Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 61746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
My eyes trailed her until she disappeared, finally able to get my heart to stop racing at what felt like a hundred miles per hour. It was hard to explain the hold this woman had on me, but I knew that it was something I hadn’t ever encountered before.
Chapter 9
Madison
Despite the discomfort of last night, I still had to move on like normal the next morning with regards to Chloe.
I didn’t want her to know that anything scary was going on and worry her, so Gus and Marcus hid around the side of the house while I brought Chloe to my car to take her to school. With a forced smile on my face, I leaned into the backseat and buckled her in.
“Did you sleep okay when you went back to bed last night?” I asked her.
Chloe smiled and nodded.
“I want Marcus to tell me the frog story again,” she said with hopeful eyes.
I felt my heart skip as I thought about watching Marcus murmuring a sweet bedtime story to my daughter. He didn’t have to do that. He didn’t even have to show up at my house to make me feel safer. But he did. He did so much for me, and evidently, the others were going to come and help too.
I knew that I wanted to see them all again, but I didn’t think that such an intense situation would lead to our reunion. I still didn’t know who was trying to get into my house. Michael could be aggressive, but I didn’t know what breaking into my house would gain him. He wouldn’t just steal Chloe or something crazy like that. He was too smart to get caught.
Then again, a big reason why I didn’t call the police was because he had friends in the force. I was sure those friends had been informed about our messy break-up, and I doubted they would rush to help me. Plus, I didn’t want them reporting anything back to Michael that could hurt me in the long run. What if he claimed my residence wasn’t safe for Chloe?
“Maybe another day,” I told her before getting into the driver’s seat, blinking away my tears quickly.
The level of stress and pressure on me was crushing, making my body and my heart ache as I forged on like nothing was wrong. I had a bunch of ex-cons protecting me because my ex-boyfriend could’ve corrupted some of the police force! It was crazy, and I hoped that I made the right move by turning to Marcus and his friends for help.
They hadn’t given me any reason to fear them or doubt them, but this situation was too crazy to fully grasp. The lines between right and wrong and smart and reckless were so blurry that it was hard to differentiate between the two. All I could do was go with my gut, and I knew that I felt comforted whenever I saw any of the guys from the tattoo shop.
After dropping Chloe off and getting back home, I found Marlo standing on my front porch. As surprised as I was to see him, I also felt that same wave of comfort overtake me, knowing that he was here to keep me safe. But it also occurred to me that we were probably going to be alone together. I sucked in a shaky breath to steady myself, already feeling my heart start to race.
“Morning,” Marlo greeted me as I walked toward the porch. He pushed himself off the side of my house and stepped toward me, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. “Are you okay?”
They all seemed genuinely concerned about me, which made me feel lighter than a cloud, but it also confused me. We all just met. Why was there something so intense being shared between us? Was it just… desire?
“Hanging in,” I replied with a weak smile before glancing around. “You’re relieving Marcus and Gus?”
Marlo nodded as he came closer, looming over me in a zipped-up black jacket and black pants. I didn’t miss the mix of bold cologne and laundry detergent that rolled off him either. Intoxicating.
“We want to keep an eye on the house for a little while just to be sure,” he told me. “So, you can go about your day and at least one of us will be nearby.”
I found myself reaching out to place my hand on his strong upper arm, able to feel the groove of muscle from his bicep under his jacket sleeve.
“I can’t ask you guys to put your lives on hold for me. What about the tattoo shop? Your families?” I asked.
Marlo shook his head as he took my hand, clasping it between his bigger ones.
“Whoever isn’t watching you is watching the tattoo shop. And we don’t have families to go home to. No wives. We’re our own family here,” he explained to me. “And trust me, you’re our number one priority right now.”