Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
And what would he do when he found out that he had an incredibly annoying neighbor, even if multiple acres separated us?
Chapter 6
Unless you’re shooting a porno, I don’t care about your live video.
-Evander’s real-life words
Evander
I pulled my trailer over to the side of the road and pulled up Travis’ number on the shitty disposable phone I got at the grocery store the day that I got out of prison.
Once I had him on the line, I wasted no time finding out what I needed to know, Kennedy Swallow’s address.
Five minutes later, I was driving down the road, toward my own goddamn house, wondering how I would miss the new neighbor at the back of my property.
Though, I had to admit, I was a little on overload since I’d gotten out of prison.
I’d had a full-time job within twenty-four hours of getting out of prison, and pairing that with the way my property was used as the town’s dumping ground while I was gone, I had plenty of shit to do.
I’d only made a tiny dent in the trash that’d been left, and I knew that it would take me several weeks more to get rid of it all.
I’d prided myself in keeping my property clean and corralled when I’d lived there, and the citizens of Hostel, Texas had shit on that while I’d been gone.
Lucky for me, and unlucky for some of them, I’d gone through some of the trash while I’d been cleaning up and found names and mail in some of the bags.
The dumbasses.
I’d even gone through an old broken-down dresser and found a man’s diamond wedding ring—although it only fit me on my pinky—that’d been left in a drawer hidden in the back at the bottom of the dresser itself.
That was going to cost someone the money, but since it was left on my property as trash, I didn’t care to return it like I might have before I’d gotten back to find my place being used as the town junkyard.
Passing my place, I turned down the side road that led down the north side of my land, and drove until I saw the first driveway that bumped up against the back side of my property.
And the moment I did, I started to laugh.
She had three goats that were on her back porch.
Two of them were standing on cardboard boxes watching me drive up, while the third was busy eating the bigger of the two boxes that the other goat was standing on.
I put the truck in park and had the door open in record time.
The moment my feet hit the cool earth, a quiet sheep dog stepped out from behind the porch steps, his eyes on me, very watchful of my every move.
I stopped, stared and wondered if he’d attack me if I came through the fence.
With only one way to find out, I shrugged and started forward.
The moment my hand hit the fence, though, he vaulted forward, barking.
Which then set off Gertie in the front seat of the truck.
Taking my hand off the fence, I raised it in the air in the universal ‘I’m not going to come through your fence so you can eat my face off’ sign and walked backwards a few steps and turned to my truck.
“Gertie, stop.”
Gertie stopped, but he kept a wary, watchful eye on the enemy—the other dog who was staring at me like I was lunch.
“Mint, what are you going all crazy about...”
My breathing halted in my chest when I saw her.
She was staring at me, stopped beside the side of her house, with a shovel in one hand and what looked like a dead chicken in the other.
“Hey,” she murmured. “What are you doing here?”
I pointed at the trailer that I was hauling with the two round bales of hay on the back.
“Brought you the hay.” I refrained from saying, ‘like I told you I was going to do.’
She pursed her lips, went to lift her wrist that I could see her watch attached to, then grimaced.
“I have to bury my chicken,” she said. “If you wouldn’t mind giving me a few?”
I nodded, and she turned on her heel and walked away.
I followed closely behind her, stopping when I saw the amount of feathers everywhere.
“What happened?” I asked.
Her shoulders shook.
“A neighborhood dog came in and killed all my chickens.”
My mouth went dry at the controlled anger in her voice.
“Did you catch it?”
She shook her head.
“No, but I knew the dog. He’s been here before, but I’ve been able to catch him before he’s done anything crazy.” She looked at the mess around her. “I tried building a fence…”
She gestured to the pathetic looking fence that couldn’t keep a house cat back let alone a dog, and then shrugged.
“I’m not so good at building things.”
I could see that. Boy, could I see that.