Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
I blinked. “Do we really need all of that right now?” I asked.
She didn’t bother to answer; instead, moving to put a huge box of wipes into the cart, followed by smaller tubs and packages of the same.
The more she continued to add to the cart, the more I could see the dollars adding up.
“Here, which one?” She asked, pointing to the two car seats directly in front of her.
“What’s wrong with that one?” I asked, pointing to the cheaper one.
“That one is made for bigger kids. This one is for a newborn,” she indicated.
I pointed to the cheaper one.
“That one is fine,” I said.
She chose the teal-colored one that I had not pointed at.
“Will you go get another cart? We’re going to need at least two, if not three,” she said.
Reluctantly, I walked away in a hurry, worried that if I took too long, she’d buy the whole fuckin’ section.
I got looks as I exited the baby section, and I couldn’t wait to see people’s faces when I had an actual baby in my arms.
Big ass biker and a tiny baby.
That was going to be fun.
After grabbing the cart, I hurried back to the baby section, taking a short-cut through the big kid section.
I picked up a monkey with long arms, surveying it on the way back to Annie.
I’d just rounded the corner of the aisle where she’d been when I left, only to find it empty.
The next one was empty as well.
By the time I hit up the third aisle, my heart started to pound.
And when I’d made an entire circuit of the baby department, I called for her.
“Annie!”
Customers looked at me, but I didn’t care that I’d just yelled bringing everyone’s attention my way.
I was more worried that I’d been stupid and left her alone when I knew she shouldn’t be left alone.
“Annie!” I called again.
An elderly woman snapped at me.
“Is she the pretty girl in the red shirt?” She asked.
I nodded. “Yes, did you see where she went?”
She pointed in the direction of the restrooms that were at the very back of the store.
“She went that way, left her cart right there,” she indicated where the cart was parked.
I thanked her and moved towards the bathroom.
I didn’t stop at the door, either.
I barged right in, and what I saw had me seeing red.
“What happened?” I demanded.
She had a wad of toilet paper covering her mouth that was quickly saturating with blood.
She pulled the rag away from her mouth.
“Some guy shoved me from behind, and I fell, hitting my lip on the rack before I went down,” she explained. “I don’t think he meant to.”
I doubted that.
Bumping into her, I could see. Full out pushing her to her hands and knees, I couldn’t.
The cut was on the inside of her mouth, making me realize that it could’ve been worse than it was.
“What’d he look like?” I asked her.
She shook her head.
“I don’t know. I only saw his gray shoes as he walked away. I guess I’m just lucky he didn’t take the opportunity to steal my purse that was sitting right there in the cart,” she explained, wincing slightly when she pulled her lip tight over her teeth. “It was all messed up like he started to look through it for my wallet.”
Thirty minutes later, we left Target with twenty percent off our entire purchase since I’d kicked up one hell of a fuss over the fact that their entire fucking security system had conveniently gone down.
I didn’t take the discount.
Annie did.
Which, in turn, meant I was still mad, just keeping a tight lid on it until I could get home and talk to the club to see what we were going to do about this.
“I’m going to try to…” I started to say, but the sight of lights up ahead near my house shut me down before I finished that thought.
“What the fuck?” I asked as I swung into Annie’s driveway.
The first person I saw was Wolf, who was standing in the middle of Annie’s yard with a grim look on his face.
I got out, slamming the truck’s door, and walked over to him.
“What happened?” I asked, looking at my house.
“Alison called the cops because she kept hearing someone knocking on the backdoor,” Wolf explained. “When they got here, they saw what looked to be blood on the back porch, but was actually ketchup…a lot of it…smeared all over the back porch, almost like someone had rolled around in it.”
My teeth started to grind together.
“Did you check the feed?” I asked.
Wolf nodded. “It’s out. Your line was cut from the pole, but your generator kicked on, not even letting Alison see anything more than a flicker, so she didn’t know to call.”
I had a generator that had a four second delay.
When power was lost, it kicked on, but only certain things worked.