Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 85342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“I’ll come with you,” she offers. “We can get a cake.”
“We can just write it on the cake,” I joke with her as I move the food around my plate. “You look like shit, by the way.” She looks up at me with her mouth open. “I have an excuse. I was in lockup.”
“I stayed up the whole night,” she tells me and I know she did. “I couldn’t even fathom.”
I reach out my hand to her, putting it over hers. “I’m okay.”
“At least I didn’t sit on a steel bench all night long.” She looks over at Chase, who is sitting at the counter.
“What are you talking about?” I ask her.
“He stayed at the station all night,” she shares, and my head snaps back to look at him. Seeing that he’s wearing exactly what he was wearing last night and I didn’t even notice. “He wouldn’t leave if you were there, so he sat there all night.”
“What?” I ask, even though I heard what she said.
“Him and Matthew.” I turn back to her. “Chase wouldn’t leave you and Matthew wouldn’t leave him.”
“All night?” I ask her and she nods her head.
“I think he threatened your lawyer also.” My head spins with all this new information. “But Michael could have been exaggerating.” Her voice trails off.
“But,” I mumble, “why?” I don’t know if I’m asking her the question or if I even want to know the answer, but I know that I’m going to have no choice but to ask him.
CHAPTER 26
Chase
I sit at the counter, eating my food, with my eyes on Julia. We left her and Jillian alone to have their time, but there was no way in hell I was letting her out of my sight. Fuck that shit. The minute she got out of the car; I knew that she had put on her bravest face. It’s like she went into protection mode to make sure Jillian was okay before she was. She didn’t shed a tear, not one fucking tear as she comforted Jillian. She’s a fucking warrior.
“If you stare any harder,” Michael says from beside me, “your eyes are going to turn into laser beams.”
“I’m not staring.” I grab the water bottle and take a sip from it. “I’m looking.” I smirk. “Intently.”
“It’s called creepy as fuck,” Dylan chimes in from the other side of me. “You need to tone it down just a touch.”
“Yeah, it’s not like she is going to escape you,” Michael says. “You’ve already locked her in.” I can’t help but laugh when I look around. “I’m going to ask you this one more time.” I look back at him. “Are you sure about this?” I don’t bother answering with words, instead I just nod my head. “I approve.”
It’s then that I laugh out loud. “Good to know.” I put my water bottle down while I listen to Michael and Dylan talk about the upcoming road trip.
I sit here biding my time until she is ready. I look at my watch, seeing that we’ve been here for over an hour. I wait for Jillian to get up, leaving her alone, before I’m out of my chair, walking to her as she sits on the couch. “Are you ready to go?” I ask her and she nods her head.
She gets up and walks over to Jillian, whispering something in her ear. Jillian looks at her and then at me. “Okay, you promise you are going to call me if you need me.” She nods her head smiling. I know the only way she is going to call Jillian is if she is bleeding and in dire need of a ride to the hospital, after she’s already crawled halfway there.
We walk from the house side by side, my hand automatically grabbing hers as if we’ve always done it. I open the door for her, and when I get in, the only thing I ask her is, “My place or yours?”
“Mine is closer.” She looks at me and I just nod at her. Neither of us says anything as I drive toward her house. I park across the street from where I was yesterday, just so she doesn’t have to replay the scene in her head. We wait for the cars to pass before walking across the street. My hand slides into hers as we walk up the stairs to her apartment. She takes her keys out of her purse and I can see her hand shaking. She walks into her apartment and the light from outside is coming through the patio door.
I close the door behind me, and when I do, she snaps. She squats down in front of me and finally lets it out. The sob rips through her as she puts her hand to her mouth. I walk in front of her and squat down in front of her. I wrap my arm around her waist and stand with her in my arms. She wraps her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. Burying her face in my neck as her tears seep into my skin, I walk through her house to her bedroom, going straight for her bathroom.