Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Why did you want to run away?” My voice is gruff, probably because I fought questioning her, but I just had to ask.
This time, she goes silent. I think she’s going to ignore the question, but as she has all day, Tess surprises me.
“Some people are not good. They’re so far away from good it’s frightening.”
“Seems you attract us,” I grunt. I can just drop her off in town tomorrow once I get a car. I’ll set her out, go on my way and enjoy whatever time I have before the devil comes calling.
“You’re not like them, Max, you’re nothing like them,” the tone of her voice makes me turn to look at her again. Her eyes are closed, and she’s snuggled like she’s in a cocoon, except for the one hand which is laying out at an angle because of the cuff. The sight of her handcuffed to the bed talks to my dick and what it says makes him rock hard. “What you did had a reason. When I read your file, I secretly cheered what you did. Children should have someone to extract vengeance for them. They can’t do it themselves. What you did might have been wrong according to the judicial system, but they get so much shit wrong on a daily basis, who’s to say they don’t have this wrong too.
Her words roll over me, dig under the skin and lodge there. Lodge in a way I know they will fester and cause me trouble later.
“No one stood up for you?”
“One person, Rory. He stood up for me. He always stood up for me.”
“What happened with the two of you?”
“I married him.”
“You’re married?” I ask, and I do my best to ignore the way those words burn. It’s a good decision to let her go tomorrow. She has a man. She has a life ahead of her.
“Not anymore.”
“He stop taking up for you?”
“He died.”
“Tough break,” It’s an asinine thing to say, but then so is the feeling of happiness that an unnamed person is dead. It’s still what I feel inside.
“Yeah, it was. Did you go to your Uncle Raymond’s?”
“How did you know?”
“The hunting cabin and your uncle was in your file. I told you; I’ve been reading about you for months.” I don’t make a comment. I don’t think I’d know what to say. “Are you leaving in the morning, Max?”
“Yeah, it won’t be safe to stay.”
“Take me with you, Max. Don’t leave me here alone again, please?”
Across the room the light from the lantern flickers and then burns completely out. Darkness drapes over us and I hear her voice repeat in my head. Take me with you, Max. I can’t keep her, but maybe it would be okay to take her with me, just one more day. Truth is, I’m just not ready to let her go yet.
“Go to sleep, Tess,” I tell her, rolling over on my side and giving her my back.
“You didn’t answer. Please, Max? Don’t leave me here alone.”
“You’ll go with me when we leave, but you may wish you hadn’t before it’s over.”
“Sweet dreams, Max.
Again, I don’t know how to answer her. I don’t think anyone has ever said those words to me before. I need sleep, but I lay there a long time before sleep claims me, the last thing I hear is Tess’s plea in my mind.
“Take me with you, Max.”
A clanging noise jerks me awake. I sit up and feel the sharp pain in my wrist as I pull too far away. Handcuffs. Memories from the day before surface and panic once again overtake me as I think Max has left me alone again. Relief almost overwhelms me when I find him standing over an old camping stove, cooking.
“You have food?” I ask, excited. I’m starved. It feels like I haven’t eaten in days.
“I’m not sure you can call it food, so don’t get too thrilled.”
“Oh my God, Max! Is that bacon I smell?”
“It’s more like cured jerky,” he says dryly.
“I don’t care what it is, just give it here,” I answer him, my mouth watering. “Please tell me that’s eggs,” I say when I see the fluffy mounds of yellow sitting on the plate, he brings me.
“More like dried powder. Still, they aren’t bad in a pinch,” he says putting the plate down on my lap. There’s the not quite bacon-bacon, eggs, toast and… “Peaches?” I question him.
He shrugs, “I thought you might want fruit. Women like that kind of thing right?”
I want to ask what he did with gruff, silent Max, but I don’t want him to make a reappearance, so I zip it up.
“It’s great…umm can I get, I mean will you unhook me so I can eat?” I hold up my hand waving it and making the chain rattle. He looks at me and back to the handcuff.