Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
I wasn’t sure why she’d gone there, but it couldn’t be anything good. Even though she’d lost her home, someone as resourceful as she is would’ve found some place to go I have no doubt. Some place I was bound to have her thrown out of as well, but that was neither here nor there.
I’d taken all her money. Both the foreign accounts and the local one I found. I know she had no money except what her mother had left her in the envelope. I’m going to let that slide.
She’s a mother after all. And in the scheme of things, five hundred dollars isn’t even pocket change and I’m sure it was long gone by now, so no real help to her. Except to buy drugs and get high.
So why? No matter how I looked at it I couldn’t fit it together. But I knew I had to go. I guess it was inevitable all along, as much as I wanted to avoid it. If I never laid eyes on her again that would suit me. I know it’s the best way to destroy her putrid mind. If I’d told her in the beginning why I left her cold, she’d have come up with a million excuses by now no doubt. But this way the question keeps eating away at her day in and day out.
Oh well, at least this will put an end to the bullshit once and for all. I’ll just go take a look and get her ass outta there. Or maybe I should just call the cops and let them handle it. It was breaking and entering after all. But that would be too easy!
It was hours later, after dinner was over and everyone had gone to bed, excited about the next day. Mom had invited all the families to Thanksgiving dinner and who was going to refuse dinner with the Saunders? Another reason I needed to take care of this now and have a clean slate for tomorrow.
It was Sian’s first Thanksgiving as a Saunders bride and I didn’t want anything fucking that shit up. There were no gifts being given yet of course, but the holiday was still a big deal around here.
“You asleep?” I’d just made love to her, which apart from my kid putting her to sleep is the best way I know to put her down. She didn’t budge when I tried to tickle her so I knew she was out.
I snuck out of bed and went into the walk-in closet to get dressed. I pulled on some jeans and a long sleeve tee before sneaking my way out of the room with my shoes in hand. I was quiet when I disarmed the alarm in my wing and reset it again once I got outside.
I jogged down the steps and made my way around to the garage. I chose the nearest vehicle and climbed in, confident that I was in the clear. I idled the SUV down the drive and gunned it once I reached the road.
The closer I got to my destination the madder I got. The fact that she’d gone here told me that she hadn’t learned shit from the last few days’ events. That she was still out to hurt my girl in some way.
If not, why had she chosen to come to her home? Sure everyone knew it was empty after the fire, but why there? It made no sense.
24
Jace
* * *
I drove down the driveway slowly with the lights off. There was one light on in the house and I wasn’t surprised that it was in Sian’s room. I got out of the truck and looked around at the dark night.
It would be so easy... But I couldn’t do anything here, not where my girl’s family slept. Instead I walked around back. How did she get in anyway? And how do I get in without alerting her to the fact that I was here. I wasn’t left wondering long.
The alarm hadn’t been set because of the workers going back and forth, which was an oversight. No one expects to be robbed in this neighborhood, but still. I knew it wasn’t on since the night I’d come back here for her medicine, but hadn’t thought much of it. Missed that one.
I walked up the stairs, being as quiet as I could and stepped into Sian’s bedroom door. Mandy was sitting on the bed, the new bed that replaced the one that had been burned in the explosion.
“What are you doing here?” It was obvious what she was doing. The door to Sian’s closet was open and some of her things were spread out on the bed and yet more had been strewn all over the floor. She jumped and turned around on the bed.
The look of surprise on her face became calculating in the blink of an eye. “What do you think I’m doing here? Where’s your shadow? Don’t tell me she’s let you out of her sight.”