Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
There was something about Winnifred “Winnie” Holyfield that was tugging at me, forcing me to play a game that I knew I didn’t have a chance at winning.
But I was not one who didn’t give it his all.
I was going to get down to the bottom of this. I was going to find out what put those shadows in her haunted eyes. And I was going to kick Matt’s ass if he had anything to do with putting them there.
Because Winnie Holyfield had just gotten under my skin.
She’d been there since I’d seen the look in her eyes as she walked past her ex-husband at the grocery store. And she just dug herself deeper a few short minutes ago when she pleaded with her eyes for me not to push her further than she was willing to go yet.
Chapter 3
Coffee: the difference between saying ‘fuck yeah’ and ‘fuck this.’
-Coffee Cup
Steel
Round two came two days later, only this time Conleigh was caught by a clerk when she’d tried to steal a pair of shoes.
Not shoes in her size, either. A pair in the size of a young boy.
My heart melted at the same time it seized.
Walking into the store, I went up to the cashier, paid for the shoes, and then grabbed the girl by the bicep.
She was skinny—too skinny—and that wasn’t a good thing, either.
Once I deposited her in the seat of my cruiser, the front seat this time, I took a detour to McDonald’s before heading to her house.
“What do you want?”
Conleigh’s wide, fearful eyes turned to me.
“Uhhh,” she hesitated. “A double cheeseburger off the dollar menu?”
My eye twitched.
“You want a drink?”
She licked her lips, and I could see that she’d love a drink.
“What kind?”
“Uhhh, a small sweet tea?”
I waited until we were next in line, then ordered five double cheeseburgers, three large fries, two large sweet teas, and a shit ton of ketchup.
I wasn’t ashamed. I ate a lot of fuckin’ ketchup.
Also, I didn’t like tomatoes. Never had, and likely never would.
“Is…is some of that for you?”
I grinned. “Yeah.”
“Good.” She swallowed.
We didn’t say anything more until she was handed her food about two minutes later.
“They’re so fast,” she whispered as her eyes lit on the bag of food.
“They’re new,” I explained. “With them being new, they’re going to try really hard. Then, eventually, the new will wear off, and they’ll slow down, start fucking up orders. Shit like that.” Then I winced. “Sorry, I’m not used to a kid being around me.”
She started to laugh. “If you only knew.”
I wish I knew.
“Only knew what?”
“What my life is like.”
She ate her hamburger, but her gaze kept drifting longingly toward the fries, and I snorted. “Eat them. I didn’t buy all this for me.”
She did, scarfing them down like only a teenager who had no problems with her metabolism could.
I’d be paying for this hamburger and fries later with about a mile per French fry, but it’d be worth it. There was nothing better than shitty food to make you forget what ails ya.
And it obviously did for her, too, because by the time I dropped her back at school—where she damn well should have been instead of out stealing shoes—she was in a chatty mood.
“My mother can’t afford anything. Least of all a meal out or these shoes for my brother.”
I didn’t say anything to that. Couldn’t. Mostly because she kept talking, not letting me get a word in edgewise.
“My mom had me when she was sixteen, and not long after that she got herself nationally certified as a paramedic. Only, with first me, and then my brother. She hasn’t been able to work on an ambulance. Unfortunately, she has to work at the hospital, and they make a whole lot less money there. Then there’s the fact that my ex-stepfather doesn’t pay child support. Which then turns into my mom doing it all on her own…except she can’t afford anything else because there’s not enough money.”
She swallowed. “I want to get a job, but there’s nobody here that’s hiring. Without a car, I can’t drive to another city. I’m sorry I stole. I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it, though. I can’t stand to see my baby brother with those stupid old shoes. He’s needed a new pair for a really long time. Months at least. I know my mother cries at night. I hear her.”
I gritted my teeth.
“And the only thing that used to make her happy was running, and she can’t even do that anymore with all her medical bills racking up due to her stroke.”
“Conleigh?”
“Yeah?” she croaked.
“You can’t skip school. Did you know that your mother could go to jail for you being truant?”
Her mouth fell open.
“I’m on lunch. I would’ve made it back in time to get to my next class. I’m never not in class. Even when I’m sick.”