Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 101398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“I…I…don’t know,” Norah says softly, the evidence of full-blown shock visible all over her petite body. Anger fires in the pit of my stomach, almost as though Norah Ellis is an arsonist herself. I swallow hard to smother the flames.
“I wasn’t here,” Josie states and steps up beside her sister to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders. “I have no idea what happened. I was at Earl’s getting milk.”
“I came to get you,” Mayor Wallace defers, his hands up innocently.
Instead of questioning me, which I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to do, the sheriff offers the man on the floor a shrug. “Sorry, son. I can’t file a report if there’re no witnesses.”
“What?” the asshole shouts and gets up from the floor on two shaky feet. “What kind of cop are you?”
“I’m the sheriff of this town.”
“Tell him what happened, Norah.” The douche’s eyes are on her now, but she doesn’t say anything—to be honest, I don’t think she can as she takes a few steps back to get distance from him. She’s a hollow shell of the talkative pain in the ass I’ve been suffocated by since she got here. I hate that it spurs an uncomfortable twinge inside my chest.
“You’re such a fucking bitch!” the dick shouts at a volume so violent Norah flinches in Josie’s arms. Instantly, the flames are back, expanding at a rapid-fire pace, and within a millisecond, I’m completely overtaken.
I punch him. Again.
The crack of my knuckles against his jawbone reverberates off the walls of the coffee shop, and Josie’s voice is the next thing that fills my ears.
“Holy shit! Bennett!” she shouts as the man named Thomas stumbles back to the floor.
“Son of a nutcracker, Benny,” Sheriff Peeler laments and looks directly at me, but he doesn’t need to say anything else because his eyes are doing all the talking for him.
I just made him a witness. All of them, really.
So much for no report.
I am officially, irrevocably involved.
Norah
His name is Bennett Bishop, and he punched my ex-fiancé in the face.
Twice.
I watch as Sheriff Peeler puts him in the back of his cop car in handcuffs, and Officer Felix Rice, his deputy, puts Thomas in the back of his. Thomas has been checked and released by the paramedics, and Bennett has exchanged several conversations with Sheriff Peeler that ended in Pete pulling his personal phone out of his pocket, dialing a number, and holding it to Bennett’s ear while he talked.
He was too far away for me to hear what was said. But even if he’d been closer, I probably still wouldn’t have because Thomas, a man I’ve known as nothing but dignified and controlled for the last five years, has spent the entirety of the last thirty minutes yelling.
At me. At the sheriff. At Bennett. I’m pretty sure he’d shout the whole damn town down if Officer Rice hadn’t gotten fed up with him enough to put him in the car.
Always, always, always, he is the most important man in the room. And evidently, in a moment where he wasn’t, being decorous and controlled wasn’t going to cut it.
“Come on,” Josie consoles, wrapping her arm around my shoulders as the two cruisers pull away. “Bennett gave me his keys so I can take his truck down to the station. You drive my car.”
God, what a mess.
“Josie,” I say softly, my voice breaking.
“It’s going to be okay, Norah.”
I wish she was right. But nothing about any of this feels okay as I watch the back of Bennett’s head get farther and farther away in Sheriff Peeler’s cruiser.
“Bennett Bishop doesn’t know me—doesn’t even like me.” My voice is barely above a whisper. “Hell, up until forty minutes ago, I thought his name was Norman.”
“What?” Josie turns to look at me, her eyes searching mine.
I shake my head. It doesn’t matter. “He can’t go to jail for me.”
Josie’s ordinarily sharp face turns soft, and that reaction reminds me of the way she used to be with me when we were kids. It nearly makes me burst into tears. “Don’t worry about that, okay? Sheriff Pete’s an old goat, but he’s not an idiot, Nore. He could see what was going on there, just like the rest of us. He’ll manage the situation, and Bennett’ll be fine.”
If he’d only punched Thomas that one time, when no one but I was around, I might agree with her. But he punched him twice, the second occurring in front of the biggest audience that included the sheriff and the freaking mayor.
“What do you mean, Josie? What did he see going on? I mean, Thomas definitely lost it, but it’s not like he hit me or severely injured me.”
“Oh, honey. That’s not how domestic violence works.” Her voice is warm, and she reaches out to run a gentle index finger over the faint bruise on my arm that I didn’t even realize was there. “It’s not scaled or judged by injuries. He made you feel unsafe. He tried to force you to go to his car, even though you’d told him no. He shouted horrible things at you. Sheriff Peeler, me, Bennett, Officer Rice…we can all see what’s going on.”