Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 77663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“And?”
“There’s more? What else did I do, Your Highness?”
“You knew I was worried because your stomach grew to twice the size it was in one day, and you went behind my back to see the doctor. You knew I wanted to be there. What’s that look?” She looked kinda sus to me.
“Don’t get mad, okay.”
“What now? What else did you do behind my back?”
“Nothing, it’s just. What’s on your nightstand at home?”
“What? What does that have to do with anything?”
“You have every brochure ever written about pregnancy; you expect me to follow every last one of their suggestions, some of which are so outdated no one alive in the last one hundred years has even heard about them. On top of that, what did you say to the doctor the last time we were there?”
“I don’t recall. It was probably something about her not doing her job.”
“You told that poor woman that you would take a scalpel to her if she tries any new age shit on your wife and kid.”
“She was talking about cutting you open to get the kid out.”
“It’s called a C-section, you goof. And women have them every day.”
“The shit sounded like some sadistic shit to me. And why the hell was she smiling when she said it?”
“I give up; seriously, you’re just nuts.”
“I don’t see how me looking out for my family makes me nuts, but okay.”
“I brought you lunch. I was going to share it with you, but now I can’t even eat after seeing her in your office.”
“You still thinking about her? Let’s eat.”
As apologies go, hers was shit, but I’ll take it. I spread the blanket she brought on the floor in my office, threw the cushions from the couch around it, and helped her down.
She’d made all my favorites I saw, and I was sure to show my appreciation. “This is really good, babe. Here.” I fed her some of my sandwich since she was only having fruit for some reason, and since I didn’t want any of her smoke, I left her alone on that.
“I missed the fuck outta you.” She stopped with a grape halfway to her lips and stared at me. Then she started crying. The books talked about this. I scooted over and took her in my arms, and let her cry it out. The guilt was gut-wrenching. I’d made my pregnant wife cry. Monster.
Now, I really did promise her anything as long as she stopped crying. She giggled, a sound I hadn’t heard in almost a week, and the knots in my gut untangled themselves.
I wolfed down my lunch and hoped she didn’t notice that I was in a rush to get her out of there. When she was about to leave, she was smiling, and I whispered a promise in her ear about what I was going to do to her tonight.
As soon as she was gone, I called Kieran back and sent him on an errand. If that twit was bold enough to show up here, then she wasn’t as simple as I thought.
I hadn’t really paid much attention to her before because, as far as I was concerned, she was just the woman who helped destroy my woman’s marriage to that jackass which cleared the way for me. But now that I’d seen her in action, my perception changed. She might be more dangerous than the ex.
THUNDER
“What did you find?” Cam had just called with an update on Deidre Hall, a name I suspect isn’t her real name either. No wonder there wasn’t much on Deidre Samuels; she doesn’t exist except on paper. That name has only been in use for the past four years, but before that, she didn’t exist.
“It looks like you were right. Her real name is Dierdre Fossie. She changed her name to Samuels four years ago, but it wasn’t done through legal channels. She’s running from the law.”
“Oh, is she now?” Why am I not surprised?
“Yeah, there’s a warrant out of her arrest in Arkansas. She and her live-in boyfriend were running a scheme out of their apartment, one of those things where they rob the elderly of their homes and retirement funds and stuff like that.”
So, your average low-level bottom-feeding scum. But why did she use the name Hall this time? My only guess is that she was looking to change her life again and make another run. If she did it once, why not do it again?
But this place is only an hour away from her place with Dan though, not nearly far enough to take that kind of risk unless she was factoring me into her plans. I have a feeling that that’s just it. When I saw her that day at his place, I knew something was up from the way she looked at me, but I was more invested in dealing with him than with her, so I didn’t pay too much attention to her.