Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Remi jerked away like Ryder had punched him. “I’m not crazy!” he hissed furiously. “I’m…not.” With a weak shove, he pushed Ryder away from him and shoved his legs into the sweatpants. “Anyway, I’m not your concern. Walk away if this is too embarrassing for you. You’ve done it before. I’m sure you can do it again.”
Embarrassing? What the hell did he mean by that? Too embarrassing? Ryder looked at Remi as he slid his arms into a T-shirt and then dug back into the drawer in search of shoes. Who kept shoes in a drawer? Didn’t matter. Remi’s face was pale but red stains colored his high cheekbones. There was also a feverish, panicked look in his blue eyes. Like at the hospital, his hands trembled.
Ryder sure wasn’t going to allow Remi to leave the house when he was in his current mental state, at least not alone. Fuck, he really didn’t need to miss work with everything going on with the latest murder, but there was also no way he could turn his back on Remi. Sighing, he asked, “Let me go get dressed. It’ll just take me a few minutes. Where are we going?” he asked as he turned away to head toward his bedroom.
“I don’t know,” came the soft reply.
Well, hell.
Could this get any worse?
Ryder knew the answer to that question an hour later. Yes, it could get worse. It had gotten worse. They’d driven around the Galveston area, moving from one random spot to the next, with Remi staying true to his word…he didn’t know where they were going. He’d taken them from one area to the next and the only thing Ryder found to be common between the locations was that there were construction sites on each. When they reached one, Remi would just shake his head and point him in another direction. Ryder called in to work and they were, of course, pissed. Why not? Work being pissed seemed like a natural to how his morning had started.
Finally, he asked, “What are we doing, Remi?”
Remi shrugged and kept his eyes glued to any spot besides where Ryder sat behind the wheel of his Jeep. “Trying to prove I’m not going crazy,” Remi answered solemnly. Then he laughed, almost hysterically, and added, “Hell, I kinda hope I am going crazy.” He finally turned to look at Ryder. “Trust me, being mentally incapacitated beats the alternative.”
Okkaayyy. “What’s the alternative?” Ryder asked, needing answers. His murder victim, Gary Lacasse, deserved better from him. If he was going to fuck away his morning, then he damn well needed a good reason behind it.
“Turn left here!” Remi shouted, showing the first spark of emotion he’d demonstrated since they’d gotten into Ryder’s Jeep.
Ryder steered wildly, nearly running two cars into a ditch, but made the left-hand turn Remi requested. He looked up the hill and noticed they were at, yet again, another construction site. This was one of the new upper end neighborhoods being built and, from best Ryder could tell, there were at least eight houses under construction. Trucks were parked haphazardly on the road, in makeshift driveways, and in dirt patches that would one day be someone’s yard. Workers hustled around each building site. It was early, but work had already started for these men.
“Faster, Ryder! Please! The one being built at the end of the road!”
Remi had sat straight up, unbuckled his seat belt, and was dancing around like he had ants in his pants. His eyes were blazing with nervous excitement and his hands were visibly shaking again. He turned to Ryder and said, “Please hurry, Ryder.”
Ryder didn’t have a clue what was going on and had a bad feeling it was going to end badly, but he floored the gas pedal anyway. Within seconds, they’d reached the top of the hill and he’d no sooner slammed the Jeep into park before Remi jumped out and started running, screaming at the workers to stop with each step.
Ryder looked over the area and knew Remi was about to be in serious trouble. The workers at this site were currently pouring the concrete foundation to what looked to be a monster mansion. The spinning concrete truck was backed up to the edge of the blocked off groundwork and a huge tube was dumping the concrete onto the area. About a dozen men were inside, already smoothing out sections. He looked at Remi, running and waving wildly. He looked at the men smoothing the concrete.
Oh, shit. This was going to be even worse than he thought. He climbed out of the Jeep and sprinted toward Remi, hoping to catch up to him before he did what Ryder had a feeling he was about to do. Nope, he didn’t make it. When he was a mere three strides behind him, Remi jumped the cinder blocks enclosing the area and ran toward the middle of the foundation structure. He’d lost one of his flip-flops during the run, but it hadn’t slowed him down a bit. He was currently sloshing through the freshly poured concrete, one foot bare and one foot in a flip flop, messing up what the men had probably spent an hour smoothing out.