity.