Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Nodding, I leaned down and gave Baylee another hug.
“Take care of yourself,” I whispered. “Let me know if you need anything.”
Baylee squeezed me extra tight and said, “Thank you, again, Sawyer.”
I nodded and patted her hand. “I’ll send the next visitor in.”
“Tell whoever it is to bring me a coke!” She ordered as I got to the door.
I gave her a thumb’s up and walked down the hall to the waiting room where the rest of the group was camped out.
My eyes went to the first person I saw, which happened to be Adeline.
“She wants whomever goes in next to bring her a coke,” I said to her.
Adeline smiled. “I’ll take that as my cue to go get her something, thanks.”
Nodding, I walked to the door waving at all of them.
“I’ll see y’all later,” I said.
The women waved back, but the men all got up and hugged me, one by one, leaving me stunned.
“You’re one of us now,” Trance said.
“Thank you,” Kettle was next.
“You’re welcome,” I said, blushing furiously once again.
I was pretty sure I’d done that no less than ten times tonight.
If not more.
“You’re a good kid,” the one with the slashed throat said, whose name escaped me.
“Thanks,” I whispered, backing up until my back hit the elevator doors.
“Take care of yourself,” the final one said, I think his name was Torren.
But I’d learned so many names tonight, that I wasn’t quite sure.
So I said a vague, “See you later,” to the group as a whole and disappeared into the elevator.
When the door’s closed, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Not because I was glad to go, but because I was glad to not have their thanks anymore.
I’d done what anybody would’ve done…right?
Apparently, though, that wasn’t the case for the Dixie Wardens.
Tonight I’d earned my right to be at Silas’ side, and I just didn’t realize it yet.
Chapter 16
There’s a special place in hell for men that fuck with women. And you’ll be meeting that dark little corner of the universe as fast as my bare hands can get you there.
-Silas’ secret thoughts
Silas
I wanted to kill someone.
Preferably with my bare hands.
As I sat in the darkness listening to Sawyer have yet another nightmare, I was torn.
It’d been a week since I’d gone down to Huntsville and watched as the guards that’d tortured Sawyer for years get arrested.
And I’d told her last night that all four of them had been let out on bail.
Then six hours later, as she slept, she started to have nightmares.
I’d woken her from them three times already, but the moment her eyes closed once again, and she drifted back to sleep, she was right back in the throes of her nightmare.
Now it was three in the morning, and we both had to be up in less than three hours, and I was wondering if I should just wake her up completely.
The scream of terror that was ripped from her throat solidified my decision as I wrapped my hand around the outside of Sawyer’s hip, letting my hand play along her ass.
“Sawyer,” I said, shaking her slightly.
“Noooo,” she moaned. “Please. Don’t.”
The sound of her pain tore through me like a hot fire poker right to the gut.
Leaning down so I could gather her completely into my arms I said, “Sawyer, wake up!”
Sawyer jolted awake, shaking uncontrollably in my arms.
“What…what’s wrong?” She asked shakily.
“You tell me, darlin,’” I said. “You’re not ever going to get it out if you don’t talk about it. Tell me what they did to you.”
I could feel Sawyer’s eyelashes fluttering on my chest as she opened and closed them rapidly.
Then I felt the telltale trail of tears sliding down my bare chest, and I pulled her to me a little tighter.
“Tell me,” I urged.
“If it wasn’t for Ruthie, I’d be a very different woman right now,” she started.
Instead of saying anything, I just ran my hand through her hair. Stroking it lightly in encouragement, urging her to continue.
“I was paired with Ruthie right off the bat,” she whispered. “Thank God. Ruthie had gotten there about two weeks before me, and she’d already had to suffer at those men’s hands. I never really heard what exactly was done to her, because she didn’t want to talk about it, but I figure they went a lot further with her than they did with me.”
The hand that was propping my head up clenched in a tight fist as she got to what I really wanted to hear.
“The first time they cornered me was in the laundry area. I was in charge of folding the towels.” She swallowed, her tiny hand sliding up the outside of my abdominals, playing along the ridges and valleys of my chest. “I was bent over the basket, reaching for the last towel, when one of the guards came up behind me and pinned me to the basket. My pants were around my ankles before I even realized what was happening. When his hands touched me there, Ruthie came up and started to scream, drawing the attention of the entire laundry area, as well as the guards not in the laundry area.”
My eyes clenched shut tightly as I tried to reign in my fury.
“From then on, Ruthie and I had each other’s back. We never left one another alone, and the guards weren’t brave enough to do us both at the same time. So we basically had to stay with each other twenty-four seven,” she continued. “But there were the times where we were separated. Sometimes she’d be assigned to a different job for the day. When I started working with the dogs, she wasn’t allowed to do the same. That’s when it started up again. Not for me, but for Ruthie. I didn’t even realize anything was happening until about a month before I was let out. And I feel like a total and complete heel for not noticing it sooner.”
I brushed my lips across her head before I said, “She was protecting you and letting you do what you love. You’re good with those dogs.”