Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
“You should sleep a bit longer. We got in really late,” he said, smoothing my hair behind my ear.
I nodded, thinking he was right, because those days in that basement I think I only slept twenty winks at a time, but a few minutes later it was probably obvious that I wasn’t falling back to sleep.
I was lying on him, staring off into space. He pulled away, but took my hand in his and pulled it toward him and kissed each knuckle. Then he leaned over a little and took a phone off the nightstand and dialed a number.
“Hey,” he greeted. “Need breakfast. Can you have her put it outside the door? Tell her to knock when she brings it, but no disturbing us. Ask my brother what time the flight is.” He held the phone for a minute and then said, “Right” before hanging up.
I went to move away, thinking he was getting up, but his grip tightened and he didn’t let me go. He buried his nose into my hair and squeezed me. We stayed there for another few minutes just holding one another until a noise outside the door and then a brief knocking on the door startled me. I think I must’ve jumped two feet at the noise.
He got up, walked to the suitcase in his underwear, got into a clean pair of army green cargos, and then stepped into the hall. I got up with the duvet wrapped around me and leaned over the suitcase and pulled out some underwear, a bra, a pair of jean shorts, and a t-shirt that had been packed for me. I glanced in the top flap of the suitcase and there was a toiletry bag with some of my makeup, hairbrush, deodorant, razor, manicure tool kit, and my own toothbrush. There were two other changes of clothes and two pairs of shoes --- a pair of my sneakers and my leather flip flops packed in the suitcase.
I took an armful of things into the bathroom to get dressed and try to make myself presentable. As I passed the door, my eyes landed on his guns and knife on the nightstand.
He came back in with a covered breakfast-in-bed tray.
I got dressed, brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, and washed my face.
When I got back out, he was sitting on the bed tapping away at his phone screen. I sat down. He wandered into the bathroom and came back out wearing the khaki t-shirt I’d slept in. He looked at me warmly. “Eat something, baby.”
I smiled a little and nodded. I lifted the tray’s lid and there was an assortment of fruit, muffins, pastries, bagels, with little butter, cream cheese, and jam pots. There was also a carafe of coffee, milk, sugar, and a jug of orange juice. My stomach rumbled loudly.
“Coffee?” I asked him.
“Yeah, please.”
I remembered he took cream, no sugar, due to Sarah’s sugar weaning. Me? I was having 3 sugars today. There were things in life that were far more evil than sugar.
I passed him a cup, my hand trembling a little. I moved the suitcase onto the floor, sat on the wicker chair and looked out the window. We were in a woodsy area, so really, the only thing to look at was the trees.
“I’m putting you on a plane in a few hours with Dare,” he said, not looking up at me. “I’ll be taking care of a few things and then I’ll be home later tonight or maybe tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said.
Then he looked up and while I was still looking out the window, I could feel that he was watching me. He watched me for a long time. I didn’t look in his eyes because I was afraid of what I’d see. I knew in my gut that he was sticking around for revenge reasons.
He cleared his throat. “I need to go downstairs and organize a few things. You okay for a bit?”
I nodded, glancing in his direction and then back at the floor. I felt scrutinized, uncomfortable. There was this intensity coming off him that was making my heart race.
“You’ll eat?”
I nodded again.
He leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips and then he leaned down and got into his boots, rolled up his pant leg, and then grabbed the holster and fastened it and I turned away so I didn’t have to watch him arming himself. When I looked back in his direction, he was putting a gun into the back of his waistband and then he left the room. I felt like I was going to cry again, but I didn’t. I was sort of surprised he’d kissed me like that, maybe feeling like my mouth was an unclean place because of what I’d told him last night. I felt my heart tug at the idea that I was wrong.