Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 118459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 474(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 474(@250wpm)___ 395(@300wpm)
“That’s none of your business,” he says, his voice sloppy.
I look down at Jules. “How did they know you were here?”
“Because she called me,” Greta says. “She told me what’s going on. I didn’t think you’d want us to know. You never wanted her around us. You took her away from us!”
I take Julia’s hands off my waist and gently nudge her towards the hallway. “Go into Ever’s room and stay there. Okay?”
“Crew . . .”
“Jules, I’m not playing.”
With a last, tear-filled glance at the people that brought her into the world, she heads off down the hall. I wait until I hear the door gently close before I speak.
“You two worthless pieces of shit aren’t to contact either of them ever again. Do you hear me?”
Harry steps to me, pointing his finger at my face. “You can’t tell me if or when I’m going to see my daughter and grandkid. You’re nothing to her. You’re not her husband and even if you were, I’m her father.”
I laugh angrily. “You’re gonna want to get that finger outta my face before I fucking remove it from your body.”
High as a kite, Harry steps another step towards me. “You think you can do that, big boy?”
Greta grabs his arm and shoves him toward the front door. “Harry, let’s go,” she says, seeing the wickedness behind my expression. “Come on.” She leads him to the front and out onto the porch.
Harry shakes her off and turns to face Will and me again. “I’ll be back here again whenever I damn well feel like it.”
I turn sideways to set myself up to throw a punch at his face when Will steps between us.
“Harry, trust me on this, you need to shut your suck.” Will looks at me over his shoulder and winks. “Now, as a totally unbiased opinion here, Harry, you’re a complete fucking douchebag that needs his ass whipped in a royal fashion. You’ve needed that for years now, you cocksucker. And, Crew, as much as I’d like to see you give out the beatin’ I know you’re capable of, you need to not go to jail for obvious reasons. But I can.”
Will shoots a right to Harry’s face, busting his nose. He staggers back, already off balance from whatever drug he’s taken this morning.
Greta screeches, catching Harry as he falls against the column on the porch.
Will pops a left-right-left into Harry’s face again and he’s too slow, too out of it to even defend himself.
“You’re an animal,” Greta breathes out in disbelief. She wraps her arm around Harry and practically drags him to the car while he holds his nose. “I’m calling the police.”
“That’s fact as fuck. But you better think that cop-calling bullshit through,” Will says. “Don’t ever fucking show your faces here again or I’ll break your legs next time.”
Greta, the charming woman that she is, throws up a middle finger. Classy.
There are little droplets of blood dotting the ground from the porch to the car. It’s better than the pieces of flesh that would’ve happened if Will hadn’t stepped in the way.
We watch them drive off as fast as their car will go, the tailpipe rattling the whole way down the street.
Will shakes his hand again. “Man, that fucking hurt.”
“Suck it up, pussy,” I say, working my shoulders in a circle to alleviate some of my own discomfort.
Will starts to comment on it but stops himself. “Can I get some ice?” I laugh.
“No. You want to be a fighter, you gotta deal with the pain.”
I wince at the last word as a burst of it sends chills down my body.
“I don’t want to be a fighter. I want to keep you from going to prison. If you touched him—”
“I’d have killed him.”
“Exactly.”
The door cracks behind me and Will looks over my shoulder. He smiles before turning his eyes back on me. “I’m going to head out. I’ve had enough excitement for the day.”
“Thanks, Will.”
“No problem. See ya, Jules.”
“Bye, Will.”
I turn and she’s standing wide-eyed. “Do I want to know?”
“Nope,” I say, pulling her into me and forgetting, for just one minute, the world outside of she and I exist.
THIRTY-NINE
JULIA
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Crew comes into the kitchen after work, followed by Olivia.
She’s grinning ear to ear.
“Crew called me this morning and asked if I could sit with Everleigh this evening.”
“Why?” I look between them, not understanding. “Did I forget something? Did something happen?”
Crew chuckles. “I want to take you somewhere. Just the two of us.”
A small flutter begins in my belly, reminding me of a time long ago. I feel almost giddy that he wants to take me somewhere. He looks tired and worn down. His hair has started to grow back, a couple of days’ worth of stubble dotting his face. He’s incredibly handsome. The boy I fell in love with years before grew up into one fine man.