Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
The technician didn’t say anything as she set up the portable X-ray and did her thing.
When she was done, she left with nary a word, leaving a nurse who was cleaning up the cut on her forehead.
“What happened?” Ellodie came into the room more fully.
I quickly explained everything that had happened, starting with the way Maven’s stepmother ran the red light, and ending with everything else.
“You left your cruiser there?” Ellodie giggled.
“Well, no,” I said. “I left it with Garrett.”
“And Garrett got it to the station with the help of a friend,” Garrett said from the entrance. “How’s she doing?”
The doctor came in on the tail end of his question.
“She’s good,” the doctor said as he stalked to the head of her bed with an iPad in his hand. “Laceration is just bluster. No head issues. Neck looks great.”
“Does the lac need stiches?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “Just a little bit of glue. She can be released once we get that taken care of.”
More commotion from the hall had us all turning, and then there was yelling.
“Shit,” Maven said, holding out her hand. “Can you take this off?”
The doctor helped her out of the neck brace and helped her sit up by raising the head of the bed. Then he pulled the curtain closed and said, “I don’t have to give him any information.”
“I don’t want him to know I’m here.” Maven’s lip trembled. “I don’t want him anywhere near me.”
I moved in close.
“You don’t authorize any of your information to be shared?” the doctor asked.
I shook my head and said, “No.”
“No,” Maven agreed. “Nothing with anyone but a Carter.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“Where’s my wife?” I heard the chief bellow.
Maven shrank into herself.
“I’ll go deal with that then,” the doctor said. “I’ll have a nurse come in here soon and get your head fixed up.”
Then he was gone.
I heard more commotion, and Garrett, Ellodie, and I were ping-ponging our gazes between each other when Maven whispered, “I want to get out of here.”
I squeezed her hand. “Let’s get that cut taken care of then we can head out.”
“Where?” she whispered. “I can’t go home.”
I looked at her for a few long moments, about to tell her my place, when Garrett said, “If he doesn’t take you home, darlin’, I’ll take you to mine.”
I shot my brother a disgusted look. “Absolutely not.”
Just because I choose not to drink doesn’t make me no fun. Being no fun is a separate choice, which I’ve also made.
—Maven to Auden
MAVEN
My mind was spinning.
My heart was aching.
And again, I was terrified out of my mind.
“What the absolute hell am I going to do?” I muttered, what I thought was to myself.
“You’re going to get in the car and drive home with Auden,” Ellodie answered.
I looked up to find her still quietly standing inside my room.
I’d finally gained enough courage to let Auden’s hand go and let him go out of the room to talk to a few officers who’d been at the scene of the accident.
They hadn’t gone far.
In fact, they were outside the little curtained off area talking, and Auden’s back could be seen from the crack between the curtain and the wall.
He kept glancing over his shoulder, making sure that I was still okay.
It was on the third look over his shoulder that I decided to stop being scared.
Auden wouldn’t let my dad anywhere near me without being there to make sure that nothing happened.
“I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” I admitted.
She smiled sadly at me, then said, “Want to tell me anything about your dad?”
“What do you want to know?” Athena asked as she barged into the room. “Do you want to know how he controlled every aspect of her life until she moved out? Do you want to know about the guilt trips that forced her to stay a whole lot longer than she ever wanted to? Do you want to know about how every time she found someone who meant something to her, he would run that person off? How about when she was twelve, and she started her period, he slut shamed her for doing something that every girl in the world did? There are hundreds of little instances she’s told me about. And then there are the things that I’ve witnessed with my own eyes. You know, if he wasn’t who he is, Maven could’ve gotten a restraining order on him a long time ago. In all honestly, she should’ve left the damn state and went to hide, but again, her father knows everyone. There’s no way he would let her leave without following her and bringing her back. His leash on her only extends so far.”
I dropped my head to my chest, the glued laceration on my face smarting with the move.
They’d numbed it but told me the numbness would only last about thirty minutes or so.