Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Either that or the bat had grown fucking feet, a couple hundred pounds, and was on its way to kill me.
I waited a second and peeked out to see . . . nothing.
It was gone. At least the one outside was.
Or more like he was sitting somewhere. Waiting to pick on me again.
“Where did it go?” I asked about a split second before I spotted what I was pretty sure were bare feet moving across the ground like that shit didn’t hurt like hell.
Where was he going?
“He went back home, to its cave,” he muttered, genuinely sounding disgruntled as he walked away.
He was leaving me here. To fend for my life. Because this was no big deal to him.
Then I remembered it was a bat and just about anyone would scream. It wasn’t my fault he was a mutant with no fears.
All right. I needed to calm down and keep my shit together. Think.
Or move. Moving was good.
I got up, glancing up at the sky one more time, and then hustled after Rhodes who was . . . making his way toward his truck?
Fuck it, I was nosey. “There’s a cave around here?”
“No.”
I frowned, remembering right then that I wasn’t wearing pants, but then decided I didn’t care and kept on following him.
He glanced over his shoulder as he opened the door. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I croaked, but really, all I could think about was safety in numbers.
Even with how dark it was, I could tell that he was making a face.
“What are you doing?”
He might have rolled his eyes, but he had his back to me so I would never know for sure. “Going to my truck.”
“For what?”
“To get a net so I don’t have to hear you hollering at the top of your lungs when I’m trying to get some sleep.”
My heart stopped. “You’re going to get it out?”
“Are you going to keep screaming if I leave it?” he asked over his shoulder as he rooted around his back seat. A second later, he was out, slamming the door closed and crossing the gravel like it wasn’t digging into his feet like glass.
I grimaced but told him the truth. “Yes.”
He opened the back of his work truck and started fiddling around in the bed.
“Have you caught them before?”
There was a pause, then, “Yeah.”
“You did?”
He grunted. “Once or twice.”
“Once or twice? Where? Here?”
Rhodes grunted again. “They come in from time to time.”
I almost passed out. “How often?”
“Mostly during the summer and fall.”
I didn’t mean to choke, but it happened.
“Mice are the real problem during a drought year.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my whole body went stiff as I stared at him tinkering around the bed of his truck, moving things as he stood there in sleep pants and a white tank top.
“You scared of those too?” he asked in a huff. He was pissed.
Some people got really quiet when they were mad. I was starting to see Mr. Rhodes wasn’t one of those people.
“Umm . . . yes?”
“Yes?”
“How often do you get those?”
“Spring. Summer. Fall.” Yeah, he was angry.
Too bad for him, I was always down to talk. I choked again. “Is this a drought year?”
“Yes.”
I was never going to sleep again.
I needed to go buy traps.
But then imagining having to pick up the traps made me want to puke.
“Finally,” he muttered to himself, standing up straight, holding a medium-sized net in one hand and what looked like thick gloves in another, before slamming the tailgate closed.
I shivered and watched him head toward the door of the garage apartment.
“Want me to wait out here? You know, so I can open the door for you?” I was such a chickenshit and it embarrassed me, but not enough to suck it up and be backup.
I would if he yelled.
I just hoped he didn’t.
His stiff, angry body went right by mine. “Do whatever you want.”
It was that or lock myself in my car until he was done but screaming my head off had been enough. He was already irritated having to come over and deal with this. Deal with me.
And yeah, that was embarrassing too. I needed to get it together. Suck it up.
Do my mom proud.
I’d done some research during the day of how to remove them but hadn’t figured out what the best plan of action was yet. I was well aware that bats were wonderful for a whole lot of different reasons. I understood that they weren’t trying to attack me even when they swooped. I got that bats were just as scared of me as I was of them. But fear wasn’t rational.
I rushed forward, opened the door, and left it cracked after he went in. Then I crouched there and waited. I might have been out there five minutes, or maybe thirty, before I heard him on the stairs.