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 you fell for it, hook, line and sinker,” she guessed.
I nodded. “I sure the fuck did.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” she murmured. “There are checks and balances in the system to prevent this from happening.”
“The so called ‘system’ failed me,” I told her bluntly. “A cop could’ve done a little more digging and gotten to the bottom of it, but since what the detective found out fit me, and my background seemed to fit the situation, he didn’t bother to look any further,” I groaned. “I also couldn’t afford a fucking lawyer, so I had one appointed to me. The only problem was that his wife was pregnant, and he didn’t want to find a way for me to get off, because he kept comparing the prostitute to her—whether I did it or not, so he chose to slack off. I fired him and tried to represent myself, but that didn’t go all that well either.”
“So you served time for assault, robbery and kidnapping?”
I nodded. “Assaulting the pimp was never one of the charges against me. Apparently, he allowed me to go to jail as a punishment for beating the shit out of him since he knew that he couldn’t take me in a fight. One that he knew I’d be willing to give him if he’d wanted it.”
“So you beat the shit out of her pimp, two other guys that were with him, and were punished by going to jail for assault, kidnapping, and what…murder?”
“Not murder,” he disagreed. “The detective did do something right. Found out that the prostitute had lost her baby the previous night in the ER. She was scheduled to have a D&C the next day.”
All Kennedy could do was shake her head.
“And where was your brother during all of this?”
I grimaced. “That detective I was talking about?”
Her mouth dropped open in anger.
“He did not.”
I shook my head. “No, the detective wasn’t him. But he’s best friends with him. You know that guy whose truck I recovered from Lowe’s?”
She nodded, eyes wide.
“That’s him.”
“What a douche,” she grumbled, still shaking her head. “You should find a better lawyer. You could get compensation. You could get money from the state for wrongfully convicting you and sending you to jail!”
I grunted. “Takes money, darlin’.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “But that’s not fair!”
I laughed humorlessly. “Didn’t anyone tell you that life wasn’t fair?”
Plus, I was doing something about it…just not through the legal system.
“Well, if I had money, I’d hire a lawyer for you. A private investigator, too.”
I dropped my hand to her head and curled it around her neck before I pulled her to me.
“Don’t get yourself caught up in this,” I told her, mouth only inches away from her, making us eye to eye.
She narrowed her eyes, and I squeezed the back of her neck lightly.
“Trust me on this. With the chief of police, Fowler, being dirty, and that shitty Detective Mueller, you really won’t get anywhere with this. Dumbass number one will fuck you over for a pretty penny, and Detective Mueller already dislikes you for having anything to do with me over him.”
“Not to mention he’s obviously a shit detective.”
I shrugged at her words.
She wasn’t wrong.
“Leave it be,” I ordered her.
She looked away, but I turned her back to face me with my hand that was still on her neck.
“Promise me that you won’t get involved in this,” I said. “When I leave here…you need to leave it that way. You need to stay the fuck away from me and not look back.”
Her face became thunderous.
“I’m not staying away from you just because there are dumb people in this town who don’t know their assholes from their elbows.”
I squeezed her neck and got up, grabbing my jeans from the floor.
After shrugging them on, I reached down to the floor for my socks and sat on the bed before putting them on.
“You’re leaving?”
I didn’t bother to look at her.
If I did something stupid like that, I might very well decide that I wanted to stay.
And I couldn’t stay.
It was already bad enough that I’d fucked her—without a condom I might add.
Something so fuckin’ stupid I couldn’t even begin to count the ways.
“Yeah, I’m leaving,” I told her. “Better for you if I’m not here.”
She touched my back. “Will you come to me tomorrow?”
I finished putting on my socks and reached for my boots, dislodging her hand.
“I don’t know that that is a good idea,” I told her bluntly. “The more we’re seen together, the worse things will get for you. If you need me, you can call. But no, I won’t be here.”
Which made me feel like utter shit.
But this was her life we were talking about. Her sister was dying, yes, but she had to go on living. And she had to keep doing it in this very town that was as corrupt as fuck.