Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
I glanced at her and then back to Gale.
“You need the light on the mining helmet,” he clarified for me, “and it’s important that you have your hands free.”
Standing there, looking back and forth from one to the other, I had no idea why they were screwing with me.
Ada brushed by me, walking into the house. Gale stood there, waiting, his warm eyes never leaving me.
“You don’t actually have to go through her house with me,” I said, not moving, staring up at him on the porch, giving him his out.
“I wouldn’t let someone I hated go in there alone, and since I definitely don’t hate you, I’m going. I am concerned, though, about how long it’s been since you’ve had a tetanus shot.”
“Stop being funny.”
“I can’t help it. You’ll find this out about me.”
I nodded, taking a breath. “I need to talk to you after and tell you about myself.”
“What about yourself?”
“Not right now. We need to eat and—”
“You can tell me whatever you want to, or need to, but just know that it’s really not that important to me.”
“Oh no?”
He shrugged. “I heard and saw what you did at the clinic. I see how you are with Misha, and I can tell Ada adores you already.”
I stayed silent, waiting.
“Also, the second I filed my report on the incident at the clinic, I got a phone call from Deputy US Marshal Martina Alvarez out of the Portland office.”
Great.
“She just wanted to make sure I’ll keep an eye on you, and I promised that for her benefit, I certainly would.”
“For her benefit?” I teased him.
“That’s correct.”
“Damn nice of you.”
“Right?”
“Nothing more?”
He shook his head.
“May I ask, when you spoke to Alvarez, did she sound angry?”
“She sounded resigned; I think. From her voice, it sounded like she expected you to have already had a run-in here and didn’t seem at all surprised that you didn’t call. She thinks you have an unclear idea of what does and doesn’t have to be reported to her.”
The way we were talking, he knew I was in WITSEC, but he was kind enough not to actually pin me down and ask. What was really interesting was that if Alvarez hadn’t called, he wouldn’t have known. She was the one who had alerted Gale, not me.
I nodded. “Is she moving me?” I really hoped that wouldn’t be the case. I just got to Rune. I wasn’t ready to leave.
“Oh no,” he husked, the sound soothing. “I went through everything with her, explained whom you saved, that you’re a hero, and that you have a new dog. She seemed to like that part the best.”
“She liked hearing about Misha?”
“Yeah. She said she’ll be out in a month to visit, to see your new digs and check on your job. She was impressed you’d already found one. She was pretty happy when I told her I live next door.”
“Oh God.”
He chuckled, and again, the drugging sound rolled right through me. I already liked him more than I should.
“Did she tell you who I was in my old life?”
“Of course not. But what she did say was that bravery apparently runs fast through your veins, as you turned on some very bad people who are now behind bars.”
“Yeah, but”—and this was the part I’d been dreading—“I’m not some innocent bystander, okay? I don’t want you to think—I’m a criminal, right?”
“Were a criminal.”
“No, I still am.”
“How? Where?”
“No, you’re not getting it. Just because I haven’t done anything here doesn’t make me suddenly the good guy.”
“Except that here, all you’ve done is good.”
I was going to argue, but…he was right. So far all I’d shown anyone was my white hat.
“Is that not right?” Gale asked. “Did I miss some sin you’ve committed since rolling into town?”
Lust was a sin and I’d been doing that since I met him. “No, but really, if you knew who I was, what I’d done…you wouldn’t like me.”
“I dunno,” he said with a slow grin that made the laugh lines in the corner of his eyes crinkle. “I have a soft spot for bad boys.”
I shook my head. “You’re thinking of some kind of romance-novel-bullshit guy with a heart of gold. That’s not me.”
He made a noise like maybe I didn’t know what I was talking about. “I dunno about that, because all I’ve seen is a man who saves damsels and dogs in distress.”
It was hard to breathe suddenly. “Listen, I was all mobbed up and everything. Lots of blood on my hands.”
He nodded. “And yet, you took a right when you could have just kept going.”
It was infuriating to be defended. There I was trying to come clean, to tell him something important about me. How unworthy of his time, or anything more, I was. “No. They tried to kill me, so my choices were taken from me.”