Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
“Thank fuck,” he said when his eyes met mine. “Glad you’re okay. How’d little Hughes do?”
“Pro, baby,” Trev said, climbing inside the back.
Levi chuckled and shook his head.
“Call Carmichael. Let him know she’s safe,” Blaise ordered someone. I didn’t know who.
I was just thankful he was handling that. I hadn’t thought about Uncle Neil.
I started to buckle up, but Gage stopped me and pulled me into his lap. He held me against him as we drove away. I could feel his heart pounding beneath my ear. I hadn’t thought I would see him again. Touch him again. I’d thought we’d had our last moment together.
It was then I burst into tears.
Forty
Shiloh
Sunlight flooded Gage’s bedroom when I woke up the next morning. It was bright, which meant I’d slept later than usual.
When we’d gotten here last night, Gage had taken off his brace and showered with me, taking his time to clean me thoroughly. He washed my hair carefully and placed kisses along my body. He dried me off, put balm on my wrists and ankles, then bandaged them before brushing my hair and putting me in bed. I’d fallen asleep almost immediately.
Stretching in the warmth of his big, soft bed, I had never been more content. I was alive. I was with Gage.
Turning, I found myself alone. Where he had slept was cool to the touch now. He’d been up for a while. I buried my face in his pillow and inhaled his scent.
“You smelling me, baby?” he asked, amused.
I lifted my head to see him walking toward me with a tray of food. He stopped, setting it down on the sofa.
I blushed, embarrassed to be caught smelling his pillow.
He went back and closed the door before getting the tray and joining me on the bed. “Trinity had a mini breakdown when she found out where we’d been. Huck didn’t tell her that you’d been taken until we had you back safe. This is how she deals with her emotions. She cooks,” Gage said as he set the massive amount of food in front of me.
“Wow. There is some of everything,” I said in amazement.
“Yeah, there’s a fucking buffet downstairs. You want more of something, let me know,” he said, leaning in and pressing a kiss on my lips.
I reached for a strawberry and popped it in my mouth.
“Eat all you want. Your uncle will be here in an hour to check your head. I’ll try not to fuck you so you have time to eat before he arrives.”
I swallowed and looked up at him. “Why is he coming to check my head?” I asked because I hadn’t said anything about being hit on my head.
Gage looked at me as if that was a dumb question. “I would think that was obvious.”
Yes, but only if he’d known about the hit I’d taken to my head. I continued to look at him, trying to remember if I’d said something last night about it and not realized it.
“Baby, the security footage at the service station next door to Carmichael’s office showed everything. I saw the son of a bitch hit you in the back of the head with a motherfucking board, then throw you over his shoulder and toss you in the back of a fucking van. He was the first one I killed last night when I walked into the shithole.”
I blinked. I hadn’t thought to ask him how they had found me. When they had shown up like the cavalry, I had been so shocked that I wasn’t about to die that I didn’t consider how they had known where I was. Destiny had been so sure they’d find me. She understood more about the family than I did.
Gage leaned over and pressed a kiss to my temple. “It’s why I was so fucking gentle with your hair last night. There’s a lump the size of an egg back there. Not sure I slept at all last night. I watched you breathe and woke you up several times just to see your eyes.”
I didn’t remember him waking me.
He smirked. “Keep looking at me with those blue eyes like I’m your hero, and you won’t get to eat before Carmichael arrives.”
Normally, that wouldn’t be a threat. It would be a temptation, but my stomach growled, and I turned back to the food. I was starving.
Gage picked up a piece of bacon and held it to my lips. “Eat.”
I obeyed and let him feed me. My thoughts went back to last night as I finished the bacon, and then he held up a fork to my mouth with a piece of cinnamon roll on it. I started to open, but stopped. I remembered something else about last night.
“The college kid there last night,” I said, turning to Gage. “Levi called him little Hughes.”