Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 75193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
One second I was a few feet away, and the next I was blissfully warm and happy.
I’d never felt anything like it before, that feeling of having him so close.
Every boyfriend I’d previously had didn’t feel like Ridley, either.
There was just something about being in the man’s arms that had me feeling a high I hadn’t ever felt before.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he whispered. “You need to leave. Now.”
I pulled back so I could look at his face, knowing confusion was written all over my own.
“What?” I asked. “I need to talk to you. And I’ve been texting you for days now. I don’t know what to do.”
He growled in frustration.
“Fuck,” he said, pulling me away from him and giving me a slight push; his eyes were focused over my shoulder at something I couldn’t see. “Go home. No arguing. Go.”
All I had to do was take one look at his eyes, and I knew I needed to go.
I didn’t know why, but I knew that he wouldn’t be telling me to leave if it were safe for me to be there.
So I left, though every step away from him had my body screaming at me not to go.
I did, though.
I walked out the door and didn’t look back.
I held my head high, purposefully keeping my eyes in front of me, aimed at the door.
When I finally pushed through the door and it closed behind me, my adrenaline started to wane, and I was left with the shakes.
“Oh, God. Oh, God,” I said over and over again. “Oh, God.”
I drove home, went straight to my brother’s gun safe, and opened it.
Then I pulled out my brother’s favorite gun, loaded it, and studied it.
Could I do it?
I knew I could.
I slid the bolt down, enabling the bullet to be loaded into the chamber, and slammed it shut.
The satisfying click-snap had my heart rate accelerating.
I had to. There were no other options.
Chapter 8
There was no elf on the shelf when I was a kid. There was a belt on the shelf. When I have kids, there’ll be a belt. Why? Because I don’t want to raise an asshole.
-Text from Ridley to Freya
Ridley
“Home?” Kelly yelled. “You can’t go home!”
I nodded.
I damn well could go home.
“I can and will.” I shoved my bag full, gathering what meager belongings I had and shouldering the bag. “You have all you’re going to get out of Tasty. Now all you need to do is keep whatever railroad he’s able to ferret information in and out of this prison shut down until the fucking try out Coller’s having next week.”
Kelly’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.
“You ready?” I asked Wolf.
Wolf nodded.
“You bring your truck or am I gonna have to ride bitch all the way home?” I asked.
‘Cause that would be a long two-hour drive.
“I brought my truck,” he grinned. “Had to drop the boy off with Hannah.”
A slow smile started to spill over my face as we both walked out of the prison.
A huge feeling of relief poured over me as I slipped out the back door through the guard’s entrance with Wolf at my back.
Hannah was a nurse who Wolf really clicked with when he’d been hurt a few years ago. She’d been in his life in some way since.
“You’re fucking her, aren’t you?” I asked Wolf once we reached his truck.
His face shut down.
“You fucking your girl? The dead cop’s sister?” Wolf countered.
I glared at him.
“Fuck off.”
“You can fuck off, too.”
“Drop me off at Freya’s,” I ordered.
Wolf nodded and we started for Kilgore, which was a good two-hour drive from where we were currently located.
“Did you ever get a hold of her?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.
I shook my head. “No.”
And I was nervous.
I’d seen the fear in her eyes, but I’d had to tell her to go.
The moment I’d walked into the room, only thinking to get to Freya as fast as I could, I’d clocked Tasty.
I could see the wheels turning in Tasty’s eyes. Could see the calculation as he looked from me to Freya, then back to me.
And I knew, if he could, he’d get whatever information he could out to that fucker, Coller.
The less information he had to give, however, the better.
I was just lucky that Freya had thrown a fit to see me, because it’d kept Tasty and the other prisoners out of the room a lot longer than they would’ve normally been. Meaning that Tasty only got a short look at her.
Last week when she’d visited, he’d only gotten a small glimpse of her before I’d taken her into the family room.
With any luck, this would all turn out okay, and not nearly as bad as I was thinking it’d get.
But when I got to Freya’s two hours later, Freya was gone.
And her house was empty.