Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
When I’ve done that, I go to the electronics. That’s safe enough. Nothing there is going to be silky smooth against her body.
I grip the cart and push down the aisles until I see the phones. I point at the ones in front of us. “Pick what you want.”
There are some men in the aisle over from us laughing and talking, and Ava crosses her arms over her chest. “If I tell you I don’t want a phone, are you going to force me to take one?”
I can’t help but laugh. She’s cute when she’s stubborn, but I find quickly that laughing is the wrong thing to do. She stalks off and stands at the end of the aisle without looking back. I know she’s had a rough time of it, and I shouldn’t be so hard on her. I leave the cart where it stands and start walking toward her, just as two men spot her. “Well, well, what have we got here?”
Ava’s entire body stiffens. I walk toward her calmly, my hands fisted at my sides. I don’t stop until I reach her, and I pull her against my side. Both men look at me, and even though I know I could take them both, I’m not in the mood for a fight right now. I pull on the hem of my cut, and their eyes go to the skull logo on my vest. Their eyes widen, and they both start apologizing, walking backwards. I watch them go until they’re completely away from us, and when I look down at Ava, she’s looking at the logo on my cut. Her eyes are filled with questions, but I’m not going to answer them in the middle of the store.
I force myself to soften my face. “Let’s grab a phone so we can go, okay?”
She nods and tries to stand back from me, but I can’t let her go. I grab her hand and walk with her back to where I left the cart. I grab a phone off the shelf and put it in. “Boots.”
She shrugs her shoulders, giving up on fighting me on this. I have to release her hand to push the cart, but she stays close, walking next to me. We go to the shoe department, and she grabs a pair of boots, and when I see her size, I grab another pair of tennis shoes and three pairs of sandals. She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t utter a word. I put them all in the cart and head toward the front.
When we get to the soap aisle, I stand at the end of it and point. “Grab some soap, deodorant, whatever you need.”
She doesn’t fight me on it. She grabs some items and throws them in the cart. I push it to the front and start loading everything onto the conveyor belt. The cashier activates the phone and rings us up. I’m doing my best to be patient, but I’m frustrated and ready to get Ava back to the safety of my house.
As we get outside, I start loading everything in the truck. It’s only when I’m pulling out of the parking lot that I realize how quiet Ava’s been. “Are you okay?”
She takes a deep breath and lets it out. She looks at me, opens her mouth, closes it, and then looks away from me. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
I pull over to the side of the road. “Look at me, honey.”
She finally does, and the worried look on her face goes straight to my heart. I reach for her and put my hand on her arm. “I promise that no one is going to get to you. I won’t let anything happen to you. You know that, right?”
She shakes her head. “It’s not that.”
“What is it, then?”
She lifts her hand and points on the patch of my cut. “Are you bad people, Tank?”
I take in a sudden breath and pull my hand back. Why the fuck does it gut me that she asks me that? I take my hat off, run my hand through my hair, and put my hat back on. Fuck, because I want her to like me.
I blow out a breath, knowing this is too much of a conversation to have on the side of the road. I put the truck in gear and start to drive. We get a mile down the road, and I ask her, “Do you think I’m a bad person, Ava?”
I hold my breath waiting for her to answer. “No, I don’t. You’ve taken me in. You seem protective and compassionate. But those guys back there, they got one glance of your MC’s patch, and they were gone. It tells me that I may be in deeper than I thought.”
I don’t answer her because truth is, she’s guessed right. I wish I could tell her that we’re innocent, but we’re not. We are not always on the right side of the law.