Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
My molars ached from the clenching I’d been doing all fucking day. Ares being strung up underground, still breathing, was making it hard for me to remain calm. The more I learned about the sick bastard, the more I wanted to slice his throat. Take him out of this world.
I nodded my head once.
Linc glanced at the closed bathroom door. “She might be better off at the ranch. With your mom.”
“No,” I snapped. “Mom isn’t ready for that.”
Linc cocked an eyebrow at me. “All right. Your call. We need to finish it up underground.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. I was tired of looking at the bastard strung up down there.
I heard the toilet flush, and Linc turned to leave. Relief that he was gone and we weren’t doing any more of this shit today was immediate. Stress wasn’t good for the baby. I’d read about it online. I wasn’t allowing anything to happen to all we had left of Crosby. Protecting Halo was the only way to make sure the baby was safe. I’d do whatever I fucking had to, including going against Linc, if it came down to it.
She turned off the water, and I stepped back as she opened the door. The vomiting thing was supposed to have stopped by now. I’d read that, too, but she was doing an awful lot of it. Had she mentioned that to the doctor?
Her eyes were glassy as she stared up at me.
“You said you had an ultrasound.”
She nodded.
“Don’t you get pictures of that?”
She nodded again.
I paused before asking, “Can I see them?”
The surprise in her expression shouldn’t have insulted me, but it did.
“Yeah, uh, my purse is in that room,” she said, looking in the direction of the room like that was the last place she ever wanted to go.
“Linc is gone for today,” I told her.
She inhaled a shaky breath. “Okay.” But she remained rooted in her spot.
That had been a lot to dump on her. Hell, when we’d pulled the shit off the sick bastard’s phone once we had him, it had been a fucking lot for me. He had all the calls on his sister’s phone recorded and sent to his phone. Guessed the fucker hadn’t thought about the calls that he’d made to her phone. We had all that too. Not just the ones between Crosby and Halo.
I hadn’t listened to all of them, but after hearing the few conversations between Crosby and Halo that Linc had forced me to listen to, I couldn’t deny that my brother had loved the girl.
“I’ll get your purse,” I said when it was clear she wasn’t going to go in there.
She let out a sigh so small that I would have missed it if I hadn’t been so close to her.
I went to get her purse and paused when I picked it up, then shook my head. My mother couldn’t buy a normal purse. She’d had to buy one that cost a few grand. I doubted Halo had any clue how much this thing had cost.
I went back out into the hallway and handed it to her.
She opened it, then pulled out several photos. “I have these, but your mom has the video on her phone. I didn’t have anything they could send the video to, so I don’t have that. Your mom had them do a 4D Ultraasound.”
I took the pictures. My hand shook as I stared down at the first color photo. For some reason, I’d thought ultrasounds were black and white, and it was difficult to figure out what the baby’s body parts were. These were so fucking clear that I could see my brother’s nose and the exact shape of his mouth. I moved to the next one, and there were perfect tiny feet with ten toes. She was just fourteen weeks, and this was already looking like a human being. One that my brother had helped create.
Moving to the next one, I stilled as I read the words typed at the top. I’d have been able to make that out without being told, but reading it was still hitting me hard. I swallowed and took a deep breath in through my nose. Fuck, this hurt like a bitch. There was no hiding the way my hand trembled as I held it.
“It’s a boy,” I said, my voice sounding thick.
“Yeah,” she replied softly. “He kicks a lot too. On the video, he was very active. When he’s big enough for me to feel him, it’s going to be interesting.”
I handed the photos to her, trying to hold myself together.
She took one and gave it back to me. “You can have this,” she said simply.
I reached out and took it quickly in case she changed her mind.
Watching as she tucked the others into her designer purse, I realized I was no longer bitter about my mother spending money on her. I was surprised my mom hadn’t bought her a fucking car after seeing this.