Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
What the fuck? Why was he here? He was supposed to be at the clubhouse with...
His eyes were closed, and a dark purpling goose egg was welling on the side of his temple, indicating that he’d been hit by something before being shoved into the small opening.
Leaving the door open, I frantically reached for the last drawer as bile rose from the pit of my stomach like a tidal wave. It wasn’t until I was at the very last box at the bottom left corner that I found her.
Adeline.
She was on her back, eyes closed, and an ugly bruise was oozing blood just above her right eye. The blood was running steadily out of the cut and into her hair, then further down to the hard surface beneath her where a small puddle was forming.
A steel bar about the size of a crowbar was in the drawer beside her.
Cursing low, I first checked to make sure she had a pulse.
After feeling the slow steady pound of her blood pumping through her veins, I removed the small pen light I always carried with me, lifted her eyelids, and shined it at her pupils. First one, and then the other.
Luckily, they were both equal and reactive.
Her eyes fluttered a few moments after that, and opened, blinking sleepily at me.
Then she winced, raising a hand to her head, saying, “Owww!”
Relief poured through me, making the breath in my lungs leave me in a rush, and I sagged. My elbows caught me as I leaned more fully into the drawer, laying my head against the softness of Adeline’s belly.
“Jesus,” I whispered.
The sharp bark of a gun report tore through the room like a thunderclap, tensing my spine once again, making me look at the closed door that led to the outside alley.
“Oh shit,” Dixie uttered the same words that were on the tip of my tongue.
“What’s going on?” Tunnel groaned from the drawer below Adeline.
I watched as the young man stood, and then winced as I got my first good look at the size of the goose egg. “You’re gonna be going to the hospital with us.”
Adeline sat up with my help, and then stood.
We were making our way out to the main room when Loki found us.
He looked a little worse for wear and the grim set to his face let me know that something more was wrong. Well, more than what I guessed was the love of his life working at a funeral parlor belonging to a known drug dealer, was wrong.
“Nelson Platt is now in police custody. He shot Radar though. Luckily, it was in the vest that Trance got him last year. Saved his life. Found the crew in the room we suspected they’d be in. They’re all outside waiting to be taken in on charges for drug trafficking.” Loki said, sounding exhausted.
Seeing Adeline sway on her feet, I picked her up, one arm underneath her legs, and the other around her back. We followed closely behind Loki as he weaved his way through the bowels of the funeral home and out into the morning sunshine, passing a massive amount of cops in the process. Probably more than we’d had on duty that day.
Carrying Adeline straight towards the ambulance, I sat her down on the cot and started to dress her wounds with more than just tissues and paper towels, ignoring the weird glances I was getting from the medics, as well as their verbal demands.
They were ones I hadn’t met before, which was weird because I knew practically every medic within thirty miles of Benton. Which meant they must be new.
“Sir, we can do it.” One said to him.
I ignored them as I cleaned off her skin around the wound, purposefully not speaking with her, just in case I went insane and lost my temper.
Lucky for her, she stayed quiet too. She must’ve sensed how very annoyed I was with her, because she barely even looked at me the entire time.
“Do you need a ride to the hospital?” The medic asked snidely.
My eyes turned to the rude man, staring at him, letting him know that I was in no mood to deal with his shitty comments.
“No,” I said. “I’ll be driving her myself. Thanks for the offer though.”
“You’re refusing transport, too?” The other medic, the one who was looking at Tunnel’s goose egg, asked.
“Yeah, I have a car here. Can’t leave it.” He explained tightly.
Tunnel was pissed. Most likely at himself. Which was good, because I was mad as hell at him, too. Served him right.
“You do know that you’ve got a goose egg the size of a Burger King Whopper on your head.” Paramedic number two clarified.
“Yeah,” he said. “My wife’s a nurse. She’ll take care of me.”
We left shortly after that.
After taking a closer look at Adeline’s cut, I decided that there wasn’t much to be done for it. It wasn’t deep enough for stitches and other than prescribing her headache meds and being told to wake her up every three hours, there was nothing that they could do at a hospital that I couldn’t do at home.
Adeline still didn’t speak, and I could sense her unease. I knew she thought I was upset with her, and I was. She was trying not to say anything in order to keep my temper in check. Which was good on her part, because my temper was eager to go.
I didn’t take the road home, instead deciding to ride. I knew Adeline was probably cold, but she didn’t complain, only buried her helmeted head into my back and held on tight, moving into the turns with me, making me feel as if we were one.
I thought about a lot of things during that ride.
Mainly about how I’d lost a lot of stuff in my life, and I didn’t want to lose anymore. I didn’t want to waste any more time. Didn’t want to wake up one morning and regret what I’d done with my life. What could have been.
When we finally pulled into the driveway of my lake house three hours later, I’d come to a few decisions.