Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“I think that you have us at an advantage,” Dad said. “We’re confused about what you’re talking about.”
“You would be, because I’m not actually speaking to you,” Silver said. “I’m talking to the man currently standing behind you.”
Dad’s eyes hit me, and I had a full second to realize that there was a red dot on my chest before I was hit like a linebacker.
The bedroom window glass shattered simultaneously as the wall behind me exploded as something hit it. My entire head throbbed as I hit the ground for the second time in a day.
This time, my head actually did bounce off the floor, but only hard enough for me to see stars instead of it knocking me unconscious.
Ghost lifted up off of me only far enough to stare at me, his face so concerned that he’d accidentally hurt me that it was nearly comical. I hadn’t even seen him come into the house.
“Pity,” Silver snapped his fingers, the sound reverberating in the room. “Next time, I’ll aim better.”
I knew that he didn’t want to kill me. Had he wanted to kill me, he wouldn’t have used a laser. He had to have been standing at the copse of trees just over the property line. He’d have just lined up a shot and taken it before I even knew what hit me.
“Why clean it up?” I croaked.
“I didn’t want her to see her friend like that. I felt it prudent to clean him up so the scene wasn’t so gruesome.”
Then he hung up.
“Where the fuck did you come from?” I groaned. “And goddamn, did you have to hit me so fucking hard?”
Ghost shoved off of me and rolled to the left to avoid the body that was lying on the floor.
“Came to tell you your place was ransacked. Ran by there to pick up the power washer, and found both your dad’s place and your trailer a fuckin’ mess.” He sat up and scooted so his back was to the wall. “Did someone contact the fuckin’ cops outside to go look for him yet?”
That was directed at my father, and he jumped as if he’d just been jolted awake.
“Fuck,” he rasped, picking up the handheld mic and relaying the message to clear the area.
Once done, he looked at me, was about to say something, and then Naomi ran in. “What in the hell was that?” she gasped, worry outlining her face.
Chapter 18
It takes a lot for a man to admit when his woman is wrong.
-Sean’s secret thoughts
Sean
“Do you think it was due to his stopping that protest yesterday?” Naomi whispered, pain filling her expression.
I’d just told her about the possibility of it being a murder. Not how I knew, but that my dad suspected it.
I felt terrible for not telling her the rest of what happened after she left. She thought that the window had broken. I didn’t tell her that it broke when a bullet, intended for me, came through it.
I didn’t want her to worry, not tonight. Not after we found Brady dead. Tomorrow, I’d tell her the truth, but tonight I’d just let her grieve.
This crime, it was angry, yes. But it wasn’t something that a group of pissed off college students would perpetrate. What it looked like to me was cold, relentless anger about something, and the perpetrator took it out on the old man because he’d somehow gotten himself on the wrong side of whomever committed this heinous act.
“No, baby,” I voiced softly. “I don’t think they did it. They’ve all been accounted for.”
I then explained that the protesters hadn’t left their post the entire time since we’d left them there the day before other than to run across the street to grab coffee and use the McDonald’s facilities before returning.
Her breath hitched.
“This is the shittiest day ever,” she replied.
It was and it wasn’t.
The sincerity of her words as she told me I love you still shone brightly in the forefront of my mind, despite the terrible stuff that had happened that day.
Her breath hitched again, and I rolled so I could wrap my arms around, pulling her into my chest and dropping my lips down to her head.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I murmured against her hair.
The loose strands got tangled in my beard, but I didn’t immediately remove them.
I liked the way having her in my arms felt. Loved the way her delicious little body fit perfectly into the curve of mine.
“Make love to me,” her voice quivered. “Make me forget this awful day.”
“Naomi,” I whispered. “We can’t do that. Not here. Everyone and their brother is in the clubhouse tonight…Not only will they hear, but it won’t make this better.”
I placed a kiss on her eyelid and tasted the salty tears that had just started to leak out.
“Please,” she whispered.
My heart kicked at the pain in that one word.