Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67905 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
I left the restaurant and stepped into the cold air. It was still dark because the sun wouldn’t be up for another hour or so. It was indistinguishable from midnight if you didn’t know the time. I got into my Range Rover and fiddled with the keys to get them into the ignition, but then I remembered I just had to push a button to start the engine.
The car roared to life, and the heater kicked on. I pulled onto the road, but the lines all merged together, and I almost swerved into a car parked at the curb. The ground felt uneven as it shook underneath me. There was an open spot at the curb, and I pulled over, half of my Range Rover on the sidewalk and right next to a parking meter. If I’d gone a few more inches, I probably would have smashed into it.
“Jesus.” I put the vehicle in park then searched for my phone, not sure which pocket it was in. I finally found it and called the first and only name that came to mind.
“You’re up late.” He sounded wide awake. It was probably his morning to get up with the kids.
“Yeah…I guess.”
I must have sounded like someone else, because he said, “Theo?”
“Yeah.”
“You okay?”
“Sure. Can I get a ride?”
Axel paused for a moment. “Fuck, you’re wasted.”
“I’d sleep in the car, but…” It was bulletproof, but I was still out in the open, a target on my front and my back.
“I’m on my way. Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Great, that’s helpful,” he said. “I’ll find you. Hold tight.”
A tap on the window woke me up.
My eyes opened, and I saw Axel right next to me. With a groan, I hit the button and unlocked the door.
Axel hit the ignition button and turned off the car. “Nice parking job.”
“Fuck you.”
“Can you walk?”
“Fuck you.”
“You said that already.” He grabbed me by the arm and helped me out of the Range Rover. The sky had lightened, but daylight hadn’t broken yet. He walked with me to the passenger seat of his car and opened the door. “Let me repark your car, and we’ll be on our way.” He shut the door once I was in the seat and then parked my Range Rover on the street instead of on top of the sidewalk. I’d get a ticket for leaving my vehicle there, but at least it wouldn’t get towed like it would if I’d left it how it had been.
When Axel got into the driver’s seat, I was jerked awake. It made me wonder if I’d imagined him parking the car. Did I dream that, or did he park the car and then I fell asleep for two seconds before I was woken up again?
Fuck, I was smashed.
Axel didn’t talk as he drove. I wasn’t sure where we were going.
“Where?” I meant to ask the full sentence, but it came out as a single word.
“My place.”
“No.”
“It’s either that or the hospital. Figured you’d prefer this.”
I lay back against the seat and closed my eyes. I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes again, we were in Axel’s underground parking garage in front of the elevator. Axel threw my arm over his shoulder and helped me into the elevator before we rose to the entryway of his villa.
I looked at the stairs and had never felt so intimidated.
“The couch in the study.” He guided me across the room, past the staircase, and into the room where we smoked our cigars together. He helped me onto the couch.
I immediately lay back, using the couch as a bed.
Axel pulled the coffee table away in case I rolled onto the floor. He closed the curtains next, placed a glass of water and some pills on the end table, and then shut the double doors to the study.
The second it was quiet, I was out.
When I woke up, it was warm, the sunlight pushing heat through the slits in the curtains. I blinked several times, realizing I had the migraine from fucking hell. I remembered the pills and the water and downed both before I lay there again, paralyzed once more.
The door cracked, and Scarlett poked her head inside. “How are you feeling?”
“Better than I ever was.”
She smirked then closed the door again, probably to retrieve Axel.
Axel came in a moment later, in only his sweatpants like he’d just gotten up or was getting ready for bed. “Hungry?”
“No.” I forced myself to sit up, and the shift in blood flow helped with the migraine.
“Really?” Axel sat in the armchair. “You must be starving.”
“I had dinner a couple hours ago.”
“A day and a couple of hours ago.”
I grabbed my phone and looked at the time. It was nine in the morning.
“You slept all day and all night. You were out, man. Scarlett wanted to take you to the hospital, but I said you would pull through.”