Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Cody couldn’t stop shaking as the man stared at him in repulsion. “I’m disgusted that you got involved in this to begin with, but I am grateful that you came to me in the end. So, here’s what’s going to happen…you’re going to get in your truck and drive off my ranch. You’re going to turn your back and act like none of this ever happened and thank your lucky stars that I’m not turning you in, too. Beyond that, I don’t want to ever see you again.”
The man steeled his voice. “Not here on my property, not in this town.”
He leaned in closer to prove a point. “And if I ever catch you talking to my daughter again which you can be sure I’ve noticed the way you’ve been doing? I’ll make sure you won’t have the capacity to make that mistake again. Stay the hell away from her. Do you understand me?”
Cody’s nod was a jolt of relief.
“Good. Now get the fuck out of my face so I can deal with this mess.”
FORTY-FOUR
HAILEY
I’d heard that it only takes one event to reform the entire shape of your life.
One moment to construct a different mold.
One second to reconfigure the truth of what you knew.
I trembled in the aftermath of it, my mind trying to process the catastrophic incident from earlier this afternoon.
My spirit screamed with the horror of what I had brought to this town.
With what I had caused.
With what I had done.
“Would you stop it?” Cody rumbled.
“No, I won’t stop it.” I could barely speak around the rawness of my throat.
“While I appreciate your fretting, darlin’, I can promise you it isn’t necessary.”
I inhaled a shaky breath.
I couldn’t calm down.
Couldn’t soothe the dread.
Couldn’t assuage the fear that he could have been killed.
He could have been killed.
Because of me.
Because of me.
“I think it’s very necessary.” I choked out the words as I tried to help Cody from the front seat of my Durango. It wasn’t like I could support the weight of the man, but God, I was going to try.
Cody eased out onto his feet, sporting a grin like this wasn’t a big deal and he hadn’t spent the last six hours in the ER being treated and observed. “I barely got a scratch.”
Disbelief left me on a shaky exhale as I tried to hold onto his wrist that didn’t have any bandages on it.
“Barely a scratch? You have stitches in four different places, bruised ribs, a cracked collarbone, and a severe burn on your arm.”
Shattered glass had been imbedded all over his body, impaling him like darts as he’d been sent rocketing back like an arrow. The explosion had burned him, his hair singed, and it’d scorched his forearm and hand that had been closest to the truck, and they said it was likely he’d suffer some permanent hearing damage.
It’d been his saving grace, though—the fact that he hadn’t been inside the truck when the explosive had gone off. I had to believe Pruitt knew I was supposed to have been attending a meeting this evening. That he somehow knew that I wouldn’t be leaving with Cody that evening.
But how?
Grief crawled around in my chest, slithering like a snake, the sensation sticky and gross.
Tears pricked behind my eyes.
I fought to hold them back.
“And they shot me full of something that made me feel just fine.” Cody tossed another grin at me as we ambled up the walkway and onto the porch.
He’d left the hospital against medical advice since they’d wanted him to stay overnight for observation. But he’d refused, insisting that he needed to be home with me and Maddie and Lolly, which only made me worry more.
I stayed right at his side, hands fumbling as I tried to keep him steady, even though he was standing just fine.
But what if he hadn’t been?
Sorrow bound, clotting off oxygen. I wheezed around it.
“If I went tumbling onto my ass right now, Hailey, I’d be taking you down with me,” he teased. “I wouldn’t stand so close if I were you.”
“Liar,” I muttered under my breath.
We crossed the porch, our footsteps thudding on the wooden planks.
We stopped in front of the door, and I tipped my face up to him.
“Liar,” I whispered again.
Confusion pinched his brow.
“You would absolutely be standing right here, holding me up, if the tables were turned.”
Understanding dawned, and his smirk softened, his smile going so tender that I ached. “Of course, I would, darlin’.”
“Then don’t ask me not to stand by you.”
I turned and unlocked the door.
It was close to midnight, and it was silent inside.
Maddie had gone to sleep hours ago, having no clue there’d been any issue, while Lolly had texted me incessantly until about ten when I’d finally convinced her Cody was okay.
If only I could convince myself of the same thing.
Cody had demanded that I not call his family. He wanted to be the one to do it. To be able to go to them and tell them he was okay without them running to the ER terrified.