Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 76075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
***
Bayou stood with his arm around me as we watched the doctor in the emergency room where my mother and sister worked to stitch up Ilsa’s face.
She had a police escort—my uncle James—on one side in full uniform, and another officer, Miller Spurlock, on the other.
Both were watching dispassionately as Ilsa cried with each stitch to her ruined face.
“I’m going to buy Phantom a goddamn castle,” Bayou rumbled.
I grinned. “She aimed very well. She could’ve gotten Ilsa’s eyes but didn’t. Only her cheeks are shredded.”
“Now I see why you wear the thick glove,” he said. “Seeing the damage and knowing that damage could be caused are two completely different things.”
I agreed. “The first time I saw her rip into a rabbit I was stunned. And that rabbit had a protective layer of fur to help. The damage to Ilsa’s face was only caused by a single blow. Can you imagine if she’d continuously attacked?”
Bayou grunted. “I almost wish she would have. It’d been a favor to have her gone and out of the picture.”
“Luckily,” I heard from someone at my side. “That won’t be necessary.”
Castiel stood there, a notebook in one hand, and a cell phone in the other.
“Hello,” I said, startled to find him there.
I hadn’t heard him arrive.
Bayou didn’t look surprised to see him, though, meaning I was likely just unobservant.
“Find anything out?” I asked hopefully.
“Oh, more than enough to issue a warrant for her arrest.” Castiel gestured toward Ilsa with a tilt of his chin. “Once she’s done here, I’m taking her in for questioning.”
“It was too easy,” I muttered almost to myself.
“What was?” Bayou asked in confusion.
I gestured toward the room where Ilsa was, then to us with a wave of my hands. “That. Diane was caught after we found out that Ilsa was involved. Then Ilsa tries to shoot us hours after that.”
Bayou shook his head. “She was desperate. She knew that she wasn’t getting Isa back. She’d miscalculated, and now she had to either do damage control and try to fix it, or she was going to lose. And Ilsa doesn’t like losing.”
I sighed.
“I guess. It just seems too easy,” I muttered. “Like there is more to come.”
Castiel shook his head. “Not more. Zee and I worked our asses off today. Not to mention there was some shit in my inbox about two hours ago that had more than enough information to put her away for quite a long time if she hadn’t already dug her own grave. You wouldn’t happen to know where that came from, would you?”
Why was he looking at me?
“Me?” I asked, trying to appear innocent. “Why are you asking me?”
His eyes narrowed.
Damn, I’d laid it on a little too thick.
But, I didn’t lie well. I never had.
There was no doubt in my mind that my phone call to my father this morning about the dozens of phone calls we’d received from Ilsa the night before had elicited my father to finally send over the information he’d likely been sitting on for when it was needed.
Castiel muttered under his breath. “I can’t use any of it. Not with how it got to me. But I can investigate it myself. Which I will. At any rate, if you happen to figure it out tell them thank you.”
Bayou squeezed my hip and silenced my next, ‘But I had nothing to do with it.’
Lies.
“Are you arresting her or is Kilgore Police?” Bayou questioned, saving me from lying some more.
“That’s what we’re about to find out.” Castiel slapped Bayou on the back. “Go home. There’s no reason for you to be here anymore.”
And there wasn’t.
Not really.
“Have a good one, man,” Bayou muttered as he watched him walk away.
Long minutes passed before Bayou said, “Are you ready?”
I looked up to find him staring at me.
“Yes,” I paused. “I think I am.”
Later that night, as I lay in Bayou’s arms, I asked him once again if he thought it all was over.
His answer was to roll me over onto my back and kick my thighs apart roughly.
“Maybe if I show you that it’s all right, you’ll believe it,” he growled.
Then he showed me just how ‘all right’ everything was.
With his mouth.
His hands.
His teeth.
And then his cock.
But when he was done, and I was sated and sleepy, I couldn’t help but saying, “That was more than ‘all right.’”
He was chuckling quietly as I fell asleep.
Chapter 20
If you want a successful relationship, find someone that likes the same thermostat setting as you do.
-Happy marriage tips
Bayou
Three months later
The day of the hearing dawned bright and early.
We were out of the house by seven thirty. I’d dropped off Isa and left Pru’s house by seven forty, and I was at the courthouse steps with Phoebe at my side by eight.
And, so was my grandfather.
I felt my stomach dip.
Then I felt a weird sort of elation as I walked up to him and offered him my hand.