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)
My sister was one giant fucking mess, and I hadn’t spoken to my parents in ten years. What did that say about me?
Her nearly silent, “Thank you,” preceded me out the door.
Walking down the steps, I was surprised to see Annalise sitting on my front porch.
I’d spotted her when I was halfway down, and saw that her eyes flared at the sight of me coming out of Adeline’s apartment sweaty and shirtless. I didn’t say anything though. It wouldn’t help.
She was jealous, and egging her on wouldn’t help the situation.
“Annalise,” I said as I made it to my front porch.
Her nose and lip lifted into a snarl. “Did I interrupt something?” She sneered.
“What can I help you with?” I asked, ignoring her snarl.
It wasn’t like she had any claim on me anymore. Still, I could see how she would be upset by it. So I’d give her some slack.
For now.
“I came to see if you wanted to go grab something to eat, but I can see I’m too late. You already ate the girl next door.” Annalise spat.
“I think it’s time for you to leave if you don’t have anything worthwhile to say. I’ve got somewhere to be.”
“Do you really have somewhere to be, or are you just saying that because you want me to leave?”
Her question was answered moments later when Trance pulled up on his bike and pulled into one of my assigned spots.
He shut it off, put down the kickstand, swung his leg over the bike and stood.
Annalise’s face turned down into a severe frown, which was another reason I’d ended it.
She didn’t accept my family. And Trance was family as well as one of my best friends.
She especially hated Trance.
Trance was a K-9 officer with the Benton police department.
Although not in the same department as Annalise, they still passed each other on occasion, and she’d gone out of her way to let it be known that she didn’t trust him.
I hadn’t been aware of it until Trance had come to me one day, finally telling me his problem with Annalise. Not that he’d needed to, because I’d broken up with her the night before.
“Kettle,” Trance said as he offered his hand.
Trance was named after his eyes. They were two different colors, one blue and one green; the girls loved them.
Something about the man’s curly blonde hair and weird eyes did it for the women.
When you added the cut and the badge, he was nearly unstoppable.
“Trance,” I shook his hand.
“Well, as nice as this is,” Annalise said as she stood up. “I think I’ll go home. Sorry I even bothered.”
Trance and I watched her go, neither one concerned in the least that she left.
“Are you ready for a ride?” Trance asked.
I nodded. “Just need to go change. I’ll be out in ten. My neighbor needed some help carrying in her groceries.”
Trance nodded and took a seat on the couch as I went to the master bedroom to find a shirt and a pair of pants.
I chose the ones that were less holey than the rest, as I expected it to get a little colder out within the next few hours.
Just as I’d slipped the cut over my shoulders and swiped on some deodorant, pounding came from my front door.
“Kettle!” My neighbor screeched, pounding hard on the door.
I wasn’t aware I was running until I got to the door just after Trance had yanked it open.
She poured inside and rushed towards me, completely bypassing a stupefied Trance.
“Oh, my God. I need your help. Can you help me?” She pleaded, grabbing me by the t-shirt and drawing me closer to her.
“She’s blind and I don’t know where she is. Oh Jesus. Please,” she cried.
I grabbed the flailing Adeline’s arms and held them firmly, looking into her eyes with a calm expression. “Adeline,” I said gently but firmly. “You need to calm down and give me the whole story.”
Trance met my eyes over the top of her head, both brows raised in question.
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Okay,” she said nodding her head. “My sister called me to tell me our brother came to borrow some money from her, since he didn’t find any at my place. When she said she didn’t have any on her, my brother took her to an ATM, and then dropped her off somewhere. She can’t hear any noises, and she doesn’t have any way to move. She can’t see. She’s blind.”
Adeline was frantic again by the time she was done.
I was worried myself. What kind of low life brother would drop his blind sister off knowing she couldn’t fucking see to get herself home?
Trance was on the ball, pulling his phone out and calling the station to put a BOLO (Be on the lookout) out on her.
“Hey, what’s the cell number?” Trance called out.
I looked down at a clearly distraught Adeline. “What’s her number, Adeline?”
“Uhh,” she said, turned around, and rattled off the number
Trance relayed the number, and hung up the phone.
“Okay, once she uses the phone again she’ll be traced. Can you call her?” Trance asked calmly.
She seemed to understand that she needed to get her shit together, because she took a deep breath, and blew it out before explaining. “Her phone died. We were in the middle of speaking and she’d told me that it wouldn’t be long until it would die. I came over here as soon as it did. She said he took her to her bank, and then dropped her off a couple of blocks past it, as far as she could tell.”
Taking her hand, I led her to the door and down the stairs before she finished speaking.
I did glance down to make sure she was properly dressed, at least. If she hadn’t been, I would’ve had to send her to her place to get some something more suitable on. I wouldn’t be able to help the sister if I was worrying about the one that was on the back of my bike. The road didn’t really agree with bare skin, for some reason; I was always leery about what I wore when I was riding.