Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“Audrey wants to come by in the evening, if it’s all right,” Tunnel said quietly.
I nodded once. “She’d like that.”
Audrey started back to work only a few days ago, and she seemed to be doing just fine.
Rue hadn’t been there for those two, she ended up on opposite shifts than Audrey and that was something she planned on rectifying tomorrow when she went in to work.
It’d be a long day for her with only three hours of sleep, but she’d said that she wanted to go in, regardless, and I wasn’t one to argue.
Usually.
“Got some prospects on the friends place, as well as your sisters,” Silas rumbled.
“Thanks,” I said. “I called Meredith’s husband and Mikayla’s husband while I was inside. They’re going to keep an eye out.”
“What now?” Sebastian asked.
Something we were all thinking.
“I don’t fucking know,” I said, lifting my hands up to run through my hair.
It’d gotten long.
My beard had gotten long, too.
I was getting soft.
Only six months out of the Air Force and I was growing my hair out.
What would DP and Cord think of me if they saw me right this second?
My phone rang DP’s ringtone, and it was as if he could tell I was thinking about him.
We’d done that quite a few times before, too, guessing when the others were in trouble.
If I had to say that I had a best friend…or friends…it’d be those two.
They got me.
They let me brood in the corner if I felt like it.
They listened to me moan about Rue.
They went to my mother’s funeral with me.
They saved my life more times than I could count.
They truly were my best friends.
Not that the men standing in front of me right this moment didn’t mean something to me, but they didn’t get me as well as Cord and DP.
Stepping back away from the still discussing men, I tapped answer and held it up to my ear. “Are your ears burning?”
DP’s dark chuckle rang in my ears. “Yes, sir. I was just watching a TV show and thought of you. We haven’t spoken in a few, so I thought I’d come down for the weekend. What do you think?”
I thought about all the shit swirling around in my life right now, and couldn’t think of a better man to help me deal with it. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Rue would be pleased, too.
She’d made a friends with the two men and their wives…now ex-wives, and I knew she’d be excited to see them. It may just be the thing to keep her mind off of what was going on at the moment, too.
“10-4. I’ve called Cord, but I’m not sure if he’ll be able to get off in time. He started with the Sherriff’s department last week,” DP said.
“Alright, well you know where I live. I can’t promise clean sheets, but there’s bound to be some around somewhere. I’ll see you this weekend,” I said.
We hung up, and I walked up in time to hear the back half of the idea that Torren had.
“So why doesn’t the DA just call her up to the witness stand. Get it over with. See what happens,” Tunnel asked us.
I thought about that for a moment, and couldn’t find a single thing wrong with the idea…other than the obvious threats she’d been getting.
However, we were a lot more aware now. Nobody would be getting to her. Not without going through me and the other men standing here with me at the moment.
“I can’t find any flaws with that,” Silas said.
Sebastian and Kettle were nodding.
Trance and Loki were looking thoughtful, as was Torren.
“Okay, well Silas, since you’re closest to Dortea, how about you bring that up with her and see what she thinks. She already knows about the threats, but maybe she’ll see a flaw in it where we don’t,” I offered.
Silas nodded. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll head out, then. I’ll let you know what she has to say in the morning, okay?”
I nodded, and the lot of them dispersed one by one, all offering a handshake before they rumbled off into the night.
I was only left with one question.
Would it work?
Only one way to find out.
Chapter 19
I would do Christian Grey-ish things to you.
-Text from Rue to Cleo
Rue
“Guess who’s coming in?” Cleo said over the phone the next morning.
I looked over the chart that was in front of me and said, “Hmm?” distractedly.
“The boys,” his deep voice rumbled, making the cold knot in my belly warm slightly.
“That’s great. When and what time?” I asked.
Good thing I had the whole weekend off.
“This weekend is the bike rally in Jefferson,” he continued; however, my mind stayed on the patient’s chart who’d signed a DNR because she wanted to die with dignity.
She was a twenty nine year old mother of four young children with stage four breast cancer.
She’d contracted the flu, and her immune system was nearly nonexistent.
She was having trouble breathing, and was refusing even the basic of medical interventions, including oxygen.
It was only a matter of time, unfortunately.
It just broke my heart that she was having to go through this and her family was having to witness it.
“You there, baby?” Cleo rasped.
I closed my eyes and envisioned his arms around me. “Yeah, I’m here. It’s been a bad day.”
He chuckled lightly. “It’s only been less than an hour.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I know.”
“Hey, Rue. You have a patient in four that’s on the call light for the fifth time.” Johnathan, one of the two male nurses that worked in the ER during my shift, said.
Johnathan was pretty awesome.
He reminded me of Stone Cold Steve Austin, the wrestler who’d been my idol growing up.
He had a shaved head, big, beefy biceps, and a temper that could rival a psychopath when it called for it.
He never put up with bullshit, and he always had our backs when we needed him.
He was ex-military, and had zero tolerance when it came to patients badmouthing his ‘girls.’
“Cleo,” I said standing up and putting the chart I was looking at back where it went. “I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you when you pick me up, okay?”