Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 65225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Opening the door, I gestured for her to go in front of me, then set the alarm.
The door closed behind me, and a few seconds later, the door lock engaged.
“The code to get in is six digits, as well as one letter. You think you can remember it now?” I asked.
“Yes.” She hesitated. “But I think we should probably discuss rent before you give me that code. Or before I unpack.”
We got in my truck, me without helping her in like I sorely wanted to, and the music nearly blasted my eardrums away the moment I started it up.
“Jammin’?” she asked as I turned the volume down significantly.
“Listening to an audiobook,” I admitted.
She hummed, then started singing along with the song.
And thank God I hadn’t started driving yet because I had to watch her sing it.
“What?” she asked once she noticed me watching.
“You just sang that part almost verbatim, minus the little lilt of a tune at the end. That was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s ‘Who Let the Dogs Out.’” She rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t know that part?”
“Me,” I told her. “I’ve never in my life heard that part. And if I had, I wouldn’t be able to quote it so effortlessly.”
She smirked.
“In answer to your question from earlier,” I said as I pulled out of my driveway in a sweeping turn. “I don’t really care about rent, to be honest. I’m sure that, in the grand scheme of things, you’re going to be doing me a favor by being here.”
She looked at me with a quirk of her eye that was practically saying ‘bullshit’ loud and clear.
“You don’t think you will?” I teased. “Bet.”
CHAPTER 5
I’m a terrible idea. Just FYI.
-Banger to Easton
EASTON
I all but shuffled into my house, my wounds stinging and my stomach churning.
I hadn’t planned to win my bet with Banger quite this spectacularly, but when I knocked on the door and it was opened in front of me, I nearly sank down to my knees at the jolt it sent through me.
I groaned, and would’ve gone down, had a strong but tiny shoulder not been shoved up underneath my own.
“Holy shit, Easton,” she whispered. “What the hell did you do to yourself? You’re so lucky I was home!”
“What do you mean?” I rasped. “You moved into my house.”
“Yeah,” she admitted. “But I second-guessed myself so many times today as I laid around and worked. You’re seriously lucky I’m still here. Oh my god. You’ve been stabbed!”
“Slashed.” I winced. “Take me to the kitchen. I don’t want to bleed all over the couch.”
She helped steer me there, then placed me on the barstool at the end that had turned into her skunk’s favorite spot since they’d moved in. Yet she was nowhere to be found right now.
“Knew you’d stay.” I breathed in deep when I separated the t-shirt from my skin, then pulled it off altogether.
That smirk fell off her face when I hissed in a breath when she started to clean the gash in my side.
“You’re going to need to see a doctor,” she told me bluntly. “I’m not one. I don’t even know what to do with something like this.”
“Take a picture. Let me see it,” I urged.
She did as I said, and I groaned inwardly when I saw the cut.
She was right.
I’d need to see the doctor.
It needed stitches.
But I couldn’t go to the hospital without a lot of questions being raised—i.e., what the hell had I been doing that I’d gotten a knife slash on my ribs, and a gunshot burn across my shoulder blades?
That wasn’t something that the hospital could just allow to pass.
I’d have to answer a whole lot of questions, and I wasn’t in the mood to answer them. Nor was I ever going to tell the truth.
“It’s a good thing that I know a doctor,” I grumbled as I pulled out my phone and placed a call.
Rook, also known as Tide, was a general surgeon at the local hospital. If I was lucky, he wouldn’t be working.
If I wasn’t, I’d be waiting for him to get off.
Which would blow, but… priorities.
“Yo,” Rook said the moment that he picked up. “I thought you were offline for a while?”
“Yeah, that plan went out the window when the dude decided to slash me in the ribs with his goddamn knife,” I grunted. “I need an assist.”
There was a moment of silence, and then some talking, followed by him getting to somewhere quieter. Then he said, “I get off in an hour. You gonna still be alive in an hour? Or do I need to leave now?”
“I’ll be here,” I answered. “I’ll get it cleaned up and ready for you.”
“K. Anything changes, call. I can get there. I just don’t want to look suspicious.” He chuckled.
Then hung up.
Banger took my phone from me and placed it on the counter face down, then looked at me skeptically. “I think you should get in the shower and wash away all the blood.”