Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 100608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
“See if we catch him from any other cameras. Once you’re done, come back to the gazebo and see if you can freeze the image where part of his face shows.” I squeeze Dante’s knee. “I’m going to have them print the picture in the paper along with an award for anyone with information leading to the arrest of this asshole.”
None of the other cameras yield anything, so all I have to go on is the picture of the flash of his face. Dante emails me the still frame, which is unfortunately shadowed and blurry, and I forward it over to Paul at the paper so he’ll print it in the next issue. Anything is better than nothing.
Finally, I’m finished with my work. It’s a good thing too because my man needs taking care of. He’s seconds from breaking apart.
Bloodshot eyes. Pale face. Dark, sunken bags under his eyes.
“Come on,” I rumble. “Let’s get you back to bed. You’re about to pass out, man.”
His hazel eyes meet mine and the crack I’d seen before seems to split him apart before me. Tears pool in his eyes and then one races down his cheek.
“This is all my fault,” he whispers. “I moved us here. I did this. I brought this on my family.”
I won’t let him take this shit on his shoulders.
None of this is his fault.
“Don’t do that,” I growl. “I won’t let you.”
He doesn’t fight me when I stand and take his hand in mine. We exit his office. My first instinct is to pull away and hide, but then I’m reminded of what he just went through and how much he’s hurting. I’m not that selfish as to do that to him. Not now.
And of course my biggest fear happens.
Shelly rounds the corner, her eyes growing wide as saucers. I give her a grim smile before walking him into his room and closing the door. Dante lets me undress him down to his boxers. I help him back into bed and am about to leave him to rest when he grabs my wrist.
“Jax…can you stay for a little while?”
I give him a nod. “For a little while. Let me text Brie.”
Once I let her know I’ll be out of commission for a bit and to handle any police business, I strip down to my underwear and crawl into bed with Dante. His bed is bigger than mine. Softer. And smells just like him. I love it immediately and long to spend nights here too.
Dante launches himself at me, wrapping his strong body around mine and clinging. I stroke his arm and kiss his hair, hoping to calm all his fears and worries.
“Tell me something about you,” Dante murmurs. “That not many people know.”
“Hmm,” I ponder. “Pretty much everyone here knows everything about me.”
“Not everything.”
We’re silent as I let that sink in. He’s right. I do have some secrets, him being one of them.
“I like camping,” I admit with a smile, “but I’m afraid of wolves.”
Dante chuckles. “Everyone’s afraid of wolves.”
“Accurate, but there’s an added layer of fear with me. I’ve encountered three while camping. I don’t like the way they look at me.”
“Like they want to eat you?”
“No,” I grumble. “Worse.”
“What’s worse than that?”
“It’s like they can see inside my soul. It’s freaky as fuck.” I shudder, just thinking about the last wolf I stumbled upon. “There’s all sorts of old stories that say Eskimos from up north migrated here. They were cursed and banished to have to continue out their lives as wolves.”
“Someone watches too much Netflix.”
“Perhaps,” I agree. “But tell my head that when I look at one of those creepy fuckers.”
We both laugh.
“What about you?”
Dante drags his fingertip in lazy circles on my abdomen. “In high school, I hated this guy so much because he was a total asshole. Super competitive at school and obsessed with punctuality. I decided to fuck with him a bit.” He groans. “It was supposed to be a harmless prank. Trap him in the locker room after lacrosse practice so he’d be late for wherever it was he always ran off to.”
“Teenagers are such dicks,” I say, shaking my head.
“What I didn’t know was his father was a psycho drunk. If he was ever late, he’d beat his ass into oblivion.”
“Oh, Jesus.”
“As soon as he started losing his shit in the locker room, I ran in to let him know I was sorry, but I didn’t remember to put a stopper in the door.”
“You locked yourself in with the guy? Dumbass.”
“He was pissed. Threw a punch at me once he realized it was a prank. Threw another one when he realized I’d locked the both of us in there.”
“How long were you trapped there?”
“All weekend.”
“All weekend?!”
“Luckily, there was a vending machine in there and between us, we had enough money to live off snacks until Monday morning.”