Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
The baby didn’t like him leaning against my stomach—which, although it was slightly rounded, it didn’t stick out like a normal pregnant belly yet—and moved to display his impatience at being impeded in any way.
Yet, Kobe obviously hadn’t felt it because he moved away and looked up at me.
“Tell me when you get there and every time you stop,” he ordered.
I dropped a kiss onto his mouth. “Yes, Daddy.”
His eye twitched.
That was a new thing I’d started doing.
Soon, he’d realize why I was calling him that.
I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he finally realized.
I’d been dropping hints like crazy.
Hell, I’d even left out a sonogram photo pinned straight to the refrigerator.
He still hadn’t noticed.
“I love you,” he growled and pulled me down for a kiss.
I stuck both of my knees into the couch and hugged him tight.
Then, leaned backward and popped the string of his eye patch against the side of his face.
“I love you, too,” I teased.
Then I was gone.
“I left you dinner,” I said. “It’s in the fridge. And don’t go anywhere without JP.”
He snorted. “I’d never forget my best girl.”
And he wouldn’t.
They’d grown exceptionally close in the last three months that he’d been there.
They were now thick as thieves.
He wouldn’t ever forget her.
I trusted her more with him than I did myself.
As I drove the eight hours to the indictment, I thought about nothing else than getting back home.
But when I got there, I was actually excited.
“You there finally?” Kobe asked as I phoned him to tell him I’d made it.
Tim came out onto Anthony’s porch and waved.
I got out of my car and waved with my elbow, keeping the phone pressed to my ear.
“Yes,” I said. “This time, I’m actually here. Not stopping for the bathroom.”
He snorted. “You need to cool it on the drinks on the way home.”
If he only knew…
“Love you, Kobe. I’ll talk to you before I go to bed.”
He growled something to me that sounded an awful lot like “you better.”
Then we hung up and I hugged my brother.
Ant looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Why do you look so different?”
I burst out into giggles.
Then told him everything.
• • •
“I would like to call…” the prosecutor called out, looking directly at me.
I didn’t hear the words he said after that over the buzz of anticipation in my ears. But I knew he’d called me.
I got up, walked up to the dude holding the Bible, then said the words he was waiting to hear. “I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
“You may take the stand.”
I walked up, took my seat, then made eye contact with my onetime best friend.
She looked angry and scared.
I told my story.
And when I was done, there wasn’t a single person in the room that was now siding with Lisbeth or Farrell. Not even the impartial judge.
CHAPTER 25
Say it, don’t spray it.
-T-shirt
KOBE
I had no clue where we were going.
For once, I didn’t have an appointment, but we were at the hospital.
If I never saw the inside of a hospital again, it would be too soon.
Yet here we were, on my day off, walking into the hospital.
I was slow, but I was still doing it on my own steam, so there was that.
“Why are we here?” I asked for the third time.
She pinched me, then pointed. “We’re going up there. It’s for me, remember?”
I assumed it was for her medication that she had to have administered once a month, so I chose to stay quiet and go along with her for the ride.
When we rode up the escalator to the second floor, she power walked to the front desk and said a few words to the chick behind the counter.
I caught up to her and heard the chick saying, “A nurse will call you back shortly. Please have a seat.”
I took a seat next to her, and she fiddled with her dress nervously.
“Why are you so nervous?” I asked her.
She licked her lips, but before she could answer, her name was called.
I got up and walked with her, much slower now than I used to be, but they waited patiently for me to catch up.
“How are you feeling today?” the nurse asked. “You’re eighteen weeks, right?”
“Eighteen weeks, four days,” Folsom confirmed, shooting me a look.
I had no clue what they were talking about.
“Eighteen weeks?” I asked.
“Right when all the good stuff can be seen,” the nurse replied to my words.
Folsom started to laugh under her breath, causing me to frown.
But before I could question what that was supposed to mean, the nurse showed us into a room that had a huge television on the wall and a flat padded table that had two large pillows at one end.
Oh, and a sonogram machine.
I looked at it for so long that Folsom poked me.