Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
And they still had it this bad.
Imagine that.
I turned my head to find the man that currently meant the whole world to me and found him exactly where the young cop at my side said I would.
He was talking to some man I’d never met before, Sebastian, and Torren.
Sterling had his hands resting on top of his head, as if he was so relived he could barely contain it.
He must’ve sensed my gaze, because he turned and offered me a wink.
I waved back, but the order of the cop at my side was what had me jumping.
“Put your oxygen back on before he comes over here,” she ordered quickly.
I quickly complied, looking over at Zander with the now finished paramedic staring at me in anger.
“She’s a strict woman,” I said.
“She’s the reason we broke up,” the cop confided.
“Why?” I asked.
Was it weird that I was having this conversation with a practical stranger?
Because I thought maybe it was.
But it was taking my mind off the matter of someone burning my house down.
Because I didn’t doubt for one freakin’ minute that this wasn’t deliberate.
I’m sure they wouldn’t have gone to such exuberant measures had they known I was planning on moving anyway.
But now it was somewhat comical, since I knew for a fact that there were cameras on the house…something I imagined Sterling was discussing with the police officer on his right, and Sebastian that was on his left.
He hadn’t specifically told me he had a camera on my house, but it was kind of obvious when I saw new wires leading into a battery pack in one closet.
Well, I’d had to Google it…but I’d figured it out eventually.
“I think they’re in love with each other,” the cop continued.
“How did you realize they were in love?” I asked.
“They’re partners. She calls…texts…invites him out. He was sacrificing time with me on his days off to spend time with her…even though he’d just had a whole day with her and not with me,” she continued.
I didn’t know what to say to that.
That did sound bad.
“Looks like he still likes you,” I said finally, not sure what she was looking for here.
“Nothing you can say. Thank you for listening to me,” she said.
Her radio squawked, and she moved to the side to speak into it privately.
“It’s trash like you who ruined this street,” a woman at my side sneered.
I looked over at the woman who’d just spewed that venom, and couldn’t help the tear that slipped out of the corner of my eye.
“What did I do to deserve your hostility?” I asked woodenly.
She sneered, her son in her arms as he slept away, blissfully unaware.
“You brought this trash to our neighborhood…you know it was because of you,” she pointed at me.
The movement woke the child in her arms enough that he switched sides of his face of which he was laying on, and it was then I saw the mark on his neck.
A perfect heart shaped birth mark that was plain as day, even under the harsh glow of emergency lights that lit up the night.
I’d seen that birthmark on the news earlier.
In fact, I remembered thinking to myself how good it was that he had such an identifying mark because if anyone did spot the child, he’d be recognized almost immediately.
I didn’t know what to do.
I vaguely remembered the news anchor saying that she was volatile, and might have weapons.
Yet, I didn’t want to leave her here with the kid.
What if she ran off?
So what did I do?
Did what I did best…piss off my neighbors.
“Why do you care? Just go back inside your house and close the door. No harm no foul,” I sniped.
“I can’t go back inside my house, the firefighters made us evacuate due to your piece of shit house being on fire,” she hissed.
The child blinked sleepily at me, and it was then I saw that the child was exhausted.
He had dark circles underneath his eyes, and they were red rimmed from what looked to be hours of crying.
Everybody knew what that looked like…because most people did it at least once in their life.
The kind of crying where you can’t stop, because you see no way out.
“Are you the bitch who’s been calling the cops on me because of my car being in the road?” I asked her.
She narrowed her eyes.
“No, but had I, you would’ve deserved it. We don’t need your kind of trash in this neighborhood. This is a family neighborhood, not a murdering one,” she snapped. “It’s probably a good thing that your house is gone. Saves me the trouble.”
The last comment was said in such low tones, that I wasn’t sure it was meant to be heard.
But I had.
And so had Sterling who’d come up behind her.
He opened his mouth to speak, and I shook my head at him.
The woman kept her eyes averted from me, completely dismissing me, and I was never more thankful.
Mostly because I started to do some weird sign language at Sterling, who had no freakin’ idea what I was talking about.
His brow furrowed, and when I widened my eyes and flared them at the woman, he looked in the direction of her, then turned back to me with a ‘what the fuck?’ face.
I sighed.
Men were so freakin’ stupid!
How hard was it to understand a cutting throat signal and a point at the woman?
I mean, wouldn’t you at least assume she was some sort of killer…at the scene of a freakin’ fire?
Sure, she may not be the actual one who set the house on fire, but in a pinch, I’d work with it.
Because the execution of it all would still be the same.
The woman would get taken into custody, and that child would be taken away from her.
End goals, people! End goals!
I finally resorted to walking over to him, getting up on tiptoes, and whispering in his ear.
“Saw the news earlier. This woman kidnapped that child in her arms,” I said as softly as I could.
He squeezed my ass to let me know he understood, and turned, catching the eye of Trance who was now standing in the circle he’d been in earlier.