Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“You guys take her old man to our car,” I said. “I’ll drive these two,” I offered, nodding at Chuck and Don.
“I can—“ one of them started to object.
“Uncle Chuck…” Traveler cut him off.
Chuck’s gaze went to her then, eyes going sad. “I should have known,” he said.
“There was no way,” she insisted. “We have to do this later,” she added when I touched her hip, encouraging her to move things along. “Let August take you to the hospital.”
“I got it,” Chuck insisted again. “Go take care of your old man. I got Don,” he said.
With that, they moved back outside. I ushered Aurelio, Milo, and James to get moving while I stood in the doorway of the warehouse, making sure Chuck and Don got safely in their car and started away.
Then Traveler and I made our way toward our car as well.
Without needing to look strong for her old man, Traveler’s hand went to her shoulder, and she was whispering curses as we made the slow walk back to the car.
“Same hospital?” Aurelio asked, behind the wheel again.
“Yes,” Traveler said at the same time her father said, “No.”
“Yes, absolutely,” Traveler said, her tone brooking no argument. “You need to get looked at. Scans and everything.”
She gave Aurelio a nod, and he pulled away from the curb.
When we made it to the emergency room, Don was already being seen by a doctor as Chuck sat in the room next to him.
It was a silent, but tense, next few hours as Traveler refused treatment, and all four of us sat in the waiting room as Traveler’s old man and her two uncles got worked on.
The sun came up, and Milo headed out, grabbing us some decent coffee, and updating the crew back in Navesink Bank.
By the time he came back, Traveler was at work trying to convince her father out of signing himself out.
Don’s wife had arrived, but had gone up to the surgery floor to wait for him.
Chuck was on his own, walking out toward us with a sling on his arm to keep him from moving his arm too much, where he’d been hit.
“Should I go sit up to wait for Don?” he asked, directing the question to James who had ignored his daughter’s valid concerns.
“Let’s not make shit more complicated right now,” James suggested. “We… all need to talk,” he added, glancing toward us. “Then we can come back and talk to her.”
“Your place?” Chuck asked.
“Dad, this is—“
“Yes,” James cut her off. “My place.”
We all walked out of the hospital a few minutes later, Chuck and James moving toward Chuck’s car, with the rest of us heading toward ours.
“Okay,” I said as Aurelio and Milo dipped into the car, closing their doors, giving us a little privacy. “Come here,” I said, opening my arms, and waiting for her to walk into them.
She did, all the tension leaving her body in a wave. She melted into me, her good arm wrapping me up. The bad one was limp at her side, and I was careful not to touch it.
I was going to make her let me clean the wound at least when we got to her old man’s house.
“You okay?”
“No,” she answered honestly. “But I need to be. Until this conversation is over,” she said.
“Can I suggest something, and have you actually give it some thought?” I asked, hearing the hope and fear in my voice.
“Okay…”
“After this is over today, can I convince you to come back to Navesink Bank with me?” I asked. “For a couple days. To recoup while your old man finishes up whatever is going on here.”
I expected her to say no, hence the fear in my voice.
But she shocked the shit out of me by quickly saying, “Yes.”
The way my heart felt like it swelled up when she said that? Yeah, I was pretty sure that was proof that things were not and never had been casual with us.
It felt like this might have been something pretty fucking similar to love.
Half an hour later, we were pulling back up to her old man’s house, finding all the lights on, and her father waiting for us at the door.
Aurelio and Milo hung back in the car.
This wasn’t about them.
They could catch some sleep or call back home to fill in our families.
It didn’t escape me that James reengaged the security system once we were inside.
Clearly, this wasn’t fully done, even if the queenpin and her consort were dead.
All the more reason to get Traveler out of Dodge for a while.
I would have to catch her old man alone and tell him just that. He loved her. He had to see the logic in getting her safe, so he had one less thing to worry about while cleaning up his town.
We followed James into the kitchen where Chuck was sitting, holding a glass of something amber in a glass.