Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“Funny,” Drew said as he placed me on my feet again. “I would’ve thought if you were there to actually see a doctor, they would’ve cut your ring off your finger, Sam.”
I agreed, but chose not to voice my opinion out loud.
The man looked freakin’ scary.
His muscles bulged as he led the way down a narrow hallway.
“I didn’t say I was visiting a doctor. I had just happened to be at a hospital for some other matter I had to attend to,” Sam muttered darkly.
For some reason, I didn’t think the visit was friendly.
Raphael followed behind me as I followed behind Drew, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Sam.
I couldn’t help but compare the two as we walked, my eyes going to their builds.
Drew was taller than Sam by at least three inches, but they looked incredibly close in age and coloring.
They both had tattoos, Sam more than Drew.
Drew’s bulk was heftier in his chest and legs, while Sam carried more muscle in his arms.
Other than that, they could’ve passed as brothers.
It was eerie, too.
Sam took a left at the back of the hall, then we were yet again heading down another hallway, this one thankfully shorter than the previous.
“Give me a minute, okay?” Sam stopped us. “She doesn’t know she was found.”
Sam didn’t get his minute, though.
The minute Sam pushed through, the little girl woke up with a wail.
The mother, hearing the cry of her child, was barreling out of the room and heading straight for Raphael.
Luckily, Raphael let the baby go without any problems, relinquishing her to her mother as the group watched the woman break down.
She didn’t look good, and I started to worry about her strength as the woman’s legs trembled.
Before she could fall, though, another man with a scarred face grabbed her arm and led her back into the room, pushing through the crowd to do so.
Sam and Drew backed away, letting the man help her through, and then followed them into the office.
Raphael and I stayed in the hallway, unsure of what to do.
I didn’t want to butt into their private reunion, and apparently Raphael didn’t either.
“Soooo…” I drawled. “You watch the neighborhood too?”
He nodded.
“Every damn day. But I have video cameras. I don’t use the binoculars like you do,” he winked.
My mouth dropped open.
“You can see me?” I asked in surprise.
He nodded.
“Wow,” I licked my lips. “So…did you see the woman down the block from us has a man that comes to her after her husband leaves for work every morning?”
He nodded. “I also saw the woman across the street from me steal a package from her front porch while it was going on.”
My mouth dropped open.
“I must’ve missed that,” I told him. “What about that boy who keeps ding dong ditching everyone on the block?”
Raphael smiled. “I scared the shit out of him the second time he tried to do it to me. He hasn’t been back to my house since.”
I grinned.
“Funny,” I said. “I shot him with my water gun and he hasn’t been back since, either.”
“I know,” he said. “I watched.”
I laughed, which got the attention of my man who seemed not to like that I was laughing with someone that wasn’t him. He opened the door and glared at Raphael.
“Come in here,” he ordered. “The mother went back to a back bedroom.”
I sighed and followed him in, coming to a halt just inside the entrance.
“What is this place?” I whispered in awe.
The man with the scar who’d helped the woman in earlier snorted.
“You sound like a kid in a candy store,” he muttered. “We help abused women find new identities. Different job. New place. No danger.”
I nodded, but still not quite comprehending exactly what they did until the man continued to explain further.
“The women that we help are escaping abusive situations. An abusive husband or boyfriend, their parents. Hell, we’ve even had a few leaving cults. We bring them here, get them new identities, and then help them get to their new lives.”
The man’s eyes moved to Raphael who was leaning nonchalantly against the door just inside the room.
“But you know that already, don’t you Uniball?” The man said, directing that question to Raphael.
Raphael didn’t react to the name. Not physically anyway.
Oh, but you could tell he was pissed.
“Why are you called Uniball?” Janie, the girl we’d almost hit on the way in earlier, asked from the doorway.
Raphael looked down at the girl, then grinned.
“Apparently, people think it’s funny to tease about someone being injured,” Raphael replied to the girl.
“Janie,” scar face snapped. “What are you doing in here? You know better than to come in here.”
“I told her to come in here,” Sam muttered. “Take this to your mom. I bought it for her birthday.”
Janie took the present that Sam somehow produced from his pocket.
It wasn’t big, per se, but it wasn’t small either.