Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“He will, Mom.” I clear my throat. “In the meantime, Buck has arranged for a bodyguard for you.”
Mom gasps through the phone.
“I okayed it, Lisa.” Dad says. “It’s important, honey. Don’t fight me on this.”
Another gulp through the line. “I won’t. I won’t, Darnell.”
“Good. I love you.”
“I love you too. Both of you.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
Dad ends the call.
“Now what?” I ask.
“I guess we join the others.”
After a subdued dinner, I head to my bedroom.
I’d like to stay with Buck, but he needs his rest, and my father’s under this roof.
It feels too weird.
I shower to get all the grime of the day off me. Has anyone even found Taylor’s body yet?
What is the connection? Why did Taylor’s father disown her?
Clearly it has something to do with this whole situation. He must’ve known about his brother. Or he knew about what Taylor did.
That’s the connection. Taylor went to her uncle to get rid of me, and Taylor’s dad found out and disinherited her.
But we’ll never know for sure.
We’ll never know because Taylor’s dead.
Damn you Taylor. Damn you to hell.
My door creaks open.
I jerk toward it, but then I sigh.
Buck stands there.
He’s freshly showered also, wearing a simple white T-shirt and blue lounging pants. His feet are bare, and his hair is wet.
He looks absolutely scrumptious.
“What are you doing in here?”
“I was hoping you’d come to my room.”
“Believe me, I’d love nothing more, but you need your rest. You’re still not fully recovered, and today was… Well, you know what today was. Plus…my dad is here.”
“You’re a grown woman, Aspen.”
“I know that. So does he. Still… It’s a little weird, don’t you think?”
“The only thing that would be weird to me is not sleeping next to the woman I love.” He stalks toward me, takes me in his arms, and gives me a passionate kiss.
I open for him.
I can’t not.
He’s so much a part of me, and he gives me so much comfort.
My door, of course, is still cracked open.
And my father… My father is somewhere in this house. I don’t know if he’s gone to bed yet.
But if he has? He’s somewhere in this hallway.
I break the kiss. “Buck…”
“Please, baby. I need you. After the day we’ve both had, we need each other.”
He’s not wrong.
“All right,” I sigh. “Close my door. And lock it.”
“Absolutely.” He inches back toward the door, closes and locks it, and then he comes back to me, cups my cheek. “You’re so beautiful, Aspen. I’m so sorry about today. About what you had to go through.”
“It’s okay. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I know who set me up now, and they’re going to pay.”
“They will. I promise you that they will.”
“I suppose Greg Wallace is already paying. I wish I knew which one he was.”
“Do you really need to know that?”
“I suppose not. Gloria… She was innocent, and now she’s dead.”
“She was innocent with regard to setting you up. But she did lie to us. She knew those two voices she heard talking were Taylor and Nancy. If she had leveled with us, we could’ve protected her. Kept her safe. And she and her husband would still be alive.”
“She was afraid.”
“Of course she was afraid. But whatever kind of connections this Greg Wallace has from prison, they’re nothing compared to the kind of connections the Wolfes or Luke have.”
“I suppose they’re not.”
“So if she had leveled with us, we would’ve known she might be in danger, and we could’ve protected her and Brian both.”
I nod. He’s right, of course. And frankly, Gloria wasn’t the person I always thought she was. She did have negative feelings toward me, even if she hated herself for it.
But would I have felt any differently? If I’d been all but promised middle blocker, and then some newbie swooped in and took it right from under me?
I’m not the devout Catholic girl Gloria was. I would’ve had some very negative feelings. But the world of pro sports is brutal. We all knew that. I would’ve come to terms with it. And I certainly wouldn’t have sold my opponent off to some island to live as a slave.
That wasn’t Gloria, of course. I don’t think she ever would’ve done that. That was Taylor and Nancy…and Greg Wallace.
Damn…
Greg Wallace.
I turn to Buck. “I want to see Greg Wallace.”
He furrows his brow. “Baby… Come on.”
“I have to. I need to ask him questions. I need to find out—”
He pushes two fingers over my mouth to quiet me. “Isn’t this enough, baby? Please? We know who was behind it, and they’re all going to pay. Wallace is already paying, Taylor paid with her life, and Nancy’s going to pay. Katelyn’s tormentor, Chris Pollack, is finally going to pay because he killed Gloria and Brian.”
Still, my nerves jump under my skin. There’s something more I need to know.