Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 113996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Heat went to my cheeks. I thought we’d been discreet.
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” she said with a big smile. “So, do you love him?”
“Love him?” I balked. I mean, there was no way. “This is just a casual thing.”
“Sure, it is.”
“We haven’t really talked about it. You know, defined it. Only that we’re…exclusive.”
Okay, exclusive made it sound more serious than it was. And it fed right into what Chastity already believed, that Bull and I were more than casual.
She nodded her head knowingly, her eyes wide with glee. “A-ha.”
“Do others know?”
“Not yet. But it won’t be long before others notice the chemistry between the two of you.” She thought for a moment. “You know, a lot of people think he’s still hung up over Wendy. That she was it for him. But that’s not the case. I know my uncle, almost as well as my husband—his best friend—does. It’s not her he can’t get over. It’s the guilt he feels. He feels responsible for her and their unborn baby dying. It haunts him.”
“But it wasn’t his fault.”
“I know, but he refuses to believe it. It’s almost as if he feels like he doesn’t deserve to move on. But…”
Her words trailed away.
“But what?”
“It’s probably not my place to say this…but in the last few weeks, he’s changed. There’s something lighter about him.”
“Lighter?”
“Not so dark. Not so weighed down with the guilt.” Her eyes found mine. Her face grew serious. “You’re good for him.”
Warmth spread through my chest.
“It’s just casual, Chastity.”
She waved her hand in front of her beautiful face. “So you say. But while you two are telling each other that, I can see that neither of you really believe it.”
“He told me it can’t be anything more than sex. And I told him I wasn’t interested in anything else.”
“And I can see you’re both lying.”
I blew out a deep breath.
Was I?
Were we?
“Come on, we’ve got some penis balloons to blow up,” I said, deliberately changing the subject. But as I set the table with napkins, paper plates, margarita glasses, and of course, penis straws, my mind replayed Chastity’s words.
Had Bull and I slipped past casual and veered straight into something?
A sudden crash behind me made me jump, and I spun around. Chastity had dropped a tray of glasses and was standing very still, her brows drawn in. She didn’t look so good. Something wasn’t right.
“Are you okay?”
Her eyes shifted to mine. “I don’t know…”
I guided her toward a chair and helped her sit down, then picked my cell phone off the table. “I’m going to call an ambulance.”
“Oh no, I’ll be fine.”
As I rang 9-1-1, I kept my eye on her. All the color had left her face.
Suddenly, she let out a cry and bent over. Reaching for the edge of the table, she cried out again.
Terror swept through me as a bright red stain spread across the fabric of her white dress.
She looked at me with terrified eyes. She was going to pass out. I lunged and caught her as she rolled off the chair, her body going limp, her eyes rolling back in her head.
Cradling her in my arms, I told her she was going to be okay and prayed help would arrive in time.
BULL
While Taylor was at Autumn’s bachelorette party, Ruger and I met with Sheriff Buckman in his office.
“What happened to the girls?” I asked.
“They spent the last few nights in St. Vincent’s. Some of them were beat up pretty bad and dehydrated. Nothing life threatening. But I can’t imagine it’s something they’ll get over real quick.” He shook his head and looked sick. He had three teenage daughters at home. “The hospital will hand them over to the bureau tomorrow morning.”
I nodded. “You find Martel? Or information about where he is?”
“We’re working on it. But you know these things take time.” He gave me a knowing look. “We also haven’t found the driver. Seems he disappeared off the face of the planet.”
“Odd,” I said, without looking him in the eye.
There was nothing odd about it. He was finally doing something good by fertilizing a patch of earth just out of town.
Bucky’s knowing eyes gleamed across at me. “Yeah, I’m sure he just ran off.”
Well, he had tried to run off.
But then I had caught up with him and it didn’t work out so well for him.
“He’s probably resting in some hole in the wall somewhere waiting for the dust to settle,” I said with a reassuring smile.
But Bucky looked weary. “You gotta let me do my job, Bull.”
My smile faded real quick. “If I let you do your job, there would be sixteen girls still being traded and raped, and God knows how many others shoved into the back of an airless truck breezing its way across the delta.”
Ruger’s phone rang and I noticed his brow wrinkle. “I gotta take this,” he said, leaving the room.